Shiva Khosravi

Three young women sit side by side gazing across Lake Geneva. Motionless. Boats pass before their eyes like profane angels. The locked-off camera frames the women from behind. Their long brown hair is untethered. Nothing happens for five and a half minutes. Nothing special. Except perhaps that a breeze ripples their hair from time to time. It seems as if they yearn for that moment and enjoy it. Its discreet and rare sensuality is refused to women who wear hijabs imposed by religious authorities, such as those in Iran, Shiva Khosravi’s homeland. The work she presents at Les Abattoirs draws its English title from a Hafez poem: Don’t let your hair with the wind blow.

A young woman stands before her mirror. The viewer sees her from the mirror’s perspective. Upbeat pop music offers accompaniment and a hint of irony. The young woman puts her headscarf on, positions the white cloth to hide her hair. She is charming, seems to be having fun, constantly coming up with new ways to wear the mandatory hijab, each one making her happier and more seductive. She seems to revel in her beauty and playfulness, which is a weapon of mass liberation. Two minutes and fifty-two seconds of delight. The scene is speeded up. In tribute to silent movies, it accentuates the comedy of the situation. Presented at Trentotto, this work is titled White Wednesday in reference to the protest movement launched in 2017 by journalist Masih Alinejad against the law that compels women in Iran to wear a hijab.

Clearly, Shiva Khosravi addresses the condition of women in a Muslim country. She does so with subtlety and sensitivity. In both videos, characterized by a serious lack of resources, she shows young women whose resistance to what they experience as oppression expresses itself through relaxed enjoyment of emancipated pleasures.

In partnership with les Abattoirs, Musée – Frac Occitanie Toulouse