Abbas Akhavan

[RSVP](https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/talk-sara-farhan-archive-fever-tickets-367819848067 "button")

In conjunction with Abbas Akhavan's exhibition *cast for a folly*, scholar Sara Farhan will deliver a talk drawn from her current research "Archive Fever." This project repositions Freud’s *Thanatos* (death drive) as interpreted by Jacques Derrida to contextualize the feverish obsession with "recovering" and "restoring" archives in regions experiencing conflict, specifically Iraq. Farhan frames this process as an orientalist pursuit to command historical narratives through the restructuring and transplanting of archives in occidental spaces.

### RSVP
This event is free; advanced registration is encouraged. RSVP to secure your seat [here](https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/talk-sara-farhan-archive-fever-tickets-367819848067).

### Biography
Sara Farhan is a social and cultural historian of the modern Middle East. She is an assistant professor at the Department of History at the University of Northern British Columbia. Her research traces the history of medicine, science, and technology in the modern Middle East, as well as the ethical and political implications of archives and cultural material acquisition.

A portrait of Sara Farhan. She’s smiling at the camera.

thumbnail_Sara Farhan.jpeg

Sara Farhan.jpeg

Sara Farhan, "Archive Fever"

Talk

One Saturday each month, CAG invites a guest host to lead walkthroughs of our current exhibitions, offering their insights and response to the works on view. In June, we welcome Marina Roy to speak on the work of Abbas Akhavan. 

No advance registration required for this event.

### Biography
Marina Roy is a Vancouver-based artist and writer, and associate professor in visual art at the University of British Columbia. She works across a variety of media— drawing, painting, sculpture, video, and animation. Her artwork investigates the grotesque, at the intersection of language, image, and materiality, and her research interests include ecology, post humanism, psychoanalysis, and biopolitics. In 2001 she published *sign after the x* (Arsenal/Artspeak); her newest book *Queuejumping* (Information Office) will come out later this year. In 2010 she was recipient of the VIVA art award.

thumbnail_2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_07.jpg

2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_07.jpg

Marina Roy on Abbas Akhavan

Saturday Session

Join us for a talk in the gallery between Abbas Akhavan and curators Kim Nguyen and Matthew Hyland on the occasion of Akhavan’s exhibition *cast for a folly*. 

No advance registration required for this event.

### ASL interpretation
ASL interpretation is available on request. Requests can be accommodated up to 5 days in advance. Please contact [learning@cagvancouver.org](mailto:learning@cagvancouver.org) to book or for more information.

A photo of the back of a wooden museum bench. In the background sits a low table of the same material. Behind these objects, the wall is draped in a printed gray fabric, alongside a doorway rendered in green-screen paint.

thumbnail_image (1).png

image (1).png

Abbas Akhavan with Kim Nguyen and Matthew Hyland

In Conversation

Join us to celebrate the opening of our summer 2022 exhibition, Abbas Akhavan’s *cast for a folly*. The artist will be in attendance. 

All ages welcome. Cash bar.

No advance registration required for this event.

thumbnail_Akhavan_cast for a folly_CCA Wattis_2019_04.jpg

Akhavan_cast for a folly_CCA Wattis_2019_04.jpg

Summer 2022

Opening Reception

The work of Abbas Akhavan takes shape across a range of media and forms. From sculpture and installation to drawing, performance and video, Akhavan’s practice is anchored deeply in the specificities of the sites and spaces he engages. Often open-ended, ephemeral or mimetic in nature, Akhavan’s works frequently traffic in slippages and transferences — between public and private, presence and absence, structural and symbolic.

At the Contemporary Art Gallery, Akhavan presents *cast for a folly* (2019/2022), an installation that takes as its point of departure a photograph of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad: an image of the museum’s lobby taken following its unprecedented looting during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Through sculpture, custom-fabricated furniture and found objects, amongst other forms, Akhavan recreates this scene in the gallery from the single vantage point of his source image. Adjacent to this installation is a new work composed of flower fridges — *untitled* (2022) — a continuation of Akhavan’s ongoing engagement with plant life as both index to and instrument of broader social economies. 

*cast for a folly* (2019/2022) was originally curated by Kim Nguyen and commissioned by CCA Wattis Institute.

### Biography
Abbas Akhavan lives and works in Montréal. Recent solo exhibitions include Mount Stuart House, Isle of Bute (2022), Chisenhale Gallery, London (2021); CCA Wattis Institute, San Francisco (2019); Fogo Island Gallery, Fogo Island, (2019); and VIE D'ANGE, Montréal (2018). Group exhibitions include Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2022); Momenta Biennale at Phi Foundation, Montreal (2021); Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool (2018); SALT Galata, Istanbul (2017); Sharjah Biennial 13, United Arab Emirates (2017); and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2016). He is the recipient of the Fellbach Triennial Award (2017); Sobey Art Award (2015); Abraaj Group Art Prize (2014); and the Berliner Kunstpreis (2012).

Extended text - Abbas Akhavan.pdf

ProgramGuideSummer2022.pdf

CAG_AbbasAkhavan_ExhibitionGuide.pdf

CAG_AbbasAkhavan_ExhibitionGuide_LargePrint.pdf

thumbnail_abbas akhavan cast for a folly.jpg

abbas akhavan cast for a folly.jpg

thumbnail_2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_14.jpg

2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_14.jpg

thumbnail_2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_01.jpg

2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_01.jpg

thumbnail_2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_18.jpg

2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_18.jpg

thumbnail_2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_03.jpg

2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_03.jpg

thumbnail_2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_32.jpg

2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_32.jpg

thumbnail_2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_33.jpg

2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_33.jpg

thumbnail_2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_31.jpg

2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_31.jpg

thumbnail_2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_17.jpg

2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_17.jpg

thumbnail_2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_29.jpg

2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_29.jpg

thumbnail_2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_28.jpg

2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_28.jpg

thumbnail_2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_49.jpg

2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_49.jpg

thumbnail_2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_27.jpg

2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_27.jpg

thumbnail_2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_20.jpg

2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_20.jpg

thumbnail_2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_24.jpg

2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_24.jpg

thumbnail_2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_13.jpg

2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_13.jpg

thumbnail_2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_16.jpg

2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_16.jpg

thumbnail_2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_21.jpg

2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_21.jpg

thumbnail_2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_23.jpg

2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_23.jpg

thumbnail_2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_22.jpg

2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_22.jpg

thumbnail_2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_26.jpg

2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_26.jpg

thumbnail_2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_50.jpg

2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_50.jpg

thumbnail_2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_36.jpg

2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_36.jpg

thumbnail_2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_35.jpg

2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_35.jpg

thumbnail_2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_38.jpg

2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_38.jpg

thumbnail_2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_39.jpg

2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_39.jpg

thumbnail_2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_41.jpg

2022_CAG_A_Akhavan_41.jpg

cast for a folly

Abbas Akhavan

Exhibitions

Talks & Events