The situation of Afghan artists: "it is a great suffering"
The exhibition "Kharmohra, Afghanistan at the risk of art" on the young generation of Afghan artists was held from November 2019 to March 2020 at the Mucem in Marseille.
© Francois Deladerriere / Mucem
Text by: Siegfried Forster Follow
10 mins
Today, she has little hope for female artists who have remained in Afghanistan, but she remains combative: “
we are still fighting to evacuate artists.
”Two years ago, Guilda Chahverdi made an exhibition on the young generation of Afghan artists:“ Afghanistan at the risk of art ”.
For the past few months, this Franco-Iranian has been active at the head of a solidarity network in the cultural milieu which has mobilized to help exiled Afghan artists.
Advertising
Read more
RFI
: When and under what circumstances did you create this network
?
Guilda Chahverdi
:
We created it at the end of June.
Until then, the artists felt the situation was getting worse, but had not yet expressed the need to leave.
Then there was a moment when anxiety was at its height and we could no longer remain silent.
So we decided to act, with the support of
Mucem
.
We wrote to the Ambassador to ask for his help in evacuating these artists who were in danger.
These are artists who had participated in the exhibition
Kharmohra
,
Afghanistan at the risk of art
, but also some of the artists of an Afghan theater company whose work was highlighted in the exposure.
Has the capture of Kabul by the Taliban changed your initiative
?
When there was the escape from Kabul, we also submitted other names of artists who were in danger.
In Marseille, with the support of Mucem, we requested the support of various cultural institutions and structures of associations, cultural actors from Marseille, but also from Arles, Grasse, Nice ... all are very sensitive to the situation, to danger.
There is the importance of supporting artists, their words and their commitment.
The role they have in a society is essential.
Today, these artists, for the risks they took, and for what they carry with them of the country, are extremely in danger and it is important to save them.
How many artists are today welcomed by your solidarity network
?
Figures are so tricky.
There are many artists who are still in danger and too few that we have managed to evacuate, despite the help of the French Embassy.
Unfortunately, many operations have failed and we are still fighting today to evacuate the artists we support.
In November 2019, at the Mucem, in Marseille, you were the curator of the exhibition
Kharmohra, Afghanistan at the risk of art,
which presented a new generation of artists.
Two years ago, among the Afghan artists and perhaps in particular among the Afghan artists with whom you were in contact, was there already the fear of a return of the Taliban
?
Of course ... because the Taliban have regained power and gained ground since 2006. It is a mystery and an enigma for no one. The very title of the exhibition,
Kharmohra
, signifies a stone that brings good luck in popular belief. You have to buy this stone, you have to go to a mullah that you have to pay for so that your most intimate wish will come true. One of the Afghan artists had compared this stone to security. Security has cost billions and billions of dollars to fulfill the most intimate wish of an entire population, which is peace. And that wish was never realized.
RFI is dedicating its antenna this Friday to Afghan women. Among the Afghan artists that you have met in recent weeks, what can you tell us about the situation of Afghan artists, what they experienced, their fears, their difficulty in leaving Afghanistan
?
First of all, there are fears and difficulties, dramas and emotions that are common to all, women and men. All are leaving their country, their family, and will never see them again and it is difficult to hear from them. The women, those who arrive, mostly think of those who stayed and who will have even more difficulties because the circulation of women who are already non-artists is very difficult in a country ruled by the Taliban. And I'm not talking about artistic expression. A woman, inasmuch as she cannot go to school, cannot work, cannot express herself and cannot go out, you can imagine what she is reduced to. It has no power (to do) or to be. His word and his existence are denied. It is a great suffering.
All the more so since during the last fifteen years, the Afghan woman has fought, she succeeded - at least in the big cities and in particular in Kabul - to build and to make that it becomes natural that the woman finds a place in the city, an action, a power. Women are enterprising, they have opened businesses which they have managed. They have gained the confidence of men as well as women. It has been taken for granted. Obviously there was still a lot to do, like everywhere in the world. There, it is a huge upheaval for women.
Among the female artists who have managed to leave Kabul in recent days, hardly any wish to speak publicly, and this is understandable, often because of the trauma experienced, but also out of fears for those close to them back home. With the echoes that you have had from artists, the situation of women in Afghanistan and in particular of women artists will be as catastrophic, even worse than before 2001
?
For decades, we have had all the data to understand the Taliban.
There are researchers and scholars who have written about who the Taliban are.
The Taliban is an extremist ideology.
So there is no place for women.
You are an exhibition curator, but also the former head of the French Institute in Afghanistan. You have seen the evolution of society, culture and art in Afghanistan over the past twenty years. In your opinion, why was it not possible after the fall of the Taliban in 2001 to build a society and a culture that resists the Taliban
?
There are reasons that are deeply political. These, I will not commit to develop, because it is not my field. But, I can assure you, in Afghanistan, the various reconstruction programs that have been put in place have created emulation, an openness to the world, a curiosity of the young generation. Most of the artists are self-taught who first responded to calls for projects. Then they matured their proposals and their artistic views to make relevant proposals. Society in big cities has obviously changed. In twenty years, Afghan society has made a huge leap. Youth is contemporary youth. And Afghanistan, from the moment the borders are opened and from the moment when techniques and ideas circulate,is not immune to globalization. So these young people jumped on the bandwagon as soon as it was possible. And they rose to where the world was at that time.
So, yes, there has been a huge leap.
After Afghanistan, it's complex.
The country is changing.
The evolution of society in the provinces is not the same as that of the big cities and the capital.
Then the problem is the political choices that come from elsewhere.
The company was ready, at least part of this great generation.
►
Those who wish to support Afghan artists exiled in France, there is a pot established by the solidarity network.
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Afghanistan
Culture
Women
our selection
France