Staging the Past

Art Heritage presents Staging the Past, showcasing the landmark series by two of Iran’s leading contemporary photographers, Azadeh Akhlaghi and Babak Kazemi. Born between 1963 and 1980, both artists have lived through Iran’s political upheavals, including the overthrow of the Shah and the Iran-Iraq war, which led to continuous censorship. In response, they developed a poetic visual language, using staged photography to combine documentary facts with imagination. Their works create powerful symbolic performances where resistance becomes an act of defiance, weaving together the rich spiritual and cultural past of Iran with contemporary struggles.

Azadeh Akhlaghi’s By an Eyewitness series captures historical moments of resistance, specifically the assassinations of left-leaning revolutionaries, recreating these events through meticulously staged images. Inserting herself in each image, dressed in a red chador, Akhlaghi becomes a witness to these censored moments in history, making her work a powerful symbol of resistance. Babak Kazemi’s works, including The Exit of Shirin and Farhad, Bodies, and Past Continuous Tense, explore the theme of forced migration, reflecting on the struggles of couples leaving Iran for freedom. Kazemi’s poetic images, such as entwined bodies stretching across sepia-toned maps or superimposed photographs of clouds, suggest that photography often speaks more to our fantasies than to objective reality, highlighting the disconnect between personal desire and the harsh political landscape.

For additional details about the artists and the exhibition, click Download Catalogue