The publication MIMICRY-EMPATHY is a complementary element to the project of the same name. The reader gathers archive images (Roman numbering) together with images from the exhibition that took place at Lajevardi Foundation Tehran (Arabic numbering).

The texts address different perspectives on the project’s theme: starting from the deconstruction of the functioning of mimicry (Roger Caillois, 1935), the practice of hiding oneself as a CIA spy (Jonna Mendez), the role of the arts at the beginning of military camouflage (Roy R. Behrens), the chameleon-like nature of the contemporary artist (Johan Hartle), the principle of concealing with fabrics on the base of examples from the exhibition (Marie de Brugerolle), curating as a process more or less adapted to local conditions (Anne-Sophie Dinant and Amirali Ghasemi, and finally to false empathy vs. authentic empathy (Gohar Homayounpour).

Mimicry, as a process of concealing oneself and assimilating, experiences unexpected currency in the COVID-19 pandemic through the wearing of masks, and resonates in the book not least in the references to facial recognition and its prevention.