Photo Grant by Deloitte – And They Laughed At Me by Newsha Tavakolian

From December 13th, 2023 to January 28th, 2024

From December 13th to January 28th, MUDEC will host the major photographic exhibition “And they laughed at me” by the Iranian artist Newsha Tavakolian, winner of the prestigious Deloitte’s Photo Grant, promoted by Deloitte Italia with the sponsorship of Fondazione Deloitte and in collaboration with 24 ORE Cultura, curated by Denis Curti, and Black Camera.

The theme proposed for this first edition of Deloitte’s Photo Grant is “Connections,” on which over 700 authors worked to present their own narrative and visual interpretation of what it means — according to their artistic sensibility — to be “connected” on a human, professional, economic, or environmental level.

The exhibition “And they laughed at me” aims to reflect on a strategy employed by the Iranian military to blind people using rubber bullets. This dystopian measure, often utilized by the police to prevent the spread of information, seeks to hinder the population from being aware of contemporary events.

The exhibition’s layout reveals the narrative maturity of the images and the profound human charge in the artist’s work — a true manifesto that uses visual language to counteract the repressive terrorism of a political body aiming to suppress individual self-determination in favor of totalitarian ends.