Ali Mahdavi
Born in Tehran in 1974, but now living in Paris, Ali Mahdavi is a filmmaker and designer of costumes that are extravagant affairs inspired by French Catholicism and Mahdavi’s Persian heritage. From silver cloaks to opulent purple robes stitched in gold, these strange outfits tread a fine line between high church and camp. After completing his studies in Paris at L’Ecole Nationale des Arts Appliqués Duperré, Mahdavi worked for the French fashion designer Thierry Mugler. In 2003, Mahdavi had his first solo exhibition at Scout Gallery in Hoxton Square, East London.
thanks to i-d magazine
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ali mahdavi Tous Les Autres S’Appellent Ali
Ali Madhavi has Alopecia Universalis, a disease that deprives him of hair and his film focuses on those who are similarly afflicted. “I have been compared to all the bald people on earth….yet all I need is a wig for all resemblance to evaporate. No longer having hair violently changes our relationship with others, and the rules of seduction, desire, and one’s love-life are deeply disturbed, especially if the illness manifests itself before adulthood. Having lived through the same pain, shame and thus the same arrogance, I was convinced that we would all have the same feelings. Yet I was forced to notice while working on this project that even if, like a faltering army of clones or extra-terrestrials, we belong to the same race, deep down we are all just as different from each other as if we had hair and our lamented eyelashes and eyebrows.”
