Between 2015 and 2019, photographer Klaartje Lambrechts traveled to Iran several times. She encountered a beautiful country with incredibly generous people, governed by strict laws yet filled with boundless possibilities. Many of these possibilities exist within a vast gray zone—without clear boundaries—a twilight space between what is allowed and what is possible, between what is visible and what remains hidden.
During these journeys, Lambrechts met a group of contemporary dancers in Tehran. What began as an encounter gradually evolved into an artistic project.
On her third visit in the fall of 2019, Lambrechts traveled with two dancers from Tehran, Masoumeh and Ali, to the desert regions of Dasht-e Lut and Bushehr in southern Iran. After the suffocating bustle of Tehran, she sought the vast silence and desolate atmosphere of the desert landscape. Among sand dunes, rocks, and salt flats, she created a conceptual photographic series.
The bodies of the dancers disappear within the fabrics that surround them. They explore, struggle, and test the limits of their bodies. Captured by the camera, their contours transform into sculptural forms within the immense landscape—solidified movements in which tension and dynamics remain present.
The series becomes both a visual poem about dance and movement in Iran and a metaphor for contemporary Iranian society, where similar tensions are constantly felt. The fabrics restrict the dancers, yet they also offer protection from the outside gaze. Within this layer, they can move freely, exploring boundaries and possibilities.
A first part of this series was presented in 2020. In this new presentation, Lambrechts shares additional, previously unseen images and gives the stage to one of the performers, Masoumeh, for a live dance performance and artist talk.
In light of the current situation in Iran, it feels more important than ever to create space for artists—to keep the softness of creation alive and to support artists in expressing their voices.