Aladdin Mofakhari is a self-taught artist, born in 1954 in Kurdistan- Iran, and after completing the high school, he started working as a teacher, which continued for several years. The Iranian revolution in 1979 brought his life into a new phase and caused him to distance himself from his artistic work for many years. He arrived in Sweden in 1992, and in 2011, he reconnected with art again.
Aladdin is usually using recycled materials in the processes of making art. He reconstructs seemingly useless materials and gives them new meaning and life. For him, the use of recycled materials is a symbol of his protest against the materials and tools that are thrown away daily in the world, while there is the possibility of reusing them. He believes also that the language, culture, and ancient works of the Kurds in the all corners of the world have either been destroyed or undermined by the central governments. For example, in the collection of embroidered clothes, he uses leftovers from Kurdish women’s clothes, which are constantly sent to her from Kurdistan-Iran. By using the Japanese Sashiko technique, he put the pieces of fabric together and as himself says, “With these designs, I struggle to save my distorted and lost Kurdish culture and return it into the life again.”
In the exhibition, we come across his works that were made at different times and in response and perhaps it is better to say his protest against political, economic, cultural and social injustices. According to Aladdin himself, after hearing the news of the poisoning of Iranian women and girls, his world turned upside down. The installation he shows in this exhibition is the result of his reaction and protest against existing conditions in Iran.
In his installation, the table and chairs of the children’s classroom made out of paper are hanging upside down from the ceiling and give the feeling of overturning. After the recent protest movements inside and outside of Iran, which were formed after the killing of a young Iranian Kurdish girl, Zina Amini, and became known as the Women, Life, Freedom, Aladdin work more and more associated to the conditions of Iran, especially women issues, much more than in the pas
From the same day that news emerged internationally about how young Iranian girls are being poisoned by gas while in school, and since every day one of the schools in Iran is under attack, he has started making fabric masks from recycled materials that suggest both protection (gas mask) and death (the skull like appearance of the mask). These masks, which were made in a symbolic way to protest against the poisoning of young Iranian girls, were worn by protesters in several demonstrations against violence in Iran, that took place in the city of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Globes made out of paper, were originally made to be in a short film about the environment. The inside of these spheres can be seen through the viewing holes that have the shape of digital telephones.
works in the exhibition
“Upside Down” (2023)
- installation comprising masks, video, sculpture and mixed-media
- dimensions: (Variable)
- venue: GALLERI ROTOR
“Recycled Textiles” (2023)
- installation comprising two garments from recycled textiles, and a series of framed textile collage works.
- dimensions: (variable)
- venue: room 2012
exhibition.school 