Omid Kheirabadi (Tehran, Iran, 1992) is an artist and performer working and living in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. His work is shaped through various mediums, working with multimedia installations, videos, prints, and performances. He has participated in group and solo exhibitions in several spaces such as Amsterdam (W139), The Hague (The Nest, Quarter, Page Not Found, De Helena), Leuven (Cas Co), Belfast (Banana Block), Rotterdam (Dakendagen festival, Slash gallery, Ubik), and Maastricht (ENSI). He has obtained an MFA in Artistic Research at the Royal Academy of Art and a MA in Interior Architecture at the Maastricht academy of architecture. Omid's work gets inspiration from the meeting of his life and political motivations. After finishing his artist residency in Belfast, Northern Ireland, he participated in the Research Academy in Zürich in October to work with Dana Yahalomi and Florian Malzacher in a week-long performance workshop on his research question; the correlations between resistance against the oppression of global capitalism and the performance art and its impacts on the performers.
Omid’s area of research is humorously and confidently rooted in first-hand experiences and questions of global disparity in economics and legal status. He tackles questions of European (Western) hegemony, economic disparities, power, (artistic) labor, immigration, and discrimination head-on. His constant questioning of the State’s mechanisms of denial and distancing of the middle classes from the mechanisms of production yields interesting work. The established practice of centering his own experiences is committed and the growing string of hourly fast-food jobs and services, pop culture, and the performer’s body/character is relevant and grants easy access to all these topics. The results of the questions: What is a body? and What mechanisms define/restrict/ a (working) citizen? Have been realized in a number of brilliantly impactful pieces each time analyzing the positions, agencies, and responsibilities of an artist, a service provider, an international student, or a foreigner.
Performances
August 2022
July 2022
April 2022
March 2022
September 2021
March 2021
April 2020
"a collective moment of dialogue, performance, and oppression"
Banana Block, Belfast (Northern Ireland)
"alive & unborn", in collaboration with Daphnis Monastirioti, and Siamak Misheni
Royal Academy of Art (KABK), The Hague (Netherlands)
"One day is too short, three days are too long!”, part of “A scenic route to self”
The Nest, The Hague (Netherlands)
KFC or Revolution?”, Solo Performance
W139, Amsterdam (Netherlands)
The Poss!ble”, in collaboration with Rosa van Walbeek
Page Not Found, The Hague (Netherlands)
Selling Art”, and "Eating Art", part of “Sun Kissed / Fog Off” in collaboration with Daphnis Monastirioti, Hugo Leos, Lena Longefay, and Xenia Klein
Quartair art space, The Hague (Netherlands)
“Spend the Night with Me”, in collaboration with a stranger
Airbnb at Adamshofstraat 152A, Rotterdam (Netherlands)
Commissioned Performances
July 2022
“I keep changing the way I have to address you”, Performance for Oliver Doe
S/ash Gallery, Ubik, Showroom MAMA, Rotterdam (Netherlands)
March 2022
“My Goals are Bigger Than Yours”, “Off-the-Grid" fifth season
Cas Co, Leuven (Belgium)
May 2021
"THE DREAM OF THE FISH'S LOVER", Performance for Noor Johanna
De Helena, The Hague (Netherlands)
Exhibitions
May - June 2022
"Nomad House"— A part of the collective exhibition 'living on the rooftop' in collaboration with 'Dakdorpen' as part of Daken Dagen festival 2022.
The Rooftop Walk, Rotterdam (Netherlands)
May 2021
“YOU ONLY EXIST ON PAPER” — part of the “In Pending Waters"
De Helena, The Hague (Netherlands)
March 2021
“Sun Kissed / Fog Off”, Group Exhibition
Quartair art space, The Hague (Netherlands)
October 2019
“A TOUGH SOLDIER”, Solo Exhibition
EINSI, Maastricht (Netherlands)
October 2018
“Learning from the models”, Group Exhibition
Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts, Maastricht (Netherlands)
Residencies
August 2022
ECRN rooftop residency
USI, Belfast (Northern Ireland)
March 2021
The office for precarious Art, Lena Longefay, "Sun Kissed / Fog Off”
Quartair Contemporary Art Initiatives, The Hague (Netherlands)
Awards
November 2019
Master Thesis Awards 'Scriptiekunst' for “Imaging the Space”
Faculty of Arts thesis awards, Zuyd Hogeschool, Maastricht (Netherlands)
September 2017
Excellence scholarship, Zuyd Hogeschool, the Master of Arts in Interior Architecture
Maastricht Academy of Architecture, Maastricht (Netherlands)
September 2013
Full scholarship, Iranian Ministry of Education for the Bachelor of Science in Architecture
SRTTU, Tehran (Iran)
Publications
September 2022
"I can smell Your house on Your hat", The graduation publication of Master Artistic Research students
Page Not Found, The Hague (Netherlands)
April 2022
Performing The Art Of Intolerance, The Master Thesis of Artistic Research, participated in Libros Mutantes 2022 book fair in Madrid
The Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK)
September 2021
Key Words 2021, Key Words is a yearly publication written, edited, and designed by first-year students of The Master Artistic Research at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK)
Page Not Found, The Hague (Netherlands)
June 2021
Imaging the Space, Master thesis in Interior Architecture
Page Not Found, The Hague (Netherlands)