neo-dia

With Iranian heritage, he considers himself part of a neo-diaspora. The addition of “neo” suggests something beyond being a second or third generation migrant or speaking about the circumstances of moving from the margins into the metropolis. For Abbas, neo-diaspora echoes out of the ever-growing, entangled landscape of multiple identities and places of belonging. It becomes a complex process of survival. This dilemma could be pictured as a suffering reality, however Zahedi sees it as an opportunity to map out a fugitive existence (X axis as “fugitivity factor”) against the Y axis of the Fine Art canon.

Source: Louise GholamMaya Gulieva, Content Free, 2020