Delfina Foundation is proud to present the first European solo exhibition by its former resident (Spring 2021), LA-based Iranian artist, writer and filmmaker Gelare Khoshgozaran.
The exhibition marks the beginning of a succession of exhibitions at Delfina Foundation following a three-year hiatus, partially due to the pandemic.
Born in Tehran in 1986 during the Iran-Iraq war, Khoshgozaran produces work that engages with the legacies of imperial violence. Through film and video Khoshgozaran explores narratives of belonging outside of the geographies and temporalities that have both unsettled a sense of home, and make places of affinity uninhabitable.
Continuing her work into the effects of displacement, this exhibition will present three film works by the artist – two of which are new commissions – coming together as an expanded cinema installation that will speak to the personal impact of exile and its generative potential as a space to build transnational solidarity. Together, this multimedia installation will create a space to contemplate alienation, world-building and the role of fantasy to cross boundaries both literal and figurative.
• Shown for the first time in the UK, To Keep the Mountain at Bay (2023) is a short film shot on Super 8, which explores the figure of the mountain as a witness of displacement and histories of atrocity. Conceived as an ode to Etel Adnan and her relationship to California, the film weaves together performance, text and image to attempt to encapsulate the dissonance of landscapes that feel familiar and welcoming in geographies that are implicated in experiences of alienation and hostility.
• Newly commissioned for the exhibition, the second film will be an ambitious visual expansion of Khoshgozaran’s recently published essay, ‘The Too Many and No Homes of Exile’. The work is being developed through a discursive and community-oriented process, central to which is an ‘exile retreat’ organized by the artist, with participants recruited through an international open call. The film will interweave recorded fragments from the retreat with dream scenes and re-enactments, exploring the connections between exile and antifacism.
• Lastly, a hand edited Super 8 film of a 1939 anime version of Gulliver’s Travels will be projected as part of the installation.
Press release from Delfina Foundation
