“Focus Afghanistan: Art in a Time of Turmoil”

Rahraw Omarzad, Professor, artist, and curator

Pre-recorded presentation

Being an expert in modern and contemporary afghan art, artist, professor and curator Rahraw Omarzad (Kabul, Afghanistan, 1964) will give a presentation about the current art scene in Afghanistan, after President Joe Biden decided to pull all U.S. troops out of the country in 2021. What had been presented as a peace mission to end “the longest war in American history” indeed resulted into Taliban seizing control of Kabul again. This caused many afghan people to flee their home country–Rahraw Omarzad included–and an unprecedented diaspora that is still growing today. Since his escape from Kabul, Omarzad has lived in Italy and Germany and has carried on a tremendous work to keep promoting and developing contemporary art from Afghanistan, as he will outline in this presentation.