Lida Abdul
Lida Abdul (b. 1973, Kabul) received a BA in political science in 1997 and a BA in philosophy in 1998 from California State University, Fullerton, and an MFA from the University of California, Irvine, in 2000. Abdul fled Afghanistan with her family following the Soviet invasion in 1979, and lived as refugee in India and Germany before immigrating to the United States. Based on this experience, Abdul considers herself a nomadic artist, and her films, videos, and installations are permeated with themes of cultural identity, migration, and the processes of destruction and displacement that have marked Afghanistan’s recent history. Abdul has had solo exhibitions at the National Museum of Afghanistan, Kabul (2007); Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art (2008); Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, Illinois (2010); Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Málaga, Spain, and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (both 2013); and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Paris (2014). She has been included in the group exhibitions Global Feminisms, Brooklyn Museum (2007); History of Violence, Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa, Israel (2009); Beyond Memory, Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem (2011); and Transition Project, Yapi Kredi Kültür Merkezi, Istanbul (2013), and has participated in the Venice Biennale (2005 and 2015); Moscow Biennial (2007); and Documenta, Kassel, Germany (2012).
In Transit
2008
Video, sound, transferred from 16 mm film
4:55 min
Courtesy the artist and Giorgio Persano Gallery
In the outskirts of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, abandoned Soviet airplanes lie like skeletal remains of war and occupation. Their bullet-ridden carcasses evoke the lasting scars of conflict. Against this landscape, Lida Abdul (b. 1973, Kabul) filmed a group of young children engaging with the wreckage not as a relic of violence but as a site of play. With quiet determination, they begin to fill the plane’s hollowed body and punctured skin with soft cotton, gently tending to its wounds.
This act, both playful and profound, suggests a way to heal what has been broken. Pulling ropes, the children attempt to lift the aircraft like a kite. Though impossible, their effort is filled with imagination and collective determination. The airplane shifts from a weapon into a body, hovering between machine and bird. Through this performance, Abdul highlights the resilience of children growing up amid war. Their innocence transforms destruction into hope, revealing play as an antidote to trauma. Grounded in the artist’s practice, which explores cultural identity, migration, and the destruction and displacement that have shaped Afghanistan’s recent history, In Transit offers a powerful vision of renewal and possibility.