Stories From Afar, I Kiss You
Sofia Hatefi, Behzad Hatefi
- Period
- 2020
- Location
- Online
Project Overview
Stories From Afar, I Kiss You is an experiment in collaborative, interactive storytelling that took place over eighteen nights in February 2020, right at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and the onset of widespread quarantine. Launched at Behzad Hatefi's suggestion, the project unfolded solely on WhatsApp. Each night, a group of writers took turns continuing the text written up to that moment, with every night's session closing with the line "from afar, I kiss you".
Context & Site
The project took place completely on WhatsApp, chosen because it was already deeply embedded in the participants' daily lives. As an informal, domestic, and immediate communication channel, it bypassed the need for access to traditional spaces like galleries, studios, or cultural institutions. At a time when cultural venues were shut down and gatherings were banned, the platform's sheer familiarity made it the perfect setting — it was already inside people's phones and part of their everyday routines.
The casual logic of presence and instant replies on WhatsApp became the core structure of the project. Working within the medium's sequence of turns and timestamps directly shaped how people participated. The chat was intentionally time-bound and networked rather than open-ended: writers worked within a strict forty-minute window, in sequence, with each turn pushing the existing narrative forward.
Participation & Process
The group started with five participants from the artists' immediate inner circle and grew to seventeen over eighteen nights as new members were invited. These writers were physically separated across Tehran, the United States, Paris, and Berlin, with the narrative moving through the group one turn at a time. When their turn came, each participant would copy the entire text compiled so far, add a new section within forty minutes, and post it back to the chat for the next person to pick up.
Two main rules anchored the writing process. First was the strict forty-minute time limit from the moment a writer received the text. Second was the requirement for continuity: every new contribution had to logically build on what came before rather than branching off or starting fresh. These constraints turned the process into an individual and collective act happening simultaneously. The final narrative took shape in real time in front of the entire group, forty minutes at a time, until the final sentence brought the evening's story to a close.
Over the nights, the circle expanded naturally through friendships and acquaintances. Sofia and Behzad Hatefi view their role as simply setting up the platform and framing the initial premise rather than steering the plot. Once the chat was live and the rules were set, the narrative belonged entirely to whoever was currently writing.
Motivations & Questions
The project was a direct response to the realities of COVID-19 quarantine: the sudden, jarring suspension of in-person contact, the closure of cultural spaces, and the reality of physical separation becoming an everyday norm rather than a temporary hurdle. For Sofia and Behzad, the central question was whether collective storytelling, held across different time zones via a familiar everyday app, could foster the kind of human connection that physical gatherings no longer could.
In the artists' reflections, the concept of "distance" — whether physical separation, emotional gaps, or the space between different voices and narratives — became the cornerstone of the work. This theme was deliberately woven into the rigid timing constraints, the sequential writing structure, and the recurring closing line of each night.
What are the possibilities of participatory, collective, remote storytelling in a digital medium? Can narrative become a tool for maintaining connection, empathy, and collective presence in a time of isolation?
Conditions & Negotiations
The project operated under the restrictive conditions of the pandemic itself: closed venues, suspended gatherings, and a group of participants spread across four countries and multiple time zones. The original invitation also highlighted a more fundamental baseline: the project's continuity depended entirely on internet access ("as long as the internet is not cut off") — a subtle acknowledgment of the fragile digital infrastructure in Iran.
The structure designed by the artists — using WhatsApp, announcing the writing order before 6 p.m., starting at a synchronized hour Tehran time, enforcing a forty-minute writing window, requiring narrative continuity, and using a fixed closing line — was a direct tactical response to these challenges. As the artists note, these strict time limits and rules transformed individual participation into a genuinely collective effort that could not function without everyone's cooperation.
Documentation
Collaborators & Support
Participants: Behzad Hatefi, Mahoor Toosi, Arvin, Amirali Ghasemi, Hamed Dehghan, Shahin Shahinzad, Bahar Samadi, Pouyan Bagherzadeh, Shadi Mazloumdoost, Aydin Bagheri, Mona Kakanj, Mojtaba Shabani, Sahar Alaei, Nadia Shams, Barbad Golshiri, and Amir Khorasani.
The project had no production budget. The artists provided the digital framework, and the participants contributed their time and creative input.
About the Artist
Sofia and Behzad Hatefi are an artist couple working in contemporary art through a multimedia approach. They have been officially developing collaborative projects together since 2015.
Website/Telegram: @Behzadhatefi Instagram: Behzad Hatefi
This entry was prepared based on the artist's account and accompanying project materials.