The Iranian-born multimedia artist Samira Hodaei presents a new project ‘Cinema Europa’ at Berlin’s Kunstlerhaus Bethanien this month, in association with ORYX FOUNDATION Switzerland. ‘Cinema Europa’ refracts a number of the artist’s preoccupations and themes through a novel and dynamic set of works, executed whilst on a residency in Berlin.

Hodaei is a thoughtful and reflective character, with a penchant for storytelling and historical exploration. Her work has, in the past, dwelt on topics such as gender roles and social issues in her homeland, as well as the notions of boundaries and borders. All these subjects are present in ‘Cinema Europa’, an installation piece in which Hodaie recreates a derelict cinema hall in Tehran, and decorates it with portraits of a possible audience, executed in her trademark ‘pointillist’ style. The longing, the sense of loss and abandonment suffuses the work with a marked nostalgia for bygone times and pointed allusions to an era of social freedoms and individual agency.