Shirin Neshat - Women Without Men

Discover Shirin Neshat's major video work 'Women Without Men' collected for the first time in 12 years

In 2008, ARoS held the world premiere of Shirin Neshat's major five-part film work Women Without Men, which ARoS subsequently acquired with support from the New Carlsberg Foundation. Over the past few years, the video work has been shown divided into individual films, but now, for the first time since 2008, the museum is bringing all the films together in one large video installation.

Shirin Neshat's art is based on her Islamic cultural background, but the themes are universal and eternal. The video work is based on the magical realist novel of the same name as the exhibition, Women Without Men, by Iranian author Shahrnush Parsipur.

In five parallel sequences, Shirin Neshat's video work depicts the lives of five Iranian women in 1953, a fateful year in recent Iranian history when a coup d'état brought the Shah back to power. The women have given their names to each of the five films: Mahdokht, Zarin, Munis, Faezah and Farokh Legha.