Raf Projects is delighted to invite you to the group exhibition entitled "Overlap" in Erstererster Galerie, Berlin.
"Overlap" curated by Mohammadreza Mirzaei, includes the works of three Iranian female photographers, Sara Abbasnejad, Sara Abbaspour, and Saaede Doostbekheir. In this exhibition, the work of these photographers is curated around the exploration of similar subjects. Not only do these subjects (women, kids, still life, animals, the city) overlap in the pictures, but this repetition is reiterated throughout their compositions and formal qualities. Abasnejad, Abbaspour, and DoostBekheir engage different visual strategies, ranging from harsh lighting to emphasizing decisive moments or details in an effort to resist the usual narratives surrounding Iranian photography. Their hesitation in exploiting these norms or making overcharged political statements is emphasized in the juxtaposition of their pictures in the exhibition space. With the repetition of similar compositions, subjects and formal qualities, Mirzaei builds a more subjective narrative in the show, one that is doubtful and questionable in terms of its reliability to the external realities. Such an approach can nevertheless have subtle political implications. Overlap, an exhibition of new Iranian photography, is an invitation to activate the potential of seeing as a form of resistance to forced ideologies: perhaps, even, as a form of freedom.
Curator: Mohammadreza Mirzaei
Artists
