Performing The Invisible by Hoda Afshar at Musée du Quai Branly

Through a work that is both poetic and political, Hoda Afshar explores the history of established perspectives and makes photography a tool of revelation and resistance.

Overview

Born in Tehran in 1983 and now based in Melbourne, Hoda Afshar is one of the most unique visual artists of her generation. Her work focuses on marginality, gender identity and exile.

The artist's first monographic exhibition in France, Hoda Afshar. Performing the Invisible presents The Fold, an unprecedented installation developed using photographs from the museum's collection. Shot by the psychiatrist Gaëtan de Clérambault in Morocco between 1918 and 1919, here, these images originally seen in a colonial context, are reinterpreted, deconstructed and reappropriated. Hoda Afshar reveals how photography, working for a dominant power, can shape - and conceal - the representation of bodies.

The exhibition's second installation, Speak the Wind is a visual essay based on the winds, beliefs and rituals of the islands of the Strait of Hormuz in southern Iran.

Featuring a combination of photographs, drawings, mirrors, videos and sound installations, the exhibition follows the central elements of a work that invites reflection on our relationship with the images and the narratives they construct.

About The Artist

Hoda Afshar began her career in 2005 as a documentary photographer in Iran. She’s been living in Australia since 2007, where she developed an artistic practice that intersects conceptual imagery, staging, and documentary. Hoda Afshar gained international recognition with her works Remain (2018), about refugees detained on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, and Speak the Wind (2021). Her work has been exhibited both in Australia and more broadly around the world. In 2023, her first large-scale exhibition took place at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney. That same year, her series In Turn (2022), a poetic response to the women’s protests in Iran, was presented in Paris Photo. Her work The Fold (2023-2025) is being unveiled for the Triennial of the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. She’s represented by the Milani gallery in Brisbane, Australia.

Over the last fifteen years, Hoda Afshar has established a poetic and committed body of work that interrogates the relations of power intrinsic to the practice of photography. Born in Tehran (Iran) in 1983, and living in Melbourne (Australia) since 2007, she is considered one of the most groundbreaking visual artists on the Australian contemporary scene. Her works explore the complex relations between politics and aesthetics, knowledge and representation, visibility and violence. Hoda Afshar’s methods extend beyond those of traditional photography. In this artist’s first monographic exhibition in France, you’ll discover two of her main projects. They reflect her work around historical viewpoints and unveil her visual experimentation. With Speak the Wind, Hoda Afshar pushes the limits of photography as she seeks to capture the intangible winds of the Strait of Hormuz in Iran. In The Fold, the artist critically re-appropriates pictures taken in Morocco by psychiatrist Gaëtan Gatian de Clérambault in 1918 and 1919, which were stored in the collections of musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac. Stories of the invisible take form along a journey comprising photographs, videos, drawings, sound installations, and printed mirrors.