LEILA ZELLI (with Gali Blay)
About Dam and Hofit, 2022
animation
18 min 56 seconds
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 divergent realities.
The animation is a collaboration between two women, Leila Zelli, an Iranian Canadian visual artist based in Montreal, and Gali Blay, and Israeli filmmaker based in Berlin, Germany. Aware of the risks and barriers of collaborating, they decided to oppose the narrative of fear and rivalry embedded in the political context in which they grew up to co-create a story about an unlikely friendship. They state, “our friendship sets an example for a change that can come from ordinary people and not necessarily from the political situation.”
Since the Islamic revolution of Iran in 1979, Iran and Israel have canceled their diplomatic ties. Both governments have sworn to attack one another as soon as the opportunity arises, as current events have demonstrated. Relationships between Iranian and Israeli citizens are banned. Zelli and Blay’s collaborative relationship is only possible when living outside their native countries, in distant and neutral places.
The script is inspired by the artist’s daily virtual conversations, the questions they dared to ask each other and the trusting friendship they developed over two years during the initial outbreak of the global pandemic. About Dam and Hofit shares a fictional story that reflects the artist’s lived experiences in which a peaceful generative encounter can exist.
Leila Zelli
Why should I stop?, 2020-2021
HD video
4 min 56 seconds
Leila Zelli’s multi-media practice addresses the relationship that we have with notions of “others” and “elsewhere.” She creates installations that include drawings and use existing images, videos, and texts often found on the Internet. Zelli’s practice reflects her lived experience as part of the Iranian Diasporic community.
Why should I stop? was originally conceived for the exhibition Quelque part, autrement (2020-2021) at the Galerie de l’UQÀM and showed at the 2024 Toronto Biennale. It pays tribute to the strength and resilience of a group of Iranian women who have defied the ban on practicing a traditional form of athletics called Varzesh-e Bâstâni. Following the Iranian government's decision to ban women from practicing Varzesh-e Bâstâni in public, many Iranian women turned to social media to post images of themselves practicing this ancient sport, traditionally reserved for men. Made directly evident in the title of the work, Why should I stop?, Zelli herself defies this gender ban by further publicizing videos taken from an Instagram account dedicated to the women who refuse to stop practicing this sport. Her looped montage emphasizes the courage and tenacity of these athletes in the face of adversity.
The presence of several young girls clearly suggests that women's resistance in Iran will continue, and that they are not about to stop. The sound of women and girls performing the action along with a song by a classically trained singer from Tehran, Iran, Maryam Akhondy's ‘Zoorkhaneh’, unite the women’s movements and their collective resistance.
Artist Biographies
Gali Blay was born in New York in 1986, raised in Israel and currently based in Berlin, Germany. She received a BFA degree from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, and an MFA degree (cum laude) in Social Design at Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Blay works on film productions as a model maker and props maker. In her work as an animation director, she works at the intersection of documentary storytelling and animation. She researches the in-between world of fiction and reality created by images, using storytelling to tackle complex political structures.
Her work has been exhibited at Wall Street gallery, Eindhoven, NL (2018); Tijdelijk museum Bijlmerbajes, Amsterdam, NL (2017); Bogoshorts film festival, Bogota, CO (2017); Jerusalem design week, Jerusalem (2017); Salone Del Mobile, Milan, IT (2017); Fresh paint, Tel Aviv, IL (2014), among others. She has received several fellowships and grants such as a start-up design grant from Stimulerings Funds, a short film grant from NFCT, and the AICF visual artist grant. Blay is a guest tutor at Design Academy Eindhoven, Master in Social Design.
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 Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). Zelli is interested in our relationship with ideas of “others” and “elsewhere” within the geopolitical space often referred to by the questionable term “Middle East.” She creates in-situ digital installations using existing images, videos, and texts often found on the Internet. The resulting visual and sound experiences create an opportunity to reflect on the state of the world, our relationship with the Other, and the impact of our actions on humanity.
Her work has been shown at Musée d’art de Joliette, Toronto Biennial of Art (2024), Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Collection Arts du Tout-Monde), Dazibao (2023), Pierre-François Ouellette Galery (2023-2021), Bradley Ertaskiran Gallery (2020), Conseil des arts de Montréal (2019-2020) and at Galerie de l’UQAM (2024, 2020, 2019, 2015).
Her work is in the collection of MAC Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts collection, Musée Pointe-à-Callière, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec’s Prêt d’oeuvres d’art collection, Musée d’art de Joliette collection, Musée d’art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul collection, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Hydro Québec collection, Desjardins and Galerie de l’UQÀM. Zelli is laureate of the 2023 Prix Lynne-Cohen and the 2021 laureate of the Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art. Zelli is represented by Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain.
Leila Zelli (with Gali Blay)
About Dam and Hofit, 2022
video still, animation
18 min 56 seconds
photo courtesy of the artist
Leila Zelli
Why should I stop?, 2020-2021
video still, HD video
4 min 56 seconds
photo courtesy of the artist