Postrevolutionary Retrojection: Azadeh Akhlaghi Stages 17 Deaths in Iran

Abstract

In By an Eye-Witness (2013), conceptual artist Azadeh Akhlaghi restaged the deaths of iconic 20th-century Iranian reformists and revolutionaries before a camera. With its microhistorical approach, the work masterfully offers insight into how we might bridge narrative gaps in lieu of erasing them. The series posits history as a memory always constructed as such, and shows how changing the archive amounts to changing the future.