Lipstick and Gas Masks,

Mashid Mohadjerin - 18 May till 22 June 2017

We are more excited than ever to share Mashid Mohadjerin`s solo exhibition with you along with our first curator talk with Fadwa Naamna (De Appel, Amsterdam)

Vernissage: 18th of May at 20:00.
Curator talk: 18th of May at 21:00.
Exhibition: 18th May to 22nd of June.

Curator talk #1, Fadwa Naamna.

Fadwa Naamna is a curator and artist based in Haifa and has been engaged in connecting the contemporary Palestinian and Israeli art scenes. Naamna is a current participant in De Appel Curatorial Program. The curator talk is a collaboration between Pedrami Gallery and Charlotte Van Buylaere , curator at Netwerk Aalst and researcher at De Appel (Amsterdam).

This photographic project focuses on influential female activists in Egypt, Tunisia and the Middle East. It examines the
complexities of their identities, their modes of resistance and the politicized public spaces they move around in. It is a visual investigation into the representation of these Muslim women and their role within the context of resistance.

Trained as a visual artist at the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Mashid Mohadjerin started working as a photographer for international publications and media outlets. As a female Middle Eastern photographer specific topics were assigned to her more often than others. Many publications and assignments later, certain questions started forming in her mind about the visual representation of the groups and subjects she was depicting. The association of the Muslim World with terror attacks, civil wars, female oppression, migration, authoritarianism, and backwardness became trying for her. As a photographer she became frustrated with trying to put complex issues into a distorted reductive context.
Popular media not only demands simplifications of enormously complex events and topics, but also highlights certain issues
while choosing to ignore others. These concerns lead Mashid to embark on a long-term artistic research project on women
and resistance in the Muslim world.

As a visual artist she believes that it is not enough to only document her subjects; it is important to create work that will move beyond the existing visual representations in the media and elsewhere.

In 2014 and 2015, she travelled to Egypt, Tunisia and the Palestinian Territories. During this period she established contact with prominent activists. She interviewed them, participated in their daily activities and visited their homes.

To create a historical frame of reference, visual material found circulating in the social media, printed media, published
materials, and public walls is woven into this research work.

By portraying the emotive universe of a new generation of women activists, the viewer is confronted with a multidimensional depiction of the Islamic female figure we often see as passive and submissive.