Yalda Afsah

German-Iranian artist and filmmaker Yalda Afsah explores in her work the extent to which filmed space becomes a construction through cinematic means. This formal characteristic is conceptually mirrored in her recent works on various cross-species relationships, which reveal the inherent ambivalences within these reciprocal dynamics. Using the examples of traditional forms of bullfighting, classical dressage, pigeon breeding, and most recently, the ritualistic taming of feral horses, Afsah’s films both reveal and complicate the demarcations between care and dependence, ‘nature’ and its cultivation. Departing from a documentary focus, her films and video installations portray and fictionalize the human and animal protagonists alike, capturing their symbiotic choreographies on screen. Afsah has presented her work at international exhibitions and festivals, including Manifesta 13, Locarno Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Institute of Contemporary Arts London and Neuer Berliner Kunstverein. Recent solo exhibitions include Curro (Between Bridges, Berlin, DE, 2023) and Every word was once an animal (Halle für Kunst, Graz, AT and Kunstverein Munich, DE, both 2022). An upcoming solo presentation at JOAN in Los Angeles is scheduled for September 2023. Since 2019, Afsah has been a mentor at the Berlin program for artists (BPA). In the fall of 2023, she will take up a professorship in the department of time-based media at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts. ...