Elham Rahmati
b. 1989, TehranElham is a visual artist and independent 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), an independent film school in Helsinki. Prior to that, she worked as a curator at Third Space. 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.
Featured
NO NIIN Magazine
2021 — ongoing
NO NIIN is an online magazine at the Cusp of art, criticality and love. NO NIIN absorbs the disruptive sparks emerging from the intersectional art and culture environs that counter the status quo, aspiring to develop them as springboards for new ways of thinking and working towards hope, liberation, and building transnational, feminist and anti-imperialist solidarities.
Academy of Moving People & Images (AMPI)
2019 — 2020
Academy of Moving People and Images is a platform in Helsinki for mobile people - those who have arrived in Finland for different reasons, be they immigrants, asylum seekers, students, or employees. We aimed to design a new learning model and a sustainable pedagogical platform where people who have arrived in Finland from different backgrounds get to contribute to the film industry, and initiate change.
Artistic
Under the Pretence of Hope
2024
The ongoing project ‘Under the Pretense of Hope’ explores visual representations of people in protest. When we think about bodies together and what holds them there, what images come to mind?
If These Walls Could Talk
2019
The work ‘If These Walls Could Talk’, lists a series of articles and asks what binds all of them together despite their content: the image of Iranian people, often women in chador, walking by the iconic anti-US murals of the US embassy in Tehran. The stagnance and toxicity of these stock photos go hand in hand with the narrative shaped by countless stories of US vs. Iran relations published predominantly in Western media over the years.
Holding a Monument
2017
Holding a Monument, tackles the issues of memory and its relevance in the present moment. What does that political past mean today and what can one do with it? In other words, the question is – What are the fruits of revolutions?
Only the Dead Have Seen the End of Rivers
2017
‘Only the Dead Have Seen the End of Rivers’ examines the economics, politics, and poetics of the loss of rivers and subsequently the sociopolitical processes through which one can restore/re-imagine them.
It Seemed the Better Way
2017
It is possible to rethink our perceptions of ‘objects’ or ‘subjects’ and what they mean and the functions that get assigned to each one, objects aren’t necessarily passive; they’re materialization of processes that are constantly undergoing transformation and being redefined. So all matter is alive and in process: a complex, interwoven web of materials, all affecting each other, competing, forming alliances, initiating new processes and dissipating others. Humans are unavoidably trapped in these webs.
Not Only Will I Stare, I Want My Look to Change Reality
2015 — 2017
“There is power in looking; the gaze has been and is a site of resistance.”
Intersectional Selves
2011 — 2012
In the painting series 'Intersectional Selves' employs ‘self-portraiture’ as a tool that encompasses many forms, from embodied and participatory practices to disembodied and abstract data.
Curatorial
HIAHTUS25
2024
Haihatus Art Center’s 25th Anniversary Fine Arts Summer Exhibition HAIHATUS25 hosts works in various mediums and genres by contemporary artists in Finland and internationally. Haihatus Art Centre, located in the municipality of Joutsa in Central Finland, celebrates its long history of inviting artists from different backgrounds and practices.
Fragmented Fronts
2022
The artists of ‘Fragmented Fronts’ connect geographies with stories lived or imagined; challenge our perception of identity and tradition through feminine practises of storytelling; offer poignant reflections on notions of desire, emotional depth, and complexities of healing and unlearning in the absence of representation and community; and explore issues and ideas spanning broad spectrums of social life: from race and class to social memory and interpersonal dynamics.
Expert jury - Raimo Utriainen Art Foundation
2022 — 2023
I worked as Raimo Utriainen Art Foundation’s expert jury member, in 2022 pairing with Katie Lenanton and in 2023 with Nimco Kulmie Hussein. The expert jury was tasked with selecting the recipients of the Raimo Utriainen Award for the Young Sculptor of the year. In 2022, the award was given to Man Yau and in 2023 to Mariam Falaileh.
Supporting Curator - Helsinki International Artist Programme (HIAP)
2021
In 2021, I was invited to work as one of HIAP’s supporting curators of the year, as well as a jury member to select the year’s upcoming residents. We had the chance to meet and have conversations with artists, writers and filmmakers such as E. L. Karhu, Freja Bäckman, Jessie Bullivant, Laura Hyppönen, Lucila Mayol, Shayma Nader, Michaela Casková, Minou Norouzi and Néstor García.
Participating Curator - Juxtapose Art Fair’s Nordic Visiting Curators Programme
2021
How can we reimagine the role of curators in this field? What kinds of resources can curators offer artist-run projects? What opportunities arise when we connect different actors within the art world?
NO NIIN Listening Session: Golrokh Nafisi & Jyotsna Siddharth
2021
The listening session offered an insightful engagement into the practices of Golrokh Nafisi and Jyotsna Siddharth, and how they intermingle their politics with matters of love, work, artistic practice in both domestic and transnational spaces – envisioning a community that can come together to barter the contractual and conditional with access and existence.
Stories From the Sea, Stories From the City
2020
Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea explores seven international artists' varied, inventive approaches to storytelling. It does so by prioritizing narration - the manifold ways stories can be told. Encompassing painting, printmaking, sculpture, installation, and film, the works unpick conventional narrative approaches to communicate ideas about myths, memory, and everyday experiences, among other themes, investing both abstract and representational forms with narrative content.
Academy of Moving People & Images (AMPI)
2019 — 2020
Academy of Moving People and Images is a platform in Helsinki for mobile people - those who have arrived in Finland for different reasons, be they immigrants, asylum seekers, students, or employees. We aimed to design a new learning model and a sustainable pedagogical platform where people who have arrived in Finland from different backgrounds get to contribute to the film industry, and initiate change.
Academy of Moving People & Image Graduate Screening
2020
Academy of Moving People & Images had its first public graduate screening on Monday, January 20th, 2020 at Bio Rex. The event was organized with the collaboration of the Amos Rex Museum and Goethe-Institut Finnland.
Academy of Moving People & Image AMPI+ Advanced Workshops
2019
AMPI+ Workshops were designed to provide advanced training for the Academy of Moving People and Images (AMPI) alums and other filmmakers from diverse backgrounds with prior filmmaking experience. All of the AMPI+ intensive workshops were hands-on, tailored according to participants’ wishes and needs, and facilitated by expert tutors and industry professionals.
Academy of Moving People & Images Test Workshop
2018
In June 2018, with the support and collaboration of Perpetuum Mobile (PM), the Goethe-Institut Finland and Taike, the Academy of Moving People & Images put a fee-free filmmaking test-workshop into practice. The workshop was conceived as a hands-on course for three mobile participants: Helena Aleksandrova, Ramina Habibollah and Samra Šabanović. At the end of the workshop, they made their own short films and performed all essential roles in each other’s films, under the guidance of local film industry professionals.
Third Space
2017 — 2019
Third Space was a cross-border transcultural collective that sought to erase the invisible lines that separate us. The collective identity and goals of Third Space were shaped by diverse geopolitical views and backgrounds. We aimed to observe from both ‘the outside in’ and ‘the inside out’ to create new ways of understanding what marginal and central are in Finnish society and how to bridge them through dialogue. Third Space emerged as a response to the Finnish art scene's lack of inclusivity and diversity. Inclusivity is not a fixed concept but a changing one. Our role is to identify its different forms and to respond to them.
Editorial
NO NIIN Magazine
2021 — ongoing
NO NIIN is an online magazine at the Cusp of art, criticality and love. NO NIIN absorbs the disruptive sparks emerging from the intersectional art and culture environs that counter the status quo, aspiring to develop them as springboards for new ways of thinking and working towards hope, liberation, and building transnational, feminist and anti-imperialist solidarities.
NO NIIN Volume 3: Representation of Disobedient Bodies
2024
In 2023, NO NIIN published six online issues with over 120 contributions from writers and artists based in Finland and internationally. ‘NO NIIN Volume 3: Representation of Disobedient Bodies’, includes Elham Rahmati and Vidha Saumya’s editorial picks of these contributions.
NO NIIN Volume 2: Long Before Justice
2023
In 2022, NO NIIN published eight online issues with over 150 contributions from writers and artists based in Finland and internationally. ‘NO NIIN Volume 2: Long Before Justice’, includes Elham Rahmati and Vidha Saumya’s editorial picks of these contributions.
NO NIIN Volume 1: Imagined Collectivities
2022
In 2021, NO NIIN published eight issues with over 150 contributions from writers and artists based in Finland and internationally. In NO NIIN Volume 1: Imagined Collectivities, editors Elham Rahmati and Vidha Saumya have compiled 57 contributions, featuring editorials, essays, reviews, interviews and artworks.
Text
Where We Are Now Is Laying the Groundwork For What Is to Come
2024
Where we are now and who we are becoming is laying the groundwork for what is to come, and what is to come is an all-encompassing will to collectively learn from and imagine alternative ways of conceiving active ‘by any means’ resistance that liberates us from every form of oppression that is perceived as ineradicable. We’ll come to see, without a doubt, in our lifetime, a free Palestine, from the river to the sea. – Editorial for NO NIIN Issue 23: Disrupting Rhetoric, Defining Tenor
A Busy Revolution or a Real One
2022
I want us to reflect on our positions as people, especially if that is a position of the majority, one that has historically oppressed minorities on the grounds of their ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and class. If you ask Kurds not to speak their language at the protest in the name of ‘unity’, you are part of the problem. If you ask a queer person not to bring their flag to the protest in the name of ‘unity’, then you are part of the problem. Solidarities and connections can’t emerge between various migrant, diasporic, and transnational communities without acknowledging the exerted powers on our behalf. –Editorial for NO NIIN Issue 15: Where There Is Trouble, There Is Agency
I promise I won’t get all political
2022
As I’m writing this editorial, I can’t think about anything other than Jina Amini and what is taking place in the streets of Iran. Vidha assures me, “When reading an editorial, I am not reading you as you now, but you as a composite of your experiences, your politicality, and your views that are constantly updating and revising. –Editorial for NO NIIN Issue 13: Toolkits of Resistance
The Noble Pursuit of Promoting That Which Is Not Mine
2022
It’s been quite a disappointing revelation to us to see the art workers in this scene show such little active engagement with other artistic practices that are not theirs. What we’ve received plenty of is artists asking-in some instances, demanding that we find someone to review their show, or have an interview with them, even if they themselves refuse to dedicate their time to doing the same for another artist. –Editorial for NO NIIN Issue 9: The Unsettling of Institutions
It’s About Power! It’s About Drive!
2022
After a few conversations, it was clear to me that nobody really seems to know what they're pushing for entails: economically strangling ordinary people who are already oppressed by an authoritarian state, strengthening the state's grip on power and the economy, causing a massive surge in corruption and inequality; brutally isolating the ordinary people from the Western world and its mainly stolen resources. It seems all the academic degrees in the world can't help our lovely "progressives" get a grasp on imperialism and colonialism and the many cunning forms they may take. –Editorial for NO NIIN Issue 9: This Dream of Liberation
I Don’t Know Who Needs to Hear This, But:
2021
ReflectIng on difficult challenges alongside moments of immense joy in NO NIIN’s first year of publishing. –Editorial for NO NIIN Issue 8: Embracing Doubt
So Many Dreams, So Little Imagination
2021
On imagining principles and actions that would help us level the field from the ground up. –Editorial for NO NIIN Issue 6: Diaspora Mixtapes
Good and Bad, I Define These Terms, Quite Clear, No doubt, Somehow
2021
To us, sharing lived experiences is crucial as it contributes in many ways to the arduous–at times hopeless–dream of building communities, reclaiming spaces that bring us together, and within them, sharing tools and ideas on how to resist oppression, whether online or in person. What is of great value to us is our personal journeys in understanding the interconnectedness of our struggles, our common ground and making space for the different roles and capacities with which we afford to partake in a movement or a community. –Editorial for NO NIIN Issue 5: Our Efforts To Show Solidarity
What Is an Adult Problem That Nobody Prepared You For?
2021
We write "Call for Action" letters to fight against things we're suffering from, be it climate change, racism, or Israeli apartheid. We address those letters to individuals instead of institutions and governing bodies with actual power and control over these issues. We are disappointed in these bodies, so we put the burden on our own, becoming unpaid agents of Neoliberalism, unwillingly and unknowingly. An adult problem that nobody prepared you for. –Editorial for NO NIIN Issue 4: Imagined Collectivities
To Forgive Our Aunties and Their Misguided Yet Well-Meant Advice
2021
Reflective essay on the timeliness of advice towards idealistic art careers. –Editorial for NO NIIN Issue 2: Finding Forms to Recognize Warmth
“Ag bai hungama chhaye re” - Oh woman, let it get messy
2021
I wish to find a way for myself to understand how artistic exchange can operate as an avenue for navigating immediate crises, precarious lifework, and unstable futures. –Editorial for 'NO NIIN Issue 1: This Joyous Hospitality'
You Need to Start to Listen to Us
2023
Article in Annual Review of Public Art 2023, You Need to Start to Listen to Us, published by Arts Promotion Centre Finland, 2023
Finding Your Way Out of Chinatown: A Proposal to Reimagine Film Theory Education Curriculums Through a Post-colonial, Feminist and Anti-imperialist Lens
2021
Master’s Thesis in the Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Art program of Aalto University.
Arts for Equ(al)ity: Cheerleading Change in the Helsinki Art Institutions
2020
A review of the Helsinki Art Institutions for Equality (AFE) is an initiative, originally launched in 2017 and facilitated by artist Terike Haapoja in collaboration with artist Tellervo Kalleinen, choreographer Sonya Lindfors and curator Taru Elfving.
Notes on the Archeology of the Final Decade Retracing a Utopian Stage: Festival of Arts, Shiraz—Persepolis (1967-1977)
2017
When our present is troubled, our first reaction might be to satisfy the urge to look at history through fragments that help us construct a nostalgic and dignified image of the past. If we become aware of our imprisonment inside this circle of false consciousness, then there is a possibility for liberation. However, I would like to remember that propaganda is sometimes true, and that even a voided interpretation is but one interpretation. Sometimes wading through the void can reveal a pathway to the truth.
The Cemetery of Unquiet Graves
2017
Here we are being conditioned to think of the broken thing as being invalid or obsolete, but how to leave the breakage intact and yet at the same time transform it into something that not only doesn’t erase its past but resurfaces it—without hiding the damage?
Talks & Teaching
Lecturer, Thinking With Women Filmmakers of the “Global South”, Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki
2024
In this course, we view Films as Philosophy and in relation to contemporary politics and culture. Films themselves are the primary texts, studied in relation to theoretical writings.
Keynote speaker, Information Distribution: Samizdat, Podcasts, Social Media as Educational Means, Fortochka Project
2024
Vidha Saumya and I joined Fortochka project's online programme, a session on Information Distribution: Samizdat, Podcasts, Social Media as Educational Means. The engagement primarily focused on sharing our experience in starting and managing a magazine from scratch, developing a compelling agenda, working with diverse global communities, and crafting campaigns that promote internationalist solidarities.
Art lecture & Conversation at SouthNord x Kulturhuset Artfest 2023
2023
Lecture by NO NIIN editors Elham Rahmati and Vidha Saumya. Subsequent conversation with Andrea Davis Kronlund as part of SouthNord x Kulturhuset Artfest.
Lecturer, Grant Writing for Artworkers, Aalto University, Helsinki
2024
In this introductory course, Elham will address the elements of grant applications applicable to artists, writers, and other creative professionals.
Lecturer, Writing a Personal Essay Together, Aalto University, Helsinki
2023 — 2024
Rooted in curiosity and the desire to grasp the nuanced and multidimensional art scenes, the essays will be reflective of the theoretical and poetic impact of art on human thought and society, and vice versa. In these sessions, we work on writing a personal essay together. Students will receive a reading pack ahead of the first session. Then we go over the reading material and analyze them in terms of learning what it means to write short personal essays, and then find possible ways to structure essays (narrative essay, flash essay, fragmented essay, etc). Students get to share their writings in progress in small groups and get individual time with the lecturer to discuss questions and concerns, what worked and what didn’t during the writing process.
Panel discussion, Global Entanglements–Politics of Curating in the Time of Multiple Crises, Stop Hatred Now
2023
PANEL + Q&A | Global Entanglements – Politics of Curating in the Time of Multiple Crises host Elham Rahmati, panelists Abdullah Qureshi, Sean Lee & Liisa-Rávná Finbog ENG
Lecturer, Conducting Critical Artist Interviews, The Academy of Fine Arts & Aalto University
2022 — 2023
This workshop aims to provide artists, curators, educators, and other arts professionals at all stages of their careers with a greater understanding of the methods and skills needed to conduct meaningful artist interviews.
Inside the Digital Spaces: Art & Audiences, Mad House Helsinki
2022
What kinds of skills, professionalism and resources like funding are needed to make an online art publication happen? What kind of challenges does online publishing face? How to reach audiences? Speakers: Rile*, Liikekieli.com, NO NIIN and Zelda.
Talk, Academy of Moving People & Images’ at MMC Kibla held by the Association X-OP
2020
Lecture and screening of short films, an event performed in collaboration with the Academy of Moving People and Images (AMPI) from Helsinki, Finland.
Artist Talk, My Friend is Here: Rethinking Feminist Collectivity in Troubled Times, A Gathering and Public Programme at Konsthall C
2021
Elham Rahmati and Vidha Saumya introduce their newly established platform ‘NO NIIN’ which is an independent online monthly magazine at the cusp of art, criticality and love. NO NIIN aims to publish rigorous and engaging writing on current ideas, debates, and disputes around contemporary art and culture. It functions as a platform for commissioning writers of any background to express their thoughts in the form of essays, reviews, interviews, art, poetry, short fiction, podcasts, and playlists. What is NO NIIN and why did we choose to do this? How are we maintaining a space of genuine transparency and accountability within NONIIN? We will focus on these topics and issues, which run across our practice: contracts, conflict resolution mechanisms, where did all the money go? and causes of sleepless nights.
Panel discussion, There is no single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issued lives, Stop Hatred Now
2022
DISCUSSION | There is no single-issue struggle because we do not live single issued lives - Moderated by Maryan Abdulkarim, speakers Elham Rahmati, Majed Abusalama & Boodi Kabbani
UA Talks Podcast 3: NO NIIN Publication; Building A New Platform; Love.
2021
What is the art publication NO NIIN? How to start a new platform and how to work with friends? What has love got to do with art? Guests: Artists and founders/editors of NO NIIN, Elham Rahmati & Vidha Saumya. The talk is hosted by Olga Palo.
Lecturer, Thinking With/From the Global South's Women Filmmakers, Aalto University, Helsinki
2021
"Thinking With/From the Global South's Women Filmmakers": This course is for anyone interested in learning from women's films produced in South Asia, Southwest Asia, and North Africa. Together we will watch and analyse films' aesthetics, the institutional context of production, global circulation, and situate them within a larger theoretical framework to help us find an answer to this question: why haven't we heard of these filmmakers already? This class critically examines the role of films in shaping our sense of global, national, and local cultures and identities. The film examples explored range from cult masterpieces to more popular mainstream works. During the course, we will watch films together, talk about them in class, and, as a primary assignment, students will write their reviews in relation to the films discussed and screened.
Guest Lecturer, On publishing NO NIIN, NODE Centre Berlin and Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki
2021
Elham Rahmati and Vidha Saumya will introduce their newly established platform ‘NO NIIN’ which is an independent online monthly magazine at the cusp of art, criticality and love. NO NIIN aims to publish rigorous and engaging writing on current ideas, debates, and disputes around contemporary art and culture. It functions as a platform for commissioning writers of any background to express their thoughts in the form of essays, reviews, interviews, art, poetry, short fiction, podcasts, and playlists. What is NO NIIN and why did we choose to do this? How are we maintaining a space of genuine transparency and accountability within NONIIN? We will focus on these topics and issues, which run across our practice: contracts, conflict resolution mechanisms, where did all the money go? and causes of sleepless nights.
Speaker, Internationalization Webinar Program, Jyväskylä Art Museum
2021
Speaker at Jyväskylä Art Museum Webinar for artists about international art field.
PUPLICS Talk: Academy of Moving People & Images
2019
As a continuation of PUBLICS Parahosting Program, PUBLICS has been sharing its space with the Academy of Moving People & Images over the last few months for film-making. This event will provide a moment to reflect upon and to discuss what they have been doing.
Thursday Talk at MAA: Academy of Moving People & Images
2019
Academy of Moving People and Images is a platform in Helsinki for mobile people - those who have arrived in Finland for different reasons, be they immigrants, asylum seekers, students, or employees. Academy's aim is to design a new learning model and a sustainable pedagogical platform where people who have arrived in Finland from different backgrounds get to contribute to the film industry, and initiate change. On April 4th, Erol Mintas, the founder and artistic director, and Elham Rahmati, the curator and producer of AMPI will give a short introductory talk about AMPI's mission and its upcoming program for the year 2019.
GuestRoom Maribor - Meet The Resident: Elham Rahmati
2017
Artist talk about the project 'It seemed the better way' which was produced and exhibited in K18 Gallery in Maribor.
Co-lecturer, Authorship & Agency: Learning from the Middle East, Aalto University, Helsinki
2017
The course 'Authorship & Agency: Learning from the Middle East' took place in 2017 at the Visual Culture & Contemporary Art (ViCCA) program at Aalto University. I co-curated the course along with the director of the program, Max Ryynänen. The aim was to learn from interesting artists and thinkers and pioneering cultural formations and to build new philosophical and artistic bridges to the area, its diaspora, and echoes. A number of artists from and based in the Middle East/South Asia were invited to join us from Iran, Syria, Pakistan, etc, either in person, via Skype or letters.
Press
Kriittisen gallerian näyttelyssä käydään vastarintaan piirroksen keinoin
2024
A review of the exhibition 'I Appear to Others, They Appear to Me' in Turun Sanomat.
ISONRO: NO NIIN ohjaa katsomaan maailmaa kriittisesti
2024
A short feature about NO NIIN Magazine in the ISONRO magazine.
Interview with Journalisti: No niin tekee juttuja, joiden pitää kantaa myös viiden vuoden päästä
2024
On the stone floor of an apartment building, in the inner city of Helsinki, there is a small office. There is room for a table, coat rack, three office chairs and a stack of cardboard boxes.This is where the monthly publication No niin is born. It is an English-language online magazine founded in 2021, dealing with contemporary art with a social touch. Well, it publishes essays, reviews and interviews, but also research articles and poems and short stories. Once a year, the contents are compiled into a magazine publication.
Interview with Niin & Näin: ”Kritiikki edellyttää rakkautta ja huolenpitoa” – Haastattelussa NO NIIN -lehden Elham Rahmati ja Vidha Saumya
2022
Helsingin Sanomat - Exhibition recommendation
2022
The Helsingin Sanomat editor recommends |Fine art critic Sini Mononen's advice on where to go on a weekend exhibition tour.
Maailman Kuvalehti: Saako äiti tuntea nautintoa? Iranilaistaustaiset kuvataiteilijat pohtivat näyttelyssään naisvartaloa sekä katsetta poliittisena voimana
2022
About the exhibition 'Coming Together' held at Stoa Gallery in 2022 with artist Sepideh Rahaa.
Designmuseo yhteistyökumppanina uudessa elokuva-akatemiassa
2019
Interview featured in Design Museum Helsinki’s website about the Academy of Moving People & Images.
Interview featured in Svenska YLE: Nygrundade Akademin för rörliga människor och bilder ska se till att nyinflyttade till Finland får berätta sina egna historier
2919
An article on the Academy of Moving People & Images.
Academy of Moving People and Images: Diversität für die finnische Filmszene
2019
Interview featured in Goethe Institut Finnland’s website
Academy of Moving People & Images is seeking new storytellers
2019
Interview featured in the Kone Foundation’s website.
"Jag vill undersöka både priset och frukterna av en revolution" - Elham Rahmati gör konst av sin familjs politiska historia
2018
An interview with Svenska Yle on the occasion of the exhibition 'Holding a Monument' at Myymälä2 gallery in Helsinki.