Afrang Nordlöf Malekian ~ The Lion's Tail ~ Performance 2023-2026

When I renewed my passport in Karaj, Iran, over a decade ago, the photographer decided I looked “too feminine” for an official document, and yet, somehow, his retouching made me look even more feminine. – Afrang Nordlöf Malekian

In the lecture performance The Lion’s Tail, Afrang Nordlöf Malekian explores the origins of the said passport photographer’s retouching techniques. He traces them both to archival findings at the Arab Image Foundation in Beirut – hand colored photographs from the 1940s to the ’80s – and to a mythologized sun, both female and male, flashing beside a lion. This work is part of a larger artistic research project with art historian Nour Helou on non-binary beauty standards in photography, dance and music in South-West Asia and Northern Africa, recently presented in their book The Tale of The (Fe)Male Sun (2026) published by Glänta.

About: Afrang Nordlöf Malekian

The Lion’s Tail will be performed on the 3rd of October in the context of 

APRiCot Garden 2026: If Not Here, Then Where? Making Our Home in Shared Struggle