The Veiled Voice (Madrid)

Neomudéjar Museum (Madrid)

The exhibition brings together the works of two prominent contemporary artists: Rada Akbar, an Afghan artist and activist who has taken refuge in France, and Aidan Salakhova, a multidisciplinary artist born in Azerbaijan and based in Carrara, Italy.

Rada Akbar (1988), through her photographic series “Invisible Captivity,” denounces the social laws that condemn women to invisibility in Afghanistan, imposed in the name of politics, economics, and religion. Her photographs capture women hidden under embroidered black burqas, their bodies cast and covered in fingerprint-shaped writing. Some of the texts are taken from suras of the Quran, which correspond to mandates directed at women. Others reveal magical formulas extracted from talismans, usually sealed, made by mullahs to ward off fate. By revealing the contents of these documents with their esoteric iconography, the artist transgresses a religious and social taboo, denouncing the obscurantism and fear that keep women in the roles of victims or witches.

The exhibition will also feature several pieces from the installation “Abarzanan – Superwoman,” featuring dresses dedicated to important women in Afghanistan’s history. The video “A Speech for the Deceased,” an underground performance the artist created on March 8, 2020, dedicated to the women killed in terrorist attacks, will also be screened.

Rada Akbar sees her work as a struggle to give women the visibility and identity they deserve. Since August 2021, the artist has been persecuted by the Taliban and is currently a refugee in Paris. She has been honored at the 2021 Mujerhoy Awards and chosen as one of the BBC’s 100 Women of the Year, among other accolades.

Aidan Salakhova (1964) masterfully challenges censorship and Islamic iconography through works such as “Black Stone,” which depicts the black stone of Mecca surrounded by a vaginal shape. The artist redefines Islamic iconography to explore the feminine inner world and the need to reclaim it within a universal patriarchal context. In her work, black-veiled presences are presented as the powerful personification of women in a time when the discovery of pleasure and desire through the body is the path to knowledge and freedom. The hijab, a symbol of domination but also of transcendence, acts as an intermediary that isolates women from the outside world, allowing them to embark on the path of self-knowledge and self-exploration. In a system built on codes that often ignore female desire, Salakhova proposes an inner retreat to reconsider inherited ideas and build a conscious collective existence, where the internal and the collective coexist in harmony.

Aidan Salakhova is a painter, sculptor, and graphic artist. She was also a professor at the Russian Academy of Arts. In 2002, she received the Silver Medal of the Academy of Arts of the Russian Federation. Some of her notable solo exhibitions include: “Revelations: New Work by Aidan,” Saatchi Gallery, London (2016); “Tears of Sorrow, Tears of Joy,” Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm (2016); “Fascinans & Tremendum,” MMoMA, Moscow (2012); and “Red, Project with Yves Saint Laurent,” State Center of Contemporary Art, Moscow (2007).

“The Veiled Voice” is an exhibition that challenges viewers and invites them to reflect on femininity, oppression, and liberation through the unique perspectives of Rada Akbar and Aidan Salakhova.