Kaveh AYREEK, Afghanistan/Norway

Lives and works in Bergen, Norway.

Kaveh Ayreek is a performance artist, photographer, script writer, theater and film director born in Iran as an Afghan refugee. Growing up as an illegal immigrant in Iran did not allow him a formal education. Instead he began by accident to work with amateur theater groups in Iran, and has since then continued to work in the field as actor, writer and director. When he lived in Afghanistan he took part in various workshops and courses and worked as assistant for several well-known Afghan directors.

Several of Ayreek’s  plays and films has been awarded national prizes. With in the Persian speaking population in Afghanistan he is a well-known artist. One of his theater plays has been translated, published and played in French. He worked and lived in Kabul, collaborating with different media companies and cultural centers in Kabul. After the fall of Kabul in August 2021, with the Taliban taking power, he was forced to leave his country for the second time.

In most of his work, he is trying to share his experience as a member of the Afghan Hazara minority and as an artist in exile. He explores issues of identity redefinition as an immigrant in this new world, while also reflecting upon the experience and history of his home country.