THE FUTURE THAT AWAITS presents films about Afghan children and youth made in the years following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan and until the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in Summer 2021. Sharing experiences throughout Afghanistan as well as in Iran, the films explore how characters navigate inherited political realities, legacies of social traditions, access to education, isolated communities, and child labor. The in-person screening features five short films that reflect the main themes of the program.
Featuring works by Lida Abdul, Yalda Afsah, Aidin Halalzadeh, Sahra Mani, Shahrbanoo Sadat, Sepideh Salarvand, and Ginan Seidl.
This program is co-presented by ArteEast and The Clemente and is curated by Lila Nazemian (ArteEast Special Projects Curator)
Brick Sellers of Kabul, Lida Abdul, Afghanistan, 2006
Persian with English subtitles
Courtesy Giorgio Persano Gallery
To express the constant feeling of precariousness in the lives of the inhabitants of Afghanistan, Lida Abdul uses local people as actors in her native land to shoot her works. In Brick sellers of Kabul what most strikes the viewer is the confidence in the way Lida Abdul depicts a surreal situation: A row of kids queues to sell bricks that they collected from a collapsed structure to a man who stacks the bricks up into a cubic sculpture, perhaps in an effort to erect the very same structure the bricks originally came from. The action of tossing the bricks occurs during a sandstorm, a scene both full of harmony and madness at the same time. The power of these pictures comes from the will Lida Abdul has to evoke, rather than to report directly, the devastation of a land. She evokes this destruction through tiny gestures that become rituals, delicate sounds produced by the wind that become a chant, a prayer, and a dialogue that, as sudden as lightning, carry us back to the cruel reality.of.need.
About the filmmaker
Lida Abdul (Kabul, 1973). Lives and works in Los Angeles and Kabul. The first artist of her country to represent Afghanistan at the 51st edition of the Venice Biennale in 2005, she was then selected to participate in numerous other Biennales and Triennales: São Paulo Biennial 2006; Gwangju Biennial 2006; Moscow Biennial 2007; Sharjah Biennial 2007; Göteborg Biennial 2007; Venice Biennale 2015; Busan Biennale 2016; Istanbul Biennial 2022. Her work has also been presented at: Istanbul Modern, Istanbul; Kunsthalle, Vienna; Museum of Modern Art, Arnhem; Miami Central, Miami; ICA Toronto, Toronto; ZKM Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe; Capc, Bordeaux; CAC, Brétigny; Frac Lorraine, Metz; Musée Chagall, Nice; National Museum, Kabul; Tate Modern, London; MOMA, New York; Location One, New York; OK Centrum for Contemporary Art, Linz; Western Front Exhibitions and Centre A, Vancouver; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis; Royal Academy of Arts, London; The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Zentrum Paul Klee, Berne; Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem; Louis Vuitton Espace, Paris; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel; Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon; CAC, Málaga; Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian, Paris; MART, Rovereto; Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul; Fondazione Merz, Torino; CAP, Lyon; Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei; National Gallery of Art, Warsaw; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. She has won the Taiwan Award (2005), the Premio Pino Pascali (2005), the Prince Claus Award (2006), as well as the UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of the Arts (2007). She was a finalist of the First Edition of the Mario Merz Prize (2015). Her work appears in numerous public and private collections, including the Frac Lorraine, Metz; GAM - Torino, the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; the MOMA, New York; the Guggenheim Museum, New York; and Sharjah Art Foundation,
Sharjah.
- Year2006
- Runtime6 minutes
- LanguagePersian
- CountryAfghanistan
- DirectorLida Abdul
THE FUTURE THAT AWAITS presents films about Afghan children and youth made in the years following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan and until the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in Summer 2021. Sharing experiences throughout Afghanistan as well as in Iran, the films explore how characters navigate inherited political realities, legacies of social traditions, access to education, isolated communities, and child labor. The in-person screening features five short films that reflect the main themes of the program.
Featuring works by Lida Abdul, Yalda Afsah, Aidin Halalzadeh, Sahra Mani, Shahrbanoo Sadat, Sepideh Salarvand, and Ginan Seidl.
This program is co-presented by ArteEast and The Clemente and is curated by Lila Nazemian (ArteEast Special Projects Curator)
Brick Sellers of Kabul, Lida Abdul, Afghanistan, 2006
Persian with English subtitles
Courtesy Giorgio Persano Gallery
To express the constant feeling of precariousness in the lives of the inhabitants of Afghanistan, Lida Abdul uses local people as actors in her native land to shoot her works. In Brick sellers of Kabul what most strikes the viewer is the confidence in the way Lida Abdul depicts a surreal situation: A row of kids queues to sell bricks that they collected from a collapsed structure to a man who stacks the bricks up into a cubic sculpture, perhaps in an effort to erect the very same structure the bricks originally came from. The action of tossing the bricks occurs during a sandstorm, a scene both full of harmony and madness at the same time. The power of these pictures comes from the will Lida Abdul has to evoke, rather than to report directly, the devastation of a land. She evokes this destruction through tiny gestures that become rituals, delicate sounds produced by the wind that become a chant, a prayer, and a dialogue that, as sudden as lightning, carry us back to the cruel reality.of.need.
About the filmmaker
Lida Abdul (Kabul, 1973). Lives and works in Los Angeles and Kabul. The first artist of her country to represent Afghanistan at the 51st edition of the Venice Biennale in 2005, she was then selected to participate in numerous other Biennales and Triennales: São Paulo Biennial 2006; Gwangju Biennial 2006; Moscow Biennial 2007; Sharjah Biennial 2007; Göteborg Biennial 2007; Venice Biennale 2015; Busan Biennale 2016; Istanbul Biennial 2022. Her work has also been presented at: Istanbul Modern, Istanbul; Kunsthalle, Vienna; Museum of Modern Art, Arnhem; Miami Central, Miami; ICA Toronto, Toronto; ZKM Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe; Capc, Bordeaux; CAC, Brétigny; Frac Lorraine, Metz; Musée Chagall, Nice; National Museum, Kabul; Tate Modern, London; MOMA, New York; Location One, New York; OK Centrum for Contemporary Art, Linz; Western Front Exhibitions and Centre A, Vancouver; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis; Royal Academy of Arts, London; The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Zentrum Paul Klee, Berne; Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem; Louis Vuitton Espace, Paris; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel; Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon; CAC, Málaga; Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian, Paris; MART, Rovereto; Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul; Fondazione Merz, Torino; CAP, Lyon; Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei; National Gallery of Art, Warsaw; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. She has won the Taiwan Award (2005), the Premio Pino Pascali (2005), the Prince Claus Award (2006), as well as the UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of the Arts (2007). She was a finalist of the First Edition of the Mario Merz Prize (2015). Her work appears in numerous public and private collections, including the Frac Lorraine, Metz; GAM - Torino, the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; the MOMA, New York; the Guggenheim Museum, New York; and Sharjah Art Foundation,
Sharjah.
- Year2006
- Runtime6 minutes
- LanguagePersian
- CountryAfghanistan
- DirectorLida Abdul