The fold

Abstract

"The Fold is a critical visual and psychological investigation into the enduring legacy of Orientalist and colonialist photographic practices, and the ways in which these gazes continue to shape how bodies--particularly veiled Islamic bodies--are seen, archived, and consumed. This new body of work by Iranian artist Hoda Afshar takes as its starting point the vast archive of Gaëtan Gatian de Clérambault (1872-1934), a French psychiatrist and photographer who, in the early 20th century, produced thousands of images of veiled women--and sometimes men--in Morocco. Encountered by Afshar during her research at the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac in Paris, these photographs were originally used by de Clérambault to support psychoanalytic theories around fantasy, covering, and desire, all filtered through a deeply colonial lens. For the first time in her practice, Afshar engages directly with an archival body of work. Having discovered that the museum's online archive automatically cropped the images upon downloading, in The Fold, she plays on this imbedded commentary, further mirroring, silver gelatin printing, and digital manipulating them to rupture their original intent and transform them into a space of resistance. Her interventions turn the gaze back on itself--inviting viewers to question the power dynamics embedded in the act of looking, and to confront the cultural biases projected onto the veil. This experimental book gathers more than 960 of Afshar's silver gelatin reappropriations of de Clérambault's archive, each one a gesture of reworking, refusal, and critical reflection. The Fold includes essays by Ali Behdad and Annabelle Lacour, a conversation between Taous Dahmani and the artist, and is published to accompany Afshar's solo exhibition Hoda Afshar. Performer l'invisible, at the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac (30/9/2025 - 25/1/2026)." -- Provided by publisher.