Setareh Shahbazi is a visual artist based in Berlin. She compiles and transforms micronarratives through conversations, observations, collaborations, visual notes and found photographs. With a playful irreverence to the sanctity of a photograph as a mirror of reality she drains details out of images found in public archives and private collections, snapshots, films, newspapers, social media and daily newsfeeds. In trying to make sense of their broken narratives, their im-/possible translations into different contexts, temporalities and languages, she is constantly shifting perspectives to allow these observations to come together in a fictional afterlife.
Setareh Shahbazi studied Scenography, Visual Art and Media Theory at Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design and spent the following years living and working between Beirut, Tehran, Cairo and Berlin, where she is currently based.
Her work has been shown in solo shows at Tarahane Azad, Tehran; Gypsum Gallery, Cairo; 98weeks Project Space, Beirut; Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara; Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg; Montgomery, Berlin and at Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe.
Her groupshows include TAXISPALAIS Kunsthalle Tirol, Innsbruck; Haus der Statistik, Berlin; Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.), Berlin; Wei Ling Contemporary, Kuala Lumpur; Depo, Istanbul; 17 Essex, NY; Nottingham Contemporary, UK; Sharjah Biennial 13; UAE; Kadist Art Foundation, Paris; Kunsthaus Wien; Beirut Art Center, Lebanon; Program, Berlin; Kunstverein Frankfurt; Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut; HKW, Berlin; Fondation Cartier, Paris and Rooseum, Malmö.
In 2024 Setareh Shahbazi received the Wi Di Mimba Wi Commission Prize for Artists of Color from the AKB Foundation and SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin. The prize will be followed by a solo show at SAVVY Contemporary in 2025.
Since 2020, she has joined Kaya Behkalam as artistic co-director of KHF – Künstlerhof Frohnau, an artist-run studio village situated in woods on the periphery of Berlin, organizing the Ruckhaberle Foerderpreis among other projects.
Setareh Shahbazi is currently visiting professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Münster, Germany
2023
Ich bin anders, weil ich kann das. Stranger belongs to me, TAXISPALAIS Kunsthalle Tirol, Innsbruck
2022
Sunsets Are Not Overrated, in collaboration with Neda Saeedi; Lumbung Film: AFTER CINEMA #1, documenta fifteen
Flowers and Monuments, Casa Arabe, Cordoba and ArteEast.org (online)
2021
Redeem, Haus der Statistik, Berlin
Step Out of the Strange Light, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin
2020
She Who Is Watching, Wei-Ling Contemporary, Kuala Lumpur
Up Above Was Fog, Down Below Was A Cloud of Dust, Depo, Istanbul
2019
A Rain of Light & Death, 17 Essex, New York
Comfort Zone (Home), VCU Gallery, Doha
2018
The Truth about Fiction, Gypsum Gallery, Cairo
From Ear to Ear to Eye, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham
2017
ANTEDOOM II, Tarahane Azad, Tehran (solo)
Sharjah Biennial 13: Tamawuj, Sharjah
2016
Binary Is A False Idol, Gypsum Gallery, Cairo (solo)
Complicity, Sultan Gallery, Kuwait
2015
Before History, Abraaj Group Art Prize, Dubai, UAE
Wie Wir Leben, Kunsthaus Wien
2014
Act & Application, Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai
2013
Spectral Days, Gypsum Gallery, Cairo (solo)
2012
When It Stops Dripping From The Ceiling, Kadist Art Foundation, Paris
2010
I am Glad that Things Have Changed, 98weeks Project Space, Beirut (solo)
2008
Why Not Bazar, Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara (solo)
2007
Whenever It Starts, It Is The Right Time. Strategies for A Discontinuous Future, Frankfurter Kunstverein
2006
Oh, No, No... – The Crystal Series, Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg (solo)
Rainbow, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut
2005
J’en Rêve, Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, Paris
2004
Oh, no, no... – The Crystal Series, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe (solo)
Happy End (With A Certain Sensatio n), 2023; exhibition view from Ich bin anders, weil ich kann das. Stranger Belongs To Me, TAXISPALAIS Kunsthalle Tirol, 2023, Photo: Günter Kresser
Sunsets Are Not Overrated, 2022, performative projections, in collaboration with Neda Saeedi; view from Gloria Kino, Kassel - In the framework of Lumbung Film : After Cinema #1, documenta fifteen
Exhibition view Step Out of the Strange Light, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, 2021 © Neuer Berliner Kunstverein / Jens Ziehe
Exhibition view, From Ear to Ear to Eye, Nottingham Contemporary, 2017/18 © Stuart Whipps
Exhibition view, From Ear to Ear to Eye, Nottingham Contemporary, 2017/18 © Stuart Whipps
Installation view, Binary Is A False Idol, Gypsum Gallery, Cairo, 2016
Installation view, ANTEDOOM, Sharjah Biennial 13: Tamawuj, 2017
Installation view, ANTEDOOM, Sharjah Biennial 13: Tamawuj, 2017
Installation view, ANTEDOOM, Sharjah Biennial 13: Tamawuj, 2017
Installation view, ANTEDOOM, Sharjah Biennial 13: Tamawuj, 2017
Installation view, Spectral Days, Gypsum Gallery, Cairo, 2013