Art Affects: The Artist’s Body was an exhibition held by mohit.art both physically and online, featuring the artworks of four Iranian female artists: Azar Pajuhandé, Mahsa Mohammadi, Nasim Goli, Pooneh Oshidari. For two weeks from September 9-22, 2024 and during the Berlin Art Week, the physical exhibition was open to the public at the temporary mohit.art Project Space in Berlin-Schöneberg. The comprehensive online exhibition showing additional works of the artists, was accessible at www.mohit.art until October 13, 2024. On September 13, an artist talk moderated by mohit.art initiators Bernd Fechner and Hannah Jacobi was held in the project space and streamed online.
Art Affects: The Artist’s Body considered the body as both a tool of creation and a subject of art. Historically, the female body has been represented through the male gaze. This exhibition reclaimed the gaze and presented the female artist’s body from her perspective, emphasizing self-representation, self-empowerment, and the emotional as well as social, political, and economic contexts that influence artistic creation.
Exploration and representation as empowerment was a central theme of the exhibition. In their works, Pajuhandé, Mohammadi, Goli, and Oshidari assert their own unique narratives of the female body and identity. Confronting the male gaze and challenging traditional modes of representation, expressing anger and dissent, exploring pain, connecting with the non-human in nature, and moving the body into abstraction, they share their artistic experiences, thoughts, and emotions. Their works place the woman and the artist at the center, redefining how they and their (self-)representations are viewed and appreciated.
The exhibition also challenged stereotypical and orientalist perspectives and offered new artistic viewpoints. Art Affects: The Artist’s Body emphasized the need for a transcultural perspective in the debate on gender and identity politics in the visual arts.
