13. Aziz Hazara (Wardak, Afganistan 1992)
Takbir, 2021
Video a colori, suono. 5’
Color video, sound. 5’
Courtesy: L’artista,
Experimenter Kolkata – Mumbai (India)

Aziz Hazara (Wardak, Afghanistan, 1992) centers his artistic research on the intricate intersections of religion, society, and politics in everyday Afghan life. His work emerges from the deep scars left by the so-called Western “civilizing mission” and more than two decades of the “War on Terror,” which have irreversibly shaped the human and cultural fabric of Afghanistan.
In contrast to the official narratives advanced by national governments and international peacekeeping forces, Hazara creates installations that interrogate the relationship between language, action, and propaganda, while also engaging with material culture and the socio-political consequences of the transformation of everyday objects.

13. In Takbir (2021), a young fighter rhythmically strikes his chest, maintaining an unwavering and impassive gaze toward the camera. The gesture recalls the rituals of collective mourning performed during Ashura—a symbolic commemoration of resistance against injustice. In this work, Hazara explores how sound shapes subjectivity: in a communal context, such a sonic act expresses a shared emotional state; performed in solitude, it becomes a politically charged gesture and a vehicle for counter-narrative.
The sound of flesh striking flesh becomes a metaphor for the body as a site of both vulnerability and resistance. Takbir not only makes visible the physical toll exacted by injustice, but also investigates the meanings that the sound of mourning assumes in an intercultural dimension, where languages and identities converge and collide.
The video highlights the complexity of truth—especially as it unfolds within the emotional lives of individuals and communities. In a context where warring factions seek to appropriate deeply intimate moments for propagandistic purposes, Takbir offers a glimpse of subjective, personal, and defiant truth.