Photo by Amir B. Ash
Biography & Profile
Ghazal Majidi (b. 1995) is an experimental filmmaker, new media artist, and animator from Tehran, currently based in Vancouver. She uses 3D animation and generative visuals in video, AR, and VR to playfully deconstruct the archetypes of narrative and experiment with fantastical settings. Questions around identity, memory, and reality in the post-digital era and the reciprocating relationship between space and story in the physical and the virtual realm are recurring subject matters in her work. In her films, she experiments with atmospheric magical realism, spotlighting the arbitrary, mundane, and ambiguous, defamiliarizing the audience with the mass-produced motifs of mainstream digital art. Majidi’s works have been presented in film festivals and galleries in Iran, the United States, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Japan, Spain, Slovakia, and more including Vienna Shorts, Brussels Independent Film Festival, and Kuenstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin.
“I like to integrate genres within a unified world, with my preferences being magical realism, fantasy, and mystery. I believe the story and the medium are intertwined in their mission to create. I have practiced this notion both in gathering a multidisciplinary ensemble, as well as creating a conceptual outline to shape storytelling strategies. I find the line between two extremes yet remains to be the most exciting and startling to cross. They both promote symmetrical motifs, playfully interacting with each other. My recent approach in storytelling is to create contradictory rhymes ―I have found myself to adore balance, that will make it more of an occasion to go wild.” read statement
Throughout her career, she has maintained a cross-disciplinary dialogue with sound and music while collaborating with different musicians like Moormother, Rojin Sharafi, and Bescolour to interpret sound into moving image. Through digital creation she establishes a fusion style that flows between film and music video, narrative and abstract. In her most recent practice, she has experimented with code and generative visuals as well as game design.
“Music has always been my initial trigger, inspiration, as well as my remedy. For me, no other art form comes as close to touching my emotional drive and immersing me in a state of pure presence. Music not only plays a big part in the visualizing stage of my creation process, but it has also motivated me to expand my practice into Music Video and Audiovisual Coding.” read statement
CV
Education
Screenings/
Exhibitions
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Publications
2022-present/ MFA Interdisciplinary Arts, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada
2018/ Bachelor of Architecture, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
2012/ Mathematics Diploma, Kherad Educational Highschool, Tehran, Iran
2023/ Oak Cliff Film Festival, Moss Grew Premiere, Dallas, US
2023/ The Wrong Biennale, Adam Meets Eve Pavilion, Pneumomania, Virtual Exhibition
2023/ Denver Digerati Emergent Media Festival, Moss Grew Premiere, Denver, US
2023/ Punto Y Raya Festival, Pneumomania Screening, Lisbon, Portugal
2023/ Antimatter, Moss Grew Screening, Victoria, CANADA
2023/ Girona International Film Festival, Moss Grew Screening, Girona, Spain
2023/ Mosaic World Film Festival, Moss Grew Premiere, Georgia, US
2023/ Austrian Filmfestival, Moss Grew Premiere, Vienna, Austria
2023/ Alexander Studios, Group Exhibition, Backflash Installation, Vancouver, Canada
2021/ Bethanien- Kunstraum Kreuzberg, Tehran Contemporary Sounds, Video Exhibition of Pneumomania, Berlin, Germany
2021/ Vienna Shorts International Film Festival, Seer & Seen Screening, Vienna, Austria
2021/ Casa de Cultura, part of Girona Film Festival, Video Exhibition of Seer & Seen, Girona, Spain
2021/ Mosaic World Film Festival, Seer & Seer Screening, Georgia, US
2021/ Fest Anca International Film Festival, Seer & Seen Screening, Slovakia
2021/ Brussels International Film Festival, Seer & Seen Screening, Brussels, Belgium
2021/ NEO Shibuya 30 Seconds Museum, Tokyo, Japan
2020/ Group Exhibition, Soo Contemporary, Tehran, Iran
2020/ Online Screening, Seer & Seen, Lift-off Film Festival, London, UK
2023/ Guest lecturer, Dematerializing the Trails of Memory, Artist Talk on Moss Grew, From Your Body to the Cosmos Class, Prof. Laura Marks, School for the Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada
2019/ Author, Horoscope Poetry Series Giesela von Horoskopf, Null Set Theory Online Publication
2018/ Organizer and Producer, Body and Movement Workshop Series, Instructor Ideh Aboutalebi, Tehran, Iran
2017/ Co-researcher and Co-author, A Comprehensive Architectural Analysis Of Telegraphchi Mansion, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
2011/ Goethe Institute Residency, klossterschule, B2 Candidate, Rossleben, Germany