TERUGBLIK: QOQNOOS

Op internationale vrouwendag opende in Melkweg Expo op 8 maart ‘Qoqnoos - You Can’t Burn Women Made of Fire’, een multimediale expositie gecureerd door Iraans-Nederlands fotograaf en filmmaker Tina Farifteh. De tentoonstelling bood ruimte voor de meest relevante feministische beweging van het moment: de protesten in Iran. Vandaag blikken we terug op twee maanden die compleet in het teken stonden van de onuitputtelijke kracht van vrouwelijk verzet.

Een speciaal dankwoord aan alle deelnemende kunstenaars van ‘Qoqnoos’: Afsaneh Ghafarian Rabe'I, Elnaz Assar, Golshan, Nastaran Razawi Khorasani & Davy Pieters, Newsha Tavakolian, Niloofar Azimian, Sara Kazemimanesh en Tina Farifteh. Het was een genoegen om het werk van zo'n inspirerende groep sterke Iraanse vrouwelijke kunstenaars tentoon te stellen. De moed die zij hebben getoond om deze verhalen te delen, is als overweldigend ervaren. 

Natuurlijk willen we ook alle bezoekers bedanken die hun steun hebben betuigd, en de boodschap van deze belangrijke en urgente tentoonstelling hebben verspreid. We hopen jullie snel terug te mogen verwelkomen bij onze volgende expositie “Like A River”, die zal openen op zaterdag 10 juni. 

“Thank you for all that is done to empower the women of Iran, and uplift their voices, experiences & artistic expression”

“Much respect from my mother and me, her daughter. Jin, Jîyan, Azadî.”

"I feel connected to you through your art"

"What an amazing exhibition, it touched me to my core, thank you. Iran - I wish you the bright future you deserve"

-Berichten uit ons Expo gastenboek

"Women have been resisting since I was born, and long before.
Iranian women fight every day.
In their private lives.
And in their public life.

They have resisted through the hair sticking out of their headscarves, the length of their mantos, the color of their lips, the length of their nails, the thickness of their stockings.
And now they resist by not wearing a scarf at all. 

They resist by reading poetry, singing, dancing, laughing, working, cycling, swimming. 
They resist by raising children with free and independent minds.

All the women who resist: invisibly, subtly, day-by-day. 
And all the women who resist openly, systematically and visibly. 
Using their bodies, art, education, words, images and their creativity as weapons. 
Resisting by having hope. By simply being women.

Fighting for their own freedom.
For the freedom of their children.
For the freedom of all women.
For the freedom of all of us.

Millimetre by millimetre, they claw back space. 
Each millimetre they gain, they defend and don't return. 
THEY have fertilized the soil for this revolution.
THEY are the mothers and grandmothers of the generation now fighting in the vanguard."

-Tina Farifteh, curator en deelnemend kunstenaar