The present exhibition is the outcome of my encounters over thirteen years of cultural practice with artists who have always been a source of inspiration to me. My relationship with some of them has gone beyond mere collaboration; others are companions of the present moment, while a few remain in my mind and aspirations, awaiting the chance for a future collaboration.
The exhibition takes its title from Jean-Luc Godard’s last film, Phony Wars. Meeting him during my youth, later working alongside him, recalling his ideas, and finally witnessing his death through assisted dying left a profound impact on me. In this film, Godard returned once again to his enduring question: “the fragile boundary between reality and image.” Reflecting on this very question initiated the idea of this exhibition.
The thread weaving this exhibition together is what I call affinity. To me, affinity is neither conventional intimacy nor simple collaboration; rather, it is a form of “elective fusion,” unburdened by prior expectations—a deep and intrinsic bond that takes shape without a script, always dynamic, and driven by movement in praise of complexity, where desire and longing coexist.
This affinity is not an idealistic fantasy but a solid principle grounded in the distances, a spiritual connection between myself and these artists, a state akin to the coexistence of light and shadow, where clarity and ambiguity are acknowledged, and meaning is found in the candid moments of shared discourse.
Within this scope of affinity, there are artists not present in this exhibition whose companionship has nonetheless been a driving force for our institution. Despite all obstacles, creative and inspiring relationships have persisted, and they have consistently supported us as a private and independent museum. These artists—whether present or absent—may not appear to follow the same path as each other or as us, yet each, in their own way, has profoundly influenced me, and through their friendship and companionship, have always propelled us forward.
Bringing these works together is therefore less about presenting a single definition or unified reflection, and more about opening a space for dialogues, influences, projects, and memories that dwell within us—memories that, through language and artistic creation, may continually be reimagined without the need for an absolute conclusion.
This exhibition is not a linear narrative of the past, but rather an in-between space where past and future transform into living memories; memories that are not fixed but act as signs and thresholds between what has been and what is still possible—a gestalt of time lost and time regained. These signs do not move as one; they embrace dissonance and contradiction between people, moments, and eras, in order to play a meaningful role within the ever-changing structure of contemporary culture.
The exhibition is as much the product of cultural, national, and ideological multiplicities as it is the reflection of the inner multiplicities within each of us—a diversity that inevitably takes shape in the dialectical encounter between “you” and “me,” “artist” and “visitor.” These perspectives may never fully align (and perhaps it is better that they do not), for it is precisely in this gap that a profound and meaningful dialogue emerges.
Phony Wars is not arranged according to a predetermined order; it unfolds improvisationally, opening up a world of ideas and responses before us—a world where thought can be set in motion from stillness, and silence can turn into conversation.
Ultimately, what you will find here is not the conclusion of a chapter but its continuation: an unfinished, living dialogue that moves forward through the companionship, memories, and restless vitality of words and images shared between us and the artists—perhaps the beginning of a new chapter.

Hamidreza Pejman

Artists:
Jean-Luc Godard
Newsha Tavakolian
Nazgol Ansarinia
Meriem Bennani
Tala Madani
Neil Beloufa
Slavs and Tartars
Lawrence Abu Hamdan
Reza Aramesh
Anne Imhof
Cinema-ye Azad (Archival Research Project)