Fragmented Futures: Afghanistan 100 Years Later (exhibition catalogue)
Fragmented Futures: Afghanistan 100 Years Later (exhibition catalogue)
Exhibit Catalogue, 2019. Curators: Gazelle Samizay, Helena Zeweri, Ara & Anahid Oshagan. Includes an essay by Helena Zeweri and Gazelle Samizay.
“Fragmented Futures: Afghanistan 100 Years Later,” employed art, writing, film, and scholarship to probe the ongoing consequences of foreign intervention in Afghanistan as well as the future of its diaspora. The exhibit shed light on how Afghans’ everyday aspirations continue to be interrupted, transformed, and reborn in both the diaspora and in an ever-changing Afghanistan.
Artists Featured: Elyas Alavi, Fazila Amiri, Hangama Amiri, Farhad Azad, Sabrina Barekzai, Muheb Esmat, Shiraz Fazli, Zuhal Feraidon, Johanna-Maria Fritz, Mariam Ghani, Shamsia Hassani, Reza Hazare, Jim Huylebroek, Yusuf Misdaq, Aman Mojadidi, Sahar Muradi, Laimah Osman, Sara Rezaie, Gazelle Samizay, Rafi Samizay, and Samea Shanori.
The Afghan American Artists and Writers Association is a collective that organizes community exhibitions, creative workshops, and public commentaries in order to showcase pivotal diasporic works to a broad audience. Based in North America, AAAWA aims to amplify work that critically analyzes discourse on Afghanistan in the U.S. mainstream, where Afghan voices are routinely ignored or reduced to cultural tropes. Through its forums, AAAWA illuminates a multiplicity of issues ranging from hybrid identities to gender and sexuality to the multigenerational impacts of war, including the ongoing ramifications of U.S. imperialism and capitalism. We see ourselves connected through not only our ancestral ties, but also through a shared vision for social justice for marginalized communities globally. We are Afghans, Muslims, and/or queer Americans with intersectional identities.