Celebrating its one year anniversary this July, the Kunsthalle in Dessau is proud to present the exhibition ‘Let us believe in the beginning of the hot season’ by the Afghan artist Kubra Khademi. In her large-scale gouache on paper drawings and performance pieces, the artist celebrates female identity in a male-dominated society of her home country. After a performance on the open street in Kabul, Afghanistan she received death threat sand had to leave her country in 2015. Khademi found refuge in France and now lives in Paris, where, in addition to her artistic practice, she helps threatened artists flee Afghanistan. Through 14 colourful gouache on paper drawings, twelve photographs, and a film, the exhibition tells a story of the relationship and romance between an American man and a Taliban leader. The two men meet in Afghanistan, and a romance develops. In a series of tableaux that blend poetic images and symbols, the film becomes an allegory of the relationship between Afghanistan and the United States.

In a cinematic collaboration, Khademi and U.S. American actor, director, and multidisciplinary artist Daniel Pettrow brought in a dynamic palette of artistic elements (visual art, theatre, text, cinema, ritual practices, cultural and political references) and weaved them together into a narrative tapestry. This film was shot during the Covid pandemic, which forced the two artists to collaborate across the ocean. Each artist filmed their own scenes separately using green screens (Khademi in Paris and Pettrow in New York). The scenes were then edited together to create a film and a series of photographs. Khademi deepens this story by continuing it in her gouache on paper drawings. Coinciding with the exhibition Khademi will show her 18kg Performance at the Bauhaus Museum in Dessau on May 18th at 4:30pm, which is located just across the street from the Kunsthalle.