Through the lens of Keeping up with the Iranians, The Eclipse of the (Fe)Male Sun, and The Art of Cooking with Communist Dreams – From Garlic to Onion, this lecture explores my artistic practice at the intersection of social “nonmovements” (Asaf Bayat) and the ghostly language of migratory solidarity movements, across spaces—photography studios, home parties, dinner tables—where seemingly opposing political aspirations are compelled to coexist. By listening to the creators who shape these tensions, I blur the line between fiction and history, creating documents, objects, images, and performances I wish had existed in specific moments, and through which I imagine alternative futures. This also serves as an entry point to discuss Älvsorgeln (The River Organ), my ongoing public art commission with artist Theresa Traore Dahlberg for Packhuskajen in Gothenburg.

Svenska

Afrang Nordlöf Malekian (f. 1995) är en iransk-svensk konstnär baserad i Berlin och Stockholm, som genom performance och installationer undersöker hur exilkulturer hybridiseras. Genom berättande utforskar han hur estetiska sammanflätningar mellan prekoloniala, koloniala och migratoriska kulturformer i handkolorerade fotografier, sällskapsdans, iransk popmusik och fiktion, kan förvandlas till flyktiga, flexibla krafter som främjar kollektiva strävanden. Afrang Nordlöf Malekian är representerad av Moderna museet, Statens konstråd och the Arab Image Foundation Library. Han har tidigare bedrivit konstnärlig studier på the Arab Image Foundation och varit residenskonstnär på Cité Internationale des Arts i Paris samt skapar just nu det offentliga verket Älvsorgeln tillsammans med konstnären Theresa Traore Dahlberg på Packhuskajen i Göteborg. Hans verk har visats på 10th Berlin Biennale, Sophiensaele, Moderna Museet och Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius.

Efter samtalet serverar vi middag. Stanna gärna och äta med oss och konstnärerna.

English

Afrang Nordlöf Malekian (b. 1995) is an Iranian-Swedish artist based in Berlin and Stockholm, who creates performances and installations informed by processes of hybridization in migratory cultures. Through storytelling he explores how entanglements between precolonial, colonial, and migratory cultural forms in hand-colored photography, social dance, Iranian pop music, food and fiction, can transform into evasive, flexible forces that advance collective endeavors. Afrang Nordlöf Malekain is represented by Moderna Museet, the Public Art Agency Sweden, and the Arab Image Foundation Library. He previously conducted artistic research at the Arab Image Foundation, was an artist-in-residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, and is currently creating the public artwork The River Organ with artist Theresa Traore Dahlberg for Packhuskajen in Gothenburg. His work has been exhibited at venues including the 10th Berlin Biennale, Sophiensaele, Moderna Museet, and Contemporarary Art Center, Vilnius.

After the talk, we will serve dinner. Please feel free to stay and dine with us and the artists.