Amanullah Mojadidi

Born to lineages of Sufi mystics and moderniser kings, I am an Afghan-bred, American-born seeker and conceptual artist with degrees in Cultural Anthropology. My creative practice to date has utilised an experimental ethnographic approach, combining qualitative research, traditional storytelling, postmodern narrative strategies, and mixed-media artworks (often site-specific installations) to approach themes such as belonging, identity politics, conflict, artifactual history, and migration; intentionally blurring and merging the lines between fact and fiction, documentation and imagination.

My work has been exhibited internationally including the Imperial War Museum-London, Times Square, NYC, Images Biennale-Roskilde, Dhaka Art Summit, 12th Havana Biennale, 3rd Asia Triennial Manchester, 1st Kochi/Muziris Biennale, and dOCUMENTA (13). In 2012, I was selected as a TED Fellow for the subversively critical nature of my artistic practice while living in Kabul, Afghanistan.

For the last several years, I have been on a path connecting more deeply with my authentic self, ancestral roots, emotional core, and physical body through the use of various shamanic voyage rituals and different forms of modified consciousness techniques including chanting, meditation, drumming, breathwork, bodywork, music, dance, and plant medicines. This has led to a search for an “emotional” rather than “intellectual” truth in my artistic work, becoming less interested in the intellectualisation of creation, but more in “feeling” (at core emotional and spiritual levels) my way through the creative process.

Grantee Information

Website(s): http://www.amanmojadidi.com
Year(s) Awarded: 2010, 2022

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