Hoda Afshar's First French Exhibition at Musée du Quai Branly

The Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac in Paris presents 'Hoda Afshar. Performing the Invisible', the Iranian artist's first solo exhibition in France. The show features two recent series: 'Speak the Wind' (2015-2020) and 'The Fold' (2023-2025). 'Speak the Wind' is a photo and video installation exploring beliefs about winds on islands in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran. It includes images, a video, and drawings by local residents depicting wind spirits. The work references a history of Arab slave trade that may have brought these beliefs from southeast Africa. 'The Fold' results from Afshar's research into the museum's photographic collections, particularly 1,000 photographs taken by Gaëtan de Clérambault in Morocco between 1918-1919. De Clérambault documented traditional white veils during the French protectorate. Afshar uses photographic installations, printed mirrors, sound, and video to critique the colonial use of photography. Born in Tehran in 1983 and based in Melbourne, Afshar is recognized as an innovative Australian contemporary artist whose work examines gender, marginality, and displacement through conceptual and documentary photography.