Shirin Neshat, born in 1957 in Qazvin, Iran, lives in New York. She first became known from her photo series Women of Allah and video installations such as Turbulent (1998) or Rapture (1999). She has won numerous prizes and had many solo exhibitions, e.g. at the Museo Correr, Venice (May 2017); Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, New York 2016; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington 2015. Participation in the documenta 11 (2002).
Selected films: Illusion and Mirrors (2013, KdK 2015), Women without Men (2009, Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival)
Illusions & Mirrors
(USA 2013, 12’ 9’’, no dialogue)
German Premiere
A black and white cinematic poem photographed by the great DoP Darius Khondji: On Long Island beach, a young woman (Natalie Portman) follows a man dressed entirely in black as he wanders through the dunes to an nearly empty house. Strange things happen: An old woman combs another woman’s hair. Her own doppelganger? And who is running outside on the beach? She herself?
Roja
(USA 2016, HD, 15’20’’, English)
Song: Anohni
GERMAN PREMIERE
Nightmarish black-and-white film about the dilemma of a young woman torn between a foreign – in this case, western – culture, and her own culture – embodied by her mother. She experiences aggression and rejection from both.
