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Mandana Moghaddam: Exodus

Exodus
Mandana Moghaddam
December 1, 2018 through February 17, 2019

Opening Reception: Saturday, December 1 from 7-10pm

a number of suit cases floating in the ocean

Borrowing the term from ancient history,  Exodus  tackles the mass flight/move of the people all over the world trying to survive war, poverty and social injustice.

Mandana Moghaddam knows firsthand the refugee’s sense of loss and displacement, hope and renewal. At age 21, she fled Iran after her father was executed in the revolution and she was barred from higher education as a penalty for political activities. After five years in transition in Turkey, she was granted asylum in Sweden, where she lives today. Her video  Exodus  captures that experience through the motion of suitcases adrift on the ocean, lost in passage — the baggage of our worldly goods that both protect us and expose us, cloak us and mark us as individuals or as members of a certain culture. The uncertainty of their delicate dance on the waves, and the comfort of reaching solid ground, evoke empathy and a desolate sense of loss, amplified by the sheer simplicity and beauty of the images.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Born in Tehran in 1962, Mandana Moghaddam is an Iranian-Swedish contemporary visual artist whose installation and video work was most notably exhibited in the 51st Venice Biennale.    Affected by the Iranian Revolution, Moghaddam was granted asylum in Gothenburg, Sweden where she continues to work to this day.    Her work covers such themes as alienation, communication, and gender.    Working with these themes, Moghaddam creates works that attempt to bridge cultural boundaries, inspire intercultural dialogue, and memorialize oftentimes contentious aspects of Iranian life.