Official Site
Category
ArtistsAbout This Project
About Dam and Hofit (2022)
About Dam and Hofit is a short animation about the forbidden friendship between Dam, the tip of Mount Damavand in Iran, and Hofit, an intelligence air force plane from Israel. An unexpected encounter dares the two to imagine a different narrative for their realities. Since the Islamic revolution of Iran in 1979, Iran and Israel have canceled diplomatic ties, both governments have sworn to attack one another as soon as the opportunity arises, and any relationship between an Iranian and an Israeli is banned. Only in a distant and neutral place can the possibility of an encounter exist. The two critical artists and filmmakers Leila Zelli (from Iran, based in Montreal, Canada) and Gali Blay (from Israel, based in Berlin, Germany) have decided to oppose this narrative of fear and rivalry created by the governments of Israel and Iran and produce the work About Dam and Hofit. In April 2019, while being aware of the risks and barriers in a possible collaboration between an Iranian and an Israeli artist, Zelli and Blay agreed to cross the lines and jump over the political rules they grew up with. Their collaboration has the possibility of an immense impact and to set an example for the future, and their friendship provides a potential for change that can come from ordinary people and instead of current political situations. The script is inspired and conducted from daily conversations between Zelli and Blay, the questions they dared to ask each other and the trust in the friendship they have developed. These meetings took place digitally for two years since the outbreak of COVID-19.
Bio:
Born in Tehran (Iran), Leila Zelli lives and works in Montréal. She holds an MFA (2020) and a BFA (2016) in Visual and Media Arts from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). Zelli is interested in the relationships we have with the ideas of “others” and “elsewhere,” and more specifically those at the heart of the geopolitical space often referred to by the questionable term “Middle East.” Zelli creates in-situ digital installations using existing images, videos and texts often found on the Internet and on social media. The resulting visual and sound experiences create an opportunity to reflect on the state of the world, the relationship with the Other and the concrete effects of our actions on humanity. Her work has, among others, been presented at the Conseil des arts de Montréal (2019-2020), at the Galerie de l’UQAM (2020, 2019, 2015) and at the Foire en art actuel de Québec (2019). Her creations are part of the collection of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art, the National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec, the Musée d’art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. She is the 2021 laureate of the Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art. She is represented by Pierre-François Ouellette Art Contemporain.
Born in New York (US) in 1986, raised in Israel and currently based in Berlin (Germany), Gali Blay holds a BFA in Photography from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem and an MFA (cum laude) in Social Design from the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Gali’s animations have been screened and exhibited at venues and events such as Jerusalem Design Week, Jerusalem (2019); Wall Street Gallery, Eindhoven, NL (2018); Boston Underground Film Festival, Boston, USA (2018); Experimental Forum (with Honourable Mention for “The Desert Ark”), Los Angeles, USA (2017); Print Screen Festival, Tel-Aviv, IL (2017); Tijdelijk Museum Bijlmerbajes, Amsterdam, NL (2017); Bogoshorts Film Festival, Bogota, CO (2017); Salone Del Mobile, Milan, IT (2017); and Fresh Paint, Tel Aviv, IL (2014). She has also worked in the art department of films such as Winston Sugar (Wes Anderson), Asteroid City (Wes Anderson), the Matrix Resurrections (Lana Wachowski), and more.
