Talk & screening with Rahraw Omarzad

Rahraw Omarzad will speak about his artistic, curatorial and editorial work in Afghanistan and internationally, and show his videos The Third One (2004), Gaining and Losing (2012), and Every tiger needs a horse, part one: Changing Color (2023).  

Rahraw Omarzad’s work has been shown internationally, at Documenta 13 (2012, dir. Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev) among many other places.

Rahraw Omarzad teached at the Art Faculty of the Kabul University from 1991 to 1992 and 2002 to 2021; he completed a MFA at Oslo National Academy of Fine Arts in 2017. He was guest professor at the Accademia Albertina in Turin in 2021 and at Städelschule Frankfurt in 2022.

Rahraw Omarzad was the financial and vital force and publisher behind the Kabul based magazines “Ayar” (1995) and “Payam e Sulh” (Message of Peace) in 1996. When the Taliban government banned the arts in 1998, Omarzad launched the “Gahnama-e-Hunar” art magazine that included all the then banned arts i.e. music, cinema, painting, sculpture, and photography. They were the only art magazines in the country and aimed also to be a window to the world.

2002 the invasion of Afghanistan by US military forces provoked a push back of the Taliban regime and a governmental change. 2004 Rahraw Omarzad founded the Center for Contemporary Arts Afghanistan (CCAA) followed by the establishment of the Women's Art Centre in Afghanistan (WACA) in 2006, two unique spaces in Afghanistan created in the spirit of self-expression and individuality, and the promotion of democratization processes against fanatism, repression and violence (specifically against women).

Back in Kabul in 2017 after a few years of curatorial and academic activities abroad, he founded the Studio of Contemporary Arts (SCA) in the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Kabul University and teached contemporary art as a new subject. 2021, together with students, he founded “Ostad Brashna”, an art training centre for young artists.

After the return of the Taliban in August 2021, Omarzad left for Italy.

He lives in Frankfurt since 2022. 2023 CCAA in eXiLe in founded in Frankfurt.

Screenings: GOING OUT / RAUSGEHEN, Special Issue
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Open to everyone from HfG