Sazmanab Dept.

A conversation between Lara Khalidi, Sohrab Kashani, and Denisse Vega de Santiago reflected on embodied forms of archiving and the emotional residue left in and around institutions. Revisiting the 2014 exhibition Father Can’t You See I’m Burning? (de Appel Curatorial Programme, 2013–2014), co-curated by Khalidi during her time at de Appel, the discussion moved across time and geography, from de Appel to contemporary practices in Mexico City and Tehran. Together, the speakers explored how memory, care, and absence were held, echoed, or transformed through engagements with space, institutions, and personal histories. The conversation was moderated by Denisse Vega de Santiago.

A quiet intervention by Sohrab Kashani within de Appel’s library, where a slideshow of bookshelves from a now-closed art space in Tehran was projected onto the library shelves, layering one archive onto another and tracing what remained, what was lost, and what resisted disappearance.

An evening of presentation and video screening examined alternative forms of space-making through the practices of Sazmanab and Rabt, two artist-run initiatives rooted in Iran, focusing on the often invisible labor, strategies, and collective infrastructures that sustain such spaces. Presented by Sohrab Kashani, the program combined a talk reflecting on the histories, curatorial approaches, and organizational challenges of these platforms with a screening of video works by Iranian artists from Iran and the diaspora, curated from the Sazmanab Video Library. Alongside the event, selected publications and materials from the Sazmanab Digital Archive were made accessible at Casco’s library in dialogue with the exhibition Hidden Arts: What do we make when no one sees us.