When I renewed my passport in Karaj, Iran, over a decade ago, the photographer decided I looked “too feminine” for an official document— and yet, somehow, his retouching made me look even more feminine. – Afrang Nordlöf Malekian

In the lecture performance The Lion’s Tail, Afrang Nordlöf Malekian explores manipulation of passport photography through his own passport photos, along archival findings at the Arab Image Foundation in Beirut – hand colored photographs from the 1940s to the ’80s, with saturated shades of magentas, blues, and reds. Through a mixture of research, storytelling, and choreography, he traces retouching techniques to a mythologized sun, both female and male, shining beside a lion—an ancient couple from the depths of the universe: the sun in the house of Leo.

In my search for the origin of these photography retouching techniques, I uncovered something else—something profound that led me to an exiled lion and a flashing sun. – Afrang Nordlöf Malekian

Afrang Nordlöf Malekian (IR/SWE b. 1995.) is an artist with a master’s degree in Fine Arts from The Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm and the Dutch Art Institute in Arnhem (2022). He works with history’s silenced makers and explores how their unrealized utopias transform into an evasive, flexible force that advances collective endeavors. Through performances and installations grounded in archival research, he creates works that provide a space for these quiet dreams to be heard, expanded, and, ideally, realized. Afrang Nordlöf Malekian is represented by Moderna Museet, the Public Art Agency Sweden, Botkyrka municipality, Uppsala Art Museum, and the Arab Image Foundation Library. He has previously conducted artistic research at the Arab Image Foundation and was artist-in-residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. He has exhibited at venues such as the 10th Berlin Biennale, Sophiensaele, Moderna Museet, CAC Reading Room, Public Art Agency Sweden, Nordic Culture Point, West Den Haag, and Tensta konsthall.

This program is a part of NÄRHETEN festival. NÄRHETEN is curated and produced by Amanda Apetrea, Sara Bergsmark, Nadja Hjorton, and Terry Johnson. The festival is supported by Stockholm City, Nacka City and Region Stockholm.

https://www.narheten.com/