One Hundred and Twenty Minutes
Talk by Amak Mahmoodian
In One Hundred and Twenty Minutes, Amak Mahmoodian turns to dreams as both subject and method. Developed in close collaboration with individuals living in exile, the project treats dreaming as a fragile yet necessary space—one where lost homes, interrupted lives, and unresolved pasts briefly resurface. Rather than illustrating trauma, the work stays with what is quiet, uncertain, and deeply personal, allowing images and words to carry emotional weight without explanation or excess.
Presented in Dhaka as part of Chobi Mela, this Artist Talk reflects on collaboration, trust, and the ethics of working with lived experience. Mahmoodian will speak about process, listening, and duration, and how dreams work as a form of survival—an interior landscape where memory and imagination continue to negotiate belonging, even when return is no longer possible.
Amak Mahmoodian
Amak Mahmoodian is a multidisciplinary artist and educator. She began her career as a research-based photographer in Iran in 2003. Since 2010, she has been living in the UK, unable to return to Iran. Her practice explores the presentation of gender, identity, and displacement, bridging a space between personal and political across platforms and formats, including photographs, texts, videos, drawings, installations, and films.
Mahmoodian has exhibited her work internationally at places such as the Carnegie Museum of Art, Fototeca Latinoamericana, the Benaki Museum, Arnolfini, and Rencontres d’Arles. Her projects and publications include Shenasnameh and Zanjir, the latter winning the Best Photo Text Book Award at Rencontres d’Arles. Some of her work is held in collections such as the Tate and the British Library.