Sight Unseen: Video from Afghanistan and Iran

Sight Unseen showcases rarely seen video works from Afghanistan and Iran. The exhibition features Afghan artist Rahraw Omarzad and Iranian artist Seifollah Samadian in a show that explores new artistic media and expression emerging from the Muslim world.

Omarzad played a key role in the establishment of the Center for Contemporary Art Afghanistan (CCAA). He is one of Afghanistan's first avant-garde video artists and is an important figure in the young Kabul art scene. "This film focuses on one of the principle debates about Afghan women, and it invites the viewer to think about logical solutions," Omarzad said of The Third One, one of the films presented in Sight Unseen."In this film I start from yesterday and bring in a touch of today."

Samadian, a highly acclaimed cinematographer, art director, and photographer, has worked with directors such as Martin Scorsese and Abbas Kiarostami. Samadian came to the forefront of contemporary Iranian video art during the Iran-Iraq war with his evocative work. "The film is shot from my high-rise apartment building in Tehran," commented Samadian of his piece, The White Station. "It is an austere poetic statement, a filmic haiku which focuses on a lone woman in black chador in an unprecedented snowstorm that covers Tehran."