Hässlichkeit

Thick body hair, brown teeth, big noses: Moshtari Hilal interrogates ideas of ugliness. In her unique book, she writes of beauty salons in Kabul as part of the US invasion, of Darwin’s theory of evolution, of Kim Kardashian and of a utopian place in the shadow of the nose. Her explorations, analyses and recollections, her pictorial quotations and her own drawings lead into that innermost realm where every self-image is put to the test. Why are we afraid of the ugly? Poetic and touching, intimate and highly political, Moshtari Hilal talks about all of us when she tells of the norms with which we maltreat ourselves. At Habibi Kiosk she reads from her book and talks about it with Sebastian Reier.

About the author
Moshtari Hilal is an artist, curator and author who lives in Hamburg. She studied Islamic Studies in Hamburg, Berlin and London with a focus on gender and decolonial studies and is co-founder of the collective Afghan Visual Arts and History and the research project Curating Through Conflict with Care.

Photo: Prissilya Junewin

Photo: Prissilya Junewin

Photo: Prissilya Junewin

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