Shadi Harouni Film Screening and Discussion

Shadi Harouni Films + Discussion

Friday March 8th, 2019

510 Oak, Eugene OR 97401

The Lightest of Stones, 2015, HD video, Duration 15:55

A group of quarrymen look on, as the artist removes volcanic stones from the side of the mountain. They talk of dragons and myth, dreams of America and fears of ISIS. They draw parallels between their own precarious labor and representation and that of the artist who remains engrossed in this seemingly futile and perilous action. 

I Dream the Mountain is Still Whole, 2017, HD video, Duration 17:06

The film traces the history of Iranian Marxist revolutionaries who, barred from continuing their work as intellectuals, have, for decades, taken refuge in the isolated mountain quarries of Kurdistan to avoid the threat of arrest and execution. The mountain is the site of their untold stories, their labor, their endurance and hope.

Shadi Harouni is an artist based in New York and Tehran. Harouni’s practice ranges from site-specific interventions and sculptures, to printmaking, photography, and film. Her research is centered on disavowed and marginalized histories of dissent and resistance, chiefly in the Middle East. Harouni’s projects have been exhibited at Queens Museum (NY), Kunstmuseum Bonn (DE), Prague City Gallery (CZ), University of Toronto (CA), Fondazione Ratti (IT), Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (NY). Her work has been featured in Art Forum, The New York Times, The Guardian, Flash Art and Mousse, among others. She has been awarded a Gattuso Prize for Outstanding Exhibition, Harpo Foundation Grant for Artists, AIR Fellowship, residencies at Skowhegan (ME), SOMA (MX), LES Printshop (NY). Harouni holds an MFA from NYU (2011) and a BA from University of Southern California (2007). She serves as Visiting Assistant Professor and Director of the Undergraduate Program in Studio Art at New York University, Steinhardt.