About
Elham Rahmati
Elham Rahmati (b. 1989, Tehran) is a visual artist and curator based in Helsinki. She is the co-founder and co-editor of NO NIIN, an independent online monthly magazine at the cusp of art, criticality and love. In 2019 and 2020, she worked as the curator and producer of the Academy of Moving People & Images (AMPI), a film school in Helsinki for mobile people – those who have arrived in Finland for different reasons, be they immigrants, asylum seekers, students, or employees. AMPI’s aim was to provide a free learning platform where people from different backgrounds acquire tools and methods with which they can tell the stories they find important. Prior to that, she worked as a curator & coordinator at Third Space, an artist-run gallery emerging as a response to the lack of inclusivity and diversity in the art scene in Finland. Elham holds an MA in Visual Arts from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze and an MA in Visual Culture, Curating & Contemporary Art from Aalto University.
ٍEDUCATION
2016- MA in Visual Culture and Contemporary Art at Aalto University, School of Art, Design and Architecture, Helsinki, Finland.
2014 Academic Exchange in Visual Culture & Contemporary Art at Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland.
2013-2016 MFA in Visual Arts & New Expressive Languages/Painting in Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze in Florence, Italy.
2012 BFA in Painting from the Sepehr University of Art in Esfahan, Iran.
2008 Graduation from Sooreh Art School in Film Studies.
CURATORIAL & COLLABORATIVE
2021- Co-founder & co-editor of NO NIINan online monthly magazine dedicated to the contemporary art scene in Finland.
2021 Supporting curator of HIAP-Helsinki International Artist Programme for the year 2021.
2020 Curator of the exhibition ‘Stories from the sea, stories from the city’, Stoa Gallery, Helsinki, Finland.
202o. Lecture/screening/discussion at MMC KIBLA as part of the Risk Change project and X-OP Discourse Series, Maribor, Slovenia.
2020 Curator and producer of AMPI Public Screening at Bio Rex, Helsinki, 2020.
2019 Publics Talk: Academy of the Moving People & Images. Publics, Helsinki, 2019.
2019 Curator and producer of AMPI Advanced workshops, 2019.
2018- Curator and producer of ‘Academy of Moving People & Images‘, Helsinki, Finland.
2018 Curator of Academy of Moving People & Images test-workshop directed by Erol Mintas at Goethe-Institut Finnland.
2018 Assistant editor of HIAP Yearbook 2017.
2018 Residency/communication assistant at HIAP-Helsinki International Artist Programme.
2017- Curator and Coordinator in the gallery Third Space in Helsinki.
2017 Co-curating the course Authorship & Agency: Learning From the Middle East. Aalto University, Espoo, Finland.
2017 Workshop & technical Assistant in Ivana Franke, Tommi Grönlund and Petteri Nisunen’s exhibition: Perceptual Drift (Galaxies in Mind) / GREY AREA, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, Croatia.
2016 On Revolutionary Stories, Curating a Lecture/discussion event with Ramy Essam, Aalto University. Espoo, Finland.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2018. Holding a Monument, Myymälä2 Gallery, Helsinki, Finland, 2018.
2017 It Seemed the Better Way, K18 Gallery, Maribor, Slovenia.
2015 In the Dark Times Will There Also Be Singing? Third Space, Helsinki, Finland.
2015 Stories From the Sea, Stories From the City, Gallery Klein, Helsinki, Finland.
2009 In the Dark Times Will There Also Be Singing? Ghalam Gallery, Esfahan, Iran.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2019 The Crew: taco stuffs and life “after” the institution, Huuto Galleria, Helsinki, Finland.
2018 Videokanava: Resolution / Kumous, screening 2, ContemporaryArt Center Pispala, Tampere, Finland.
Videokanava: Resolution / Kumous, screening 2, Yard of Tampere Art Museum, Tampere, Finland.
2018 Here to Disappear, Third Space, Helsinki, Finland.
2018 ArtHouse Disclosure, ArtHouse, Espoo, Finland.
2018 System & Error, Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM), Tallin, Estonia.
2018 Always First Demolition, Dispersed Holdings, New York, United States.
2017 Opdagelser 2017, Galleri Heike Arndt DK, Kettinge, Denmark.
2017 Reviewing Richter, Zbirka Richter, Zagreb, Croatia.
2017 Fresh Legs 2017, Gallery Heike Arndt DE, Berlin, Germany.
2017 Is/Not: Sculpture For the Post-Truth Era, Aalto Learning Center, Espoo, Finland.
2015 Women Communicating Across and Through Arts, Caisa, Helsinki, Finland.
ARTIST IN RESIDENCY PROGRAM
2018. ~In Waves~ Intensive residency of feminist curating at Hanaholmen – the Swedish-Finnish Culture Centre organised by Nynnyt, 2018.
2o17 Artist in residence at GuestRoomMaribor, Maribor, Slovenia.
PUBLICATIONS
2020 Article in Mustekala Magazine, ‘Arts for Equ(al)ity: Cheerleading change in the Helsinki Art Institutions’, 2020.
2020 Article published in UrbanApa blog, ‘I don’t feel free there either’, 2020.
2019 Double spread in the book “Speed of Resin”, Cooperative Editions, New York.
2018 Article published by CuMMA-Studies in Curating, Managing and Mediating Art, Notes on the Archeology of the Final Decade/ Retracing a Utopian Stage: Festival of Arts, Shiraz—Persepolis (1967-1977)
2018 Double spread in the zine “Common Ostrich”, Paranoia Publishing, Tallin, 2018.
2018 Article published in Globe Art Point Helsinki blog, Learning from the Middle East: Uninterrupted Skype session and the letter that never arrived.
2017 Article published in ViCCA Journal, Spaces of Mourning: The Cemetery of the Unquiet Graves.
2015 CUMMA PAPERS #13, Interview with Sabine Dahl Nielsen.
GRANTS & SCHOLARSHIPS
2020 Kone Foundation, 24 months working/project grant for the project NO NIIN.
2020 Taike, Arts Promotion Centre Finland, project grant for ‘Academy of Moving People & Images‘.
2019 AVEK, Training & Course Support grant for the project ‘Academy of Moving People & Images‘.
2018 Kone Foundation, 18 months working grant for the project ‘Academy of Moving People & Images‘.
2018. Taike, Arts Promotion Centre Finland, 6 months Artist grant.
2018 Aalto Art’s Department Grant for the upcoming exhibition in Myymälä2, Finland.
2017 MIUR: Ministry of Education, Universities & Research, Italy.
2016 – 2013 Dsu Toscana, Full Tuition scholarship, Florence, Italy.
2014 – 2015 Erasmus Scholarship for a full academic year in Finland.
MEMBERSHIPS
2020- Member of Kaftaar collective.
2020- Member of the steering group of the Feminist Culture House.
2017-2019 Member of Third Space Collective, Helsinki.
2017- Catalysti: Transcultural Artists in Finland.