Video Studio Visit with Yalda Afsah

Video by Mona // July 9, 2024

Throughout her work, artist and filmmaker Yalda Afsah explores the extent to which space can be cinematically constructed. This formal characteristic is conceptually mirrored in her documentary portraits of human-animal relationships, which reveal an ambivalence between care and control, physical strength and broken will, instinct and manipulation. While seeking to question and dissolve these dichotomies, Afsah creates a space to reflect on the possibility of interspecies empathy. Despite their documentary focus, her films and video installations capture choreographies that simultaneously portray and fictionalize the protagonists.

In this video, presented collaboratively with Deichtorhallen Hamburg on the occasion of their group exhibition ‘Survival in the 21st Century,’ Afsah offers a peek into her studio in Berlin. The artist discusses her practice, which predominantly revolves around film and photography, and her interest in working between observation and staging. Afsah talks about the two video works presented at Deichtorhallen—’Curro’ (2023) and ‘Vidourle’ (2019)—both of which exemplify her interest in the relationships between humans and animals, as well as the themes of power, care and control that emerge from these interactions. Developed by Georg Diez and Nicolaus Schafhausen in close cooperation with Deichtorhallen, ‘Survival in the 21st Century’ explores the foundations of life in the age of polycrisis through works by 37 artists and artist groups.