exhibitionMania Akbari, Douglas WhiteMr. Majidi and the Electricity Box27.11—20.12.201912th floor

Mr Majidi and the Electricity Box is an exhibition featuring film, photography and sculpture works which are the result of the collaboration between Iranian filmmaker Mania Akbari and British sculptor Douglas White. Following the success of their movie A Moon For my Father (2018), Douglas and Mania decided to create a body of tangible works to take the film further, which will be presented for the first time ever in V.O.

The title - ‘Mr Majidi’ relates to Akbari’s direct experience in Iran of the lead operative of the Revolutionary Guard, responsible for the surveillance and control of national filmmakers. He was invasively present in her life and career, and ultimately responsible for her exile. Being a victim of this authoritarian regime, her work depicts these experiences and starkly shares culture through artistic means.

Another important element present in the movie and replicated by White for the exhibition is the ‘Electricity Box’, referencing the utility box in Tehran that activist Vida Movahed infamously stood upon to protest the obligatory wearing of the hijab in December 2017. Followed by several activists, the government decided to weld angled metal covers onto the boxes in response to prevent standing. Concurrently, the protesters built wooden platforms upon them. This collaborative piece made between authority and rebellion in Iran, will hopefully be revelatory to the viewer in the exhibition space, sharing an informative piece of cultural history for the plight of women’s rights and equality in Iran.