Shirin Neshat: Land of Dreams

March 10, 2022 – July 31, 2022
The Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto

158 Sterling Rd.
Toronto ON Canada

Image courtesy of the event organizer.

Image courtesy of the event organizer.

Shirin Neshat’s first major exhibition in Canada in 20 years sees the convergence of photography and film, bringing together a range of work in one immersive experience. Stemming from her perspective as an Iranian immigrant living and working in the United States, Land of Dreams focuses on global issues of displacement, migration, and geopolitical conflict.

The exhibition brings together four bodies of work: Roja (2016), Land of Dreams (2019), Women of Allah (1993–97), and Rapture (1999). The selection, made in close collaboration with Neshat, is connected by the prominent use of black-and-white in these photographic and video compositions, and the presence of strong female protagonists. Encountered first in the exhibition, the video work Roja sets the scene for the artist’s recent exploration into dreams, and a more surrealist response to societal and political manifestations and relationships. Roja is part of a trilogy of video installations titled Dreamers and is inspired by one of Neshat’s own dreams where scenes respond to the dark undertones of uprootedness and solitary detachment that result from her choice to remain in exile since 1996.