Noontime Artist Talk 12:30 – 2:00 PM
Abbas Akhavan currently lives and works in Toronto. His practice ranges from site-specific installations to drawing, video and performance. The domestic sphere has been an ongoing area of research in Akhavan’s work.
Earlier works explore the relationship between the house and the nation state and how the trauma of systemic violence enacted upon civilians can be inherited and re-enacted within the family lineage – the home as a forked space between hospitality and hostility. More recent work has shifted focus onto spaces just outside the home – the garden, the backyard, and other domesticated landscapes.
Akhavan’s work has been exhibited in spaces including Darling Foundry, Vancouver Art Gallery & the Power Plant (Canada), KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Germany), Performa 11 (USA), Bucharest Biennial 5 (Romania) and the Belvedere Museum (Vienna). Recent and upcoming residencies include Fundacion Marceline Botin with Mona Hatoum (Spain), Axeneo7, Video In, TSV, and Fogo Islands (Canada), Watermill Center (USA) and the Delfina Foundation (Dubai, UEA & London, UK). Akhavan was the recipient of the Berlin Kunstpreis in 2012.
This event is free and all are welcome.
