Lela Ahmadzai: The Courageous - Four Women in Kabul

The exhibition is a photography/multimedia project by award winning photographer and multimedia artist Lela Ahmadzai that highlights the situation of women in today's Afghanistan.
The project focuses on four Afghan women from different social backgrounds: a member of parliament, a baker, a singer and a policewoman.
Lela Ahmadzai´s photographs and multimedia films draw an impressive picture of the lives of the portrayed women and show a country in political and social change.
It illustrates, how persistent and strong every single woman in Afghanistan must be, how much they - often at risk of injury and life - have to fight for their freedom to realize their life plan and not to disappear behind the walls of a house. After the withdrawal of the international troops, many of them fear re-emergence of the radical fundamentalist Taliban and the loss of the freedom won.
Nevertheless, the women continue to fight for their rights and against their oppression by traditional, social and religious power structures.

With a lot of empathy Lela Ahmadzai approaches the four protagonists that she accompanied during her long-term project.
Her photographs and multimedia films draw an impressive picture of the lives of the portrayed women and show a country in political and social change.
In the framework of her artistic projects Lela Ahmadzai experiments repeatedly with innovative means of expression. Her approach is thoroughly multimedia-based.
The particular strength of her artistic concept is the combination of moving and still images, the change from film to still, a process by which she creates poetically dense historical documents.
The four potraits show the individuality of these women completly. They invite to immerse into their lives, to a trip to the country of powerful women who struggle for their rights and their freedom.

As a native Afghan who has emigrated to Germany when she was 17 years old, Lela Ahmadzai always seeks the artistic approach to the plight of Afghan women. Her knowledge of the languages and the Afghan culture enable her to establish a special intimacy to her counterpart. With a lot of empathy she approaches the four protagonists that she accompanied during her long-term project since 2010. Lela Ahmadzai´s photographs and multimedia films draw an impressive picture of the lives of the portrayed women and show a country in political and social change.
In the framework of her artistic projects Lela Ahmadzai experiments repeatedly with innovative means of expression. Her approach is thoroughly multimedia-based. The particular strength of her artistic concept is the combination of moving and still images, the change from film to still, a process by which she creates poetically dense historical documents. For her black and white feature Silent Night – The Kandahar Massacre, Lela Ahmadzai was awarded the 2nd place in the World Press Photo Multimedia Contest in the category Short Feature. Here she also manages to reconstruct an historic event with multi-layered portraits.
The exhibition concept of The Courageous combines aesthetically outstanding large-format color photographs (portraits and landscapes) with short films from photo and video material that was recorded on the spot in Afghanistan. Still images are also integrated into the footage. They create an atmosphere of calmness in the flow of images and allow the development of intimacy with the counterpart. The film portraits are enriched with interview excerpts, atmospheric sound and music.