Exhibition

Updating a Family Album - Malekeh Nayiny

1 Sep 2022 – 29 Oct 2022

Regular hours

Monday
Closed
Tuesday
Closed
Wednesday
Closed
Thursday
14:00 – 18:00
Friday
14:00 – 18:00
Saturday
14:00 – 18:00
Sunday
Closed

Free admission

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Chaussee 36

Berlin
Berlin, Germany

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Updating A Family Album consists of digitally re-worked family photographs and is Malekeh Nayiny's most well-known series of works to date. Her works put forward an intimate insight into the disconnected cultural influences of her upbringing in and outside Iran.

About

CHAUSSEE 36 showcases two exhibitions for this year's BERLIN PHOTO WEEK. The exhibitions were conceived parallel to one another, making room for dialogue between them. The first exhibition, Dancing through Times of Uncertainty, presents the works of Magnum photographer Inge Morath (1923-2002) and Johanna-Maria Fritz (*1994), recipient of the Inge Morath Award, to commemorate Magnum Photo´s 75th anniversary. Updating a Family Album is the second exhibition on view and it features the works of the acclaimed Iranian photographer Malekeh Nayiny (*1955).

Three generations of female photographers, their distinctive documentary and artistic practices, as well as the narratives they unfold can be discovered within the exhibitions. While Inge Morath and Johanna-Maria Fritz capture life and people in countries like Iran, Palestine and Russia, Malekeh Nayiny’s works reveal her and her family's experiences as native Iranians. Nayiny’s practice provides an insider's perspective on Iran and compliments the social observations that are put forward in Dancing through Times of Uncertainty.

Malekeh Nayiny is one of the most prominent Iranian photographers of our time. Nayiny left Iran to study but was unable to return home when the Iranian Revolution struck. She was finishing up her BFA at Syracuse University in New York when her family advised her to stay abroad. She enrolled in an Advanced Photography Course at the International Center of Photography and later continued her studies in Paris where she currently resides.

Updating A Family Album consists of digitally re-worked family photographs and is Malekeh Nayiny's most well-known series of works to date. The original family photographs were taken before the Iranian Revolution (1979). The women in her family appear to wear voluminous hairstyles and are bare-legged. Nayiny integrates western landscapes, postal stamps, accessories, and colour into the images, a gesture that assimilates her own biography. Her experimental practice continuously refers to her present surroundings as they relate, or rather clash with, the history of her country. Her family history, memory, and personal insights are integral to her practice. Her works put forward an intimate insight into the disconnected cultural influences of her upbringing in and outside Iran.

Updating A Family Album directly addresses the feelings of displacement, nostalgia, and longing that came along with having to reconstruct her understanding of home. The anachronistic language within the photographs underlines the extreme shift in her home country’s socio-political values and rights. Updating a Family Album romanticizes a place that never was.

What to expect? Toggle

CuratorsToggle

Mathilde Leroy

Mona Mathé

Tania Olivares

Exhibiting artistsToggle

Malekeh Nayiny

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