Elika Hedayat

Haroum is a solo exhibition by Elika Hedayat, c urated by Valentina Ulisse taking place   Drawing Lab in paris from October 17 to January 4, 2026. "[...] practices of living and dying in rich worldings that I think of as string figure games" Donna Haraway,  Staying with the trouble   In several works of Persian literature written between the  10th  and  12th  centuries,  Haroum  is described as a city governed by learned women, who live in equality and peace with the environment. Free and independent, they seem to echo the Amazons, warrior women of Greco-Roman mythology, who became a symbol of female emancipation and gender equality.  In these ancient Persian epics, animals and imaginary creatures occupy a remarkable place and, in constant alliance with humans, help to blur existing boundaries between genders and species.  Simorgh , for example, a long-lived bird with invaluable knowledge, is a central, metamorphic character, a cre...

The Dispossessed is the title for a series of multidisciplinary works presented at my solo show, curated by Françoise Docquiert, at the Malakoff Contemporary Art Center from September 23rd to December 10th, 2023. Here is an excerpt from a text written by Françoise Docquiert about the show:   "  The title of Elika Hedayat's exhibition, "Les Dépossédés" (The Dispossessed), is borrowed from the eponymous book by the American science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin, who is considered one of the influential figures in literature in the United States today. Addressing ethical and spiritual questions of otherness and considering the perspective of the other, Ursula K. Le Guin explores current concerns such as the testing of social bonds, gender binarism, feminism, humanity in the realm of the living, ecological threats, colonization, expansion, or the disappearance of human species. With the same inquiries and a sense of dispossession, Elika Hedayat has constructed this ...

This solo show presented at Hamzianpour & Kia Gallery , from April 23 to May 23 2022 in Los Angeles, features a series of paintings and an  animation piece .  Here is an extract from the press release :  " The small, personable, dense paintings of Hedayat are windows into another world. Bewildered protagonists make up a dreamscape with recurring motifs of biological systems, rhizomatic growths, and interconnected pathways. The paintings’ internally glowing sense of light feel like projections themselves, mental images of a world past or to come, or conjured in response to the current conditions of life on Earth. The implied narrative of Hedayat’s paintings key into her video work almost as frame stills, cinematic instances which hold time expansively in their stillness. Their painted layers and material depth invite the viewer to enter their space with mind and body, into a carefully conjured realm..." To watch the animation use the links below : MUTATIONS

Permutaions chroniques is a mural drawing/installation I've made during the opening day of AsiaNOW  ,October 21st, in Paris. Permutaions chroniques is part of the project  Mutations. Here is a text by Aline Vidal Gallery about this piece :   Elika Hedayat’s scenarios are inhabited by mysterious characters half-animals half-plants, half-humans half-bacteria, living in constant metamorphosis. These  Mutations  are enclosed in their frames, as microcosmos where species blend and coexist, or develop on broad surfaces, like an in-progress narrative. Both storyteller of rocambolesque events and zoologist discovering imagined filiations, Elika Hedayat sketches on-site this mnemosyne-atlas depicting an oneiric genealogy where the daily life turns into a dream.

For the group show D(es)Rives #4 at Véro-Dodat Gallery , I've presented several pieces (painting, installation and a drawing performance) from my series Mutations. The project  Mutations,  containing series of paintings, drawings, videos and animations stages a Trilogy; evolution, transformation, deformation, about the man and his environment. A world in which the balance of power between human beings and the univers is constantly changing.

Abyssal is a triptych installation designed for the projet "Fauteuil d'artiste #6" at The Scala Theater hall in Paris. The installation is visible from september 11th to the en of 2020. In Abyssal installation, the auditorium theater hall chair comes to life and takes us on a journey into the immeasurable depths of performing arts where our hearts, eyes, ears and brains venture. To watch the video parts of the installation click hère : Monologue Dialogue

Art market or art in the market, merchandising or food for thought, this new  project raises the fundamental questions of the daily proximity of art, of its place in the  city and the freedom of artists to  create, at least temporarily, out of traditional networks.  For De(s)rives#2, twenty artists have been invited to take possession of the Beauvau market,  Place  d'Aligre . For this project, I  choosed a  butcher's shop to show my new piece called Hypnose par le grand bouc  ;  hypnosis by the great He-goat. This work refers to the goya's painting called Witches' Sabbath (The Great He-Goat). Here, the witchcraft (Hypnosis) done by the great He-goat awaken the human's unconscious putting him in front of his destiny and those of other living beings on the earth.

This solo exhibition presented at Dastan Gallery , from August 16th to September 13th 2019, features a series of drawings, paintings and three animated works. The title of the exhibition is a latin phrase that is literally translated to "Bread and circuses". The phrase is attributed to the Roman poet, Juvenal  active in the late first and early second century  AD. In his Satire X Juvenal writes : " Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses." To watch the three animated works use the links below : Le Saut   PHOTO CALL FIRE !  

TAN is a project containing a 70 minutes documentary film and a series of painting and drawings.  The solo exhibition TAN presented by Aline Vidal Gallery , took place from October 10th to October 22th 2017 in Paris.  A private screening of the documentary was organized, in parallel with the exhibition, at Cinéma du Panthéon on October 15th. TAN is born from my encounter with  Ismaïl, Alireza  and  Hadi.  The project illustrates portraits of two groups of men; mutilated solders of the Iran/Irak war and the Iranian bodybuilders in a small city from south of Iran. These three protagonists are related by the desire of immortalizing their own body. Nevertheless,  what separates them is the generational gap and how the relationship with the body changes in a society from an ideological and religious point of view to a complete materialistic approach.

Al A'raaf is a project commissioned by Mohsen Gallery for Pasio, a 7.5m2 x 9m gallery courtyard exhibition space dedicated to art installations. This project containing two paintings, a mural drawing, a silicone/plexiglass sculpture and a video installation, has been on view at Mohsen Gallery in Tehran from June 30th to July 26th 2017.

My works have been presented among the artists  choosen by Annette Messager for a documentary about women artists, produced by ARTE TV channel. Watch the extract here :

Within the official program of the France/Korea cultural year 2015-16, I've been invited to be a part of the group exhibition  Faire des mondes/Greating worlds curated by Françoise Docquiert and  Marianne Derrien.  The selected artists were Bertille Bak, Romain Bernini, Elika Hedayat and Rémy Yadan. The exhibition has been first presented  at the National Museum of Kyungpook university in Daegu and afterwards at  Wooyang Museum of Contemporary Art , in Gyeongju , where I also made a mural painting.

Drawings presented for the 10th  edition of DRAWING NOW PARIS | LE SALON DU DESSIN CONTEMPORAIN held   from Wednesday, March 30th to Sunday, April 3rd, 2016, at the Carreau du Temple.

On the occasion of it's 10th anniversary, La maison rouge  has shown the Antoine de Galbert  's collection from June 14th to September 21st, 2014.  The exhibition  Le Mur is the 11th chapter of  series of exhibitions dedicated to privaite collections. Here is a link to the exhibition's website : http://www.lamaisonrouge.org/cgi?usr=92yuqd9cu6&lg=fr&pag=2334&tab=108&rec=45&frm=0&id=3872&flux=7187970 You could also watch this interview of me explaining my works in the exhibition:

Photos from my first solo exhibition in Tehran, IRAN Opening of the Exhibition Friday, February 28th 2014 AARAN ART GALLERY   Here is a link to the animation presented at the exhibition : Ecliptic Lunacy, Animation HD, video in loop, 2014 Directed and animated by  Elika HEDAYAT Music by  Pouya Pour Amin Ecliptic Lunacy : https://vimeo.com/100691618

Performances in the frame of Høstutstillingen at Kunstnernes hus - Oslo - 14th to 29th of  September  2013 impure company is supported by the Ministry of foreign affairs and The Norwegian Council for cultural affairs Choreography : Hooman Sharifi 
 Performers : Rikke Baewert, Loan Ha, Ida Gudbrandsen, Matthew William Smith Visual artist : Elika Hedayat Photographs : Arash A.Nejad Artistic coordinator : Valerie Lanciaux Video edition : Sima Khatami Watch the video here : http://vimeo.com/78959897

Here in an article about my works on The  JEU DE PAUME web magazine : http://lemagazine.jeudepaume.org/2013/02/elika-hedayat-en/

I was invited to collaborate with Impure Company  on  this performance  during three days for the  Modul-dance Festival, Hellerau Dresden, Germany Concept and Choreography : Hooman Sharifi Performers : Ida Gudbrandsen, Loan Ha and Matthew William Smith Visual Artist : Elika Hedayat

I've done this wall painting for a group show at Aline Vidal Gallery from 10th May to 23th of June 2012. This is the last Aline Vidal's exhibiton before leaving her local for a new place. this final event consists in 13 artists’ works with a common aim at accepting and supporting their mural status. No canvas and stuffs, no screw or nail, the exhibition lives in the premises and results in a frontal dialogue.

Works presented by Gallery Aline Vidal at DRAWING NOW PARIS / LE SALON DU DESSIN CONTEMPORAIN, International art fair exclusively dedicated to contemporary drawings, Paris, 2012.