EventsThe New Social Environment#1

Shirin Neshat and Shoja Azari with Phong H. Bui

Featuring Neshat, Azari, and Bui

Tuesday, March 17, 2020 1 p.m. Eastern / 10 a.m. Pacific

These free events are produced by The Brooklyn Rail.

Artist and filmmakers Shirin Neshat and Shoja Azari join Rail Publisher and Artistic Director Phong H. Bui for a conversation. We conclude with a poetry reading by Madeleine Cravens.

In this Talk

Shirin Neshat

Photo by Lyle Ashton Harris

Shirin Neshat is an Iranian-born artist and filmmaker living in New York. Working across photography, video, film, and opera, she explores themes of power, religion, gender, and cultural identity through her experience as an Iranian woman in exile. Her work has been exhibited worldwide, including at The Broad, the Hirshhorn Museum, and Museo Correr. Neshat’s films include Women Without Men (Silver Lion, 2009), Looking for Oum Kulthum (2017), and Land of Dreams(2021). She directed Aida at the Salzburg Festival (2017, 2022) and will restage it at the Paris Opera in 2025. Her honors include Golden Lion and Praemium Imperiale Awards.

shirin__neshat

Shoja Azari

Portrait drawing of Shoja Azari by Phong H. Bui

An Iranian-born visual artist and filmmaker. Azari confronts broad themes of gender, politics, and piety, drawing inspiration from and re-interpreting religious icons. While collaborating with Shirin Neshat on a wealth of film and video projects, Azari created experimental and art house films, including an adaptation of Franz Kafka’s work, K and a series of short films, Windows, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Azari and Neshat’s film Women Without Men won the Silver Lion for best director at the 2009 Venice Film Festival. Azari has since developed a style of “video paintings” that combine media to produce a unique three-dimensional effect. His work has been exhibited globally and is included in international permanent collections.

Phong H. Bui

Photo by Nicola Delorme

Phong H. Bui is an artist, writer, independent curator, and Co-Founder and Publisher/Artistic Director of the Brooklyn Rail, Rail Editions, River Rail and Rail Curatorial Projects.

We’d like to thank The Marion Boulton Kippy Stroud Foundation and Teiger Foundation for making these conversations possible, and for their support of our growing archive 🌈✨