Amanullah Mojadidi

Background

About Amanullah Mojadidi

A Conceptual Anthropologist, Cultural Artist, Writer, Curator, Researcher, and TED Fellow with degrees (B.A, M.A.) in Cultural Anthropology. I have 18 years of experience working in the fields of art and culture within the international development sector with a particular interest in understanding what the limits and/or potentials are for ‘freedom of expression’ through contemporary artistic practice in neocolonial contexts marked by invasion, occupation, and foreign development such as the one experienced in Afghanistan between 2001-2021. Furthermore, I'm interested in exploring the conditions of possibility for subaltern artistic production and self-representation amongst diaspora Afghan contemporary artists who have been evacuated from Afghanistan since August 2021 and are now living in the Global North. In addition to international development work, research, and several published essays, my own creative practice to date has utilised an experimental ethnographic approach, combining qualitative research, traditional storytelling, postmodern narrative strategies, and mixed-media artworks (often site-specific installations and participative performances) to approach themes such as belonging, the politics of representation, conflict, neo-orientalism, artifactual history, neo-colonialism, and migration; intentionally blurring and merging the lines between fact and fiction, documentation and imagination. My artwork has been exhibited internationally including the LindenMuseum-Stuttgart, Imperial War Museum-London, Times Square, NYC, Images Biennale-Roskilde, 3rd Dhaka Art Summit, 12th Havana Biennale, 3rd Asia Triennial Manchester, 1st Kochi/Muziris Biennale, and dOCUMENTA (13). In 2012, I was selected as a TED Fellow for the subversively critical nature of my artistic practice while living in Kabul, Afghanistan. I am currently based between Paris, France and Geneva, Switzerland.