Afghanistan

Resulting in a feature film, a two-channel video installation and a publication, Afghanistan is a project by Farid Rahimi. The work stems from long-term research in which the artist reconnects with people and memories tied to the country of his father's homeland, Afghanistan. Through a series of journeys, meetings and conversations, Rahimi—born in Switzerland but raised and residing in Italy—reconstructs a geographical and emotional map of this network of contacts, following an itinerary that extends from Italy and Germany to the United States, Australia and Japan. By traversing vast physical, and emotional distances, Rahimi has embarked on a three-month journey around four continents to piece together, to confront and reconstruct, his fragmented identity divided between distant family ties and his sense of belonging to a country he has never visited: Afghanistan. This reflection, originating from a personal need, extends to explore the universal concept of diaspora and the constant renegotiation of personal identity that originates from that.

"Afghanistan is my father's homeland. He was born in Kabul in 1945 and later moved first to France, then to Switzerland in the 1970s. In my mind, Afghanistan exists as a geography with blurred edges, something I feel the need to reconcile with. It's a place I've only ever known through stories, a source of memories that, over time, have shifted and become distorted."