Mandana Moghaddam: Woman Life Freedom

Mandana Moghaddam’s solo exhibition at Bildmuseet is titled Woman Life Freedom and showcases mirror mosaic, sculpture, and installation. The exhibition opens with an artist talk on Saturday, September 16, the anniversary of Mahsa Jina Amini’s death in Tehran.

Art’s ability to bridge cultural boundaries is a central theme in Mandana Moghaddam’s work. Encompassing human communication, migration, and feminism, her art draws inspiration from Iranian cultural history and pressing topical events. Her primary media are video, sculpture, and installation with hair, mirror mosaic, and concrete as recurring materials.

The exhibition shows mirror mosaic works from the series “Underlandet” (The Wonderland) and “Chelgis I,” a human-scale sculpture covered in hair and enclosed in a glass case. The title refers to a girl in a Persian tale whose name means “forty braids.” Moghaddam has created the new sculpture What they gonna do with the inevitable growth of sprouts?, as well as a new work in the Underlandet series, especially for Bildmuseet. The exhibition title reminds us of the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian student Mahsa Jina Amini, who passed away on September 16, 2022, shortly after being arrested by the morality police in Iran, accused of not wearing her headscarf correctly. Her death marked the beginning of nationwide demonstrations for human rights under the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom.”

Mandana Moghaddam (b. 1962, Tehran) grew up and studied in Tehran. In the years 1978–79, while still a teenager, the revolution that transformed Iran into an Islamic republic occurred, later leading to the execution of her father. Moghaddam was expelled from her education and had to flee. After spending three years as an asylum seeker in Turkey, she arrived in Sweden. Initially, she resided in Kristineberg in Västerbotten and subsequently lived in Gothenburg for an extended period. She now resides and works in Stockholm and was active as an artist in both Sweden and Iran until 2022.

Moghaddam has participated in the Venice Biennale, Incheon Women Artists’ Biennale in South Korea, the Prague Biennale, and Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, exhibiting in several countries, including Iran, Turkey, Switzerland, Germany, France, Austria, and Sweden.

Contact information
Brita Täljedal, museum curator Bildmuseet, brita.taljedal@bildmuseet.umu.se / T +46 90 7867714
Helena Vejbrink, press contact Bildmuseet, helena.vejbrink@bildmuseet.umu.se / T +46 90 7869073