Exiles, Wars, and Creations

The project "Exile, War, and Creation: Images of Resistance in the Service of History" will be carried out by the research group Arts, Media, Exiles (AME), affiliated with the Institute for Research on Cinema and Audiovisual (IRCAV) at Sorbonne Nouvelle. This project will examine the impact and power of media, artistic, and cinematic images created in the midst of historical conflicts, while also supporting ongoing creations. It will revolve around three action areas aimed at better understanding and valuing artistic production as a form of knowledge and "counter-analysis of society" (Ferro, 1973):

1. Presentation by visual artist and filmmaker Parya Vatankhah of a series of performances and personal lectures, exploring various ways to represent, through media, amateur, and artistic images, the repression, war, and exile in the engaged works of Iranian artists.
2. Organization of a retrospective of student films in partnership with Ukrainian film schools, a country affected by armed conflict, aimed at examining the narrative, aesthetic, technical, and production particularities of cinematic works in times of war.
3. Creation of a series of filmed portraits of artists (filmmakers, videographers, illustrators) in exile in France, highlighting their journeys and the specificities of their work in the face of exile and war.

Project led by

• Kateryna Lobodenko, PhD in Film Studies, Associate Researcher at IRCAV.

Project team

• Matthias STEINLE, (IRCAV/Sorbonne Nouvelle), co-leader of the project.
• Anthony BLANC, (IRCAV/Sorbonne Nouvelle).
• Danilo SANNELLI (IRCAV/Sorbonne Nouvelle/Université de Udine).
• Guglielmo SCAFIRIMUTO (IRCAV/Sorbonne Nouvelle)
• Parya VATANKHAH (EPHA/Université Paris 8), co-leader of the project.

• Study Day and Video Art Projection | 2 October, 2025
 Displaced Presences: Uprooting and Memory in Visual Arts and Iranian Cinema in Exile 
→See the programme

• An Evening Honoring the Courage of the Iranian People | 26 February, 2026
Oppressed Voices: Massacres, Censorship, and Resistance in Iran
→ See the programme

• Film screening and discussion series | From 20 March to 10 April 2026
Documenting multicultural Paris: contrasting perspectives on screen
→ See the programme (FR)