Ham Sāya Kouh Hā – Du côté de la montagne, à l’ombre

Ham Sāya Kouh Hā – Du côté de la montagne, à l’ombre, presented at Galerie Eric Mouchet, Brussels, brings together twelve contemporary Hazara artists from Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan. The exhibition explores individual artistic expressions rooted in a shared collective experience, featuring works that utilize textiles, red hues for memory, and miniature painting as forms of resistance. Against a backdrop of ancient myths, family legends, and biographical narratives, the exhibition evokes the landscapes of Kabul, Quetta, and the Hazāradjat region, including the site of the former 6th-century Buddhas of Bamiyan destroyed in 2001.

The mountain serves as a recurring motif, symbolizing a wounded landscape, memory, and resilience, as seen in the work of Elyas Alavi. It functions as a political and spiritual sanctuary against violence, weaving together themes of pain and tenderness, forgetting and nostalgia, ardor and candor. The exhibition maps a poetic-political terrain of hope and remembrance, reflecting the oppression, struggles, and aspirations of the Hazara community. The works, originating from various global locations, are presented as fragments of an ongoing archival and emancipation process, resonating collectively like stones forming a mountain.