Video Works

MY MOTHER – THE HISTORY OF IRAN
History told through a life, and a life shaped by history

MY MOTHER – THE HISTORY OF IRAN

HD video, 78 min 
Based on interviews with Aghdas Dabestani
Filmed in Tehran, Berlin, Istanbul, Kermanshah

The video "My Mother – The History of Iran" is part of the permanent collection in the video forum of the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.)

My Mother – The History of Iran unfolds as a narrative between personal memory and national history. Based on interviews with the artist’s mother, Aghdas Dabestani, the work traces a life shaped by political upheavals, social transformation, and displacement.

Rather than presenting history as a fixed sequence of events, the film constructs an alternative perspective in which biography and historiography intersect. Personal memories, archival material, and filmed observations are woven together, forming a layered narrative that challenges dominant, often patriarchal accounts of Iran’s past.

The work moves between documentary and staged imagery, combining intimate storytelling with broader reflections on political structures, gender roles, and collective memory.

Through this interplay, history appears not as a stable entity, but as a subjective and evolving construct—one that is continuously shaped by individual experience and narration.

Exhibitions & Screenings (selection)

2008: The Sea is the Limit, curator Varvara Shavrova, Yorkshire Museum / York Art Gallery, UK

2017: ROHKUNSTBAU - The Beauty in the Other, curated by Mark Gisborne, Schloss Lieberose, Spreewald, Germany (catalogue)

2016: Cinema Iran, Iranisches Filmfestival curated by Silvia Bauer, Werkstattkino, Münche, Germany

2015: History is a Warm Gun, curatoed by Dr. Britta Schmitz, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.)), Berlin, Germany (catalogue)