Kitten or Refugee?

Why are we empathetic towards some and indifferent, or cruel towards others? Why do we pick up one refugee in our own car and let another freeze to death on the borders of Europe? What mechanisms lie behind this? Who is on top of our empathy ladder when making life-or-death decisions? Are empathy and xenophobia different sides of the same coin?


Short documentary, 28’33” 

Selected for the Debut Competition of the 43rd edition of the Dutch Film Festival (NFF) and premiered in September 2023

Winner 1st prize for Storytelling, De Zilveren Camera


Kitten or Refugee?

Why are we empathetic towards some and indifferent, or cruel towards others? Why do we pick up one refugee in our own car and let another freeze to death on the borders of Europe? What mechanisms lie behind this? Who is on top of our empathy ladder when making life-or-death decisions? Are empathy and xenophobia different sides of the same coin?


Short documentary, 28’33”

Selected for the Debut Competition of the 43rd edition of the Dutch Film Festival (NFF) and premiered in September 2023,

Winner 1st prize for Storytelling, De Zilveren Camera

ik en jij

In the interactive installation 'i and you', I investigate what it means to engage in dialogue, to share and listen, at a time of extreme violence, dehumanisation, oppression, grief, overheated emotions, abuse and manipulation of language.


2023 / 2024
Research project and interactive installation

ik en jij

In the interactive installation 'i and you', I investigate what it means to engage in dialogue, to share and listen, at a time of extreme violence, dehumanisation, oppression, grief, overheated emotions, abuse and manipulation of language.


2023 / 2024
Research project and interactive installation
The Flood

We are inundated with headlines on how refugees are streaming into Europe, flooding the continent, bursting through national borders, threatening to submerge our culture and destroy everything we hold dear. This rhetoric is gradually being adopted by mainstream politicians and media. In this project, I aim to dissect the water metaphor, to understand and visualise the dominant discourse on migration and question the framing of refugees as a natural disaster.


2021 / 2022 / 2023
Audiovisual installation, 9’39”

The Flood

We are inundated with headlines on how refugees are streaming into Europe, flooding the continent, bursting through national borders, threatening to submerge our culture and destroy everything we hold dear. This rhetoric is gradually being adopted by mainstream politicians and media. In this project, I aim to dissect the water metaphor, to understand and visualise the dominant discourse on migration and question the framing of refugees as a natural disaster.


2021 / 2022 / 2023
Audiovisual installation, 9’39”
Tina in Sexbierum

I fled from Amsterdam. Not for the first time. But now I really feel it. I moved to Sexbierum. A small village in Friesland. Everyone asks me why. I’m still looking for an answer. ‘Tina in Sexbierum’ is a multimedia project about displacement, detachment, assimilation, loss and the desire to have a home.


2023 - in development
Multimedia: photography | video | text

Tina in Sexbierum

I fled from Amsterdam. Not for the first time. But now I really feel it. I moved to Sexbierum. A small village in Friesland. Everyone asks me why. I’m still looking for an answer. ‘Tina in Sexbierum’ is a multimedia project about displacement, detachment, assimilation, loss and the desire to have a home.


2023 - in development
Multimedia: photography | video | text

Killer Skies

Thousands of people have died in drone attacks. The psychological impact of this constant threat from above is enormous. What is it like to look up at a beautiful clear sky in fear, as the drones have the best view?


2018
Photography

Killer Skies

Thousands of people have died in drone attacks. The psychological impact of this constant threat from above is enormous. What is it like to look up at a beautiful clear sky in fear, as the drones have the best view?


2018
Photography

Empathy, the image and me

Prompted by her intense personal response to the news of the devastating fire at the Moria refugee camp on Lesbos in September 2020, in this thesis Dutch-Iranian artist Tina Farifteh asks the question: ‘what is empathy?’ And, more importantly: ‘what is it good for’? Also: ‘How does our response to images of suffering and devastation affect our attitudes and our ability to act’?


2021
Thesis

Empathy, the image and me

Prompted by her intense personal response to the news of the devastating fire at the Moria refugee camp on Lesbos in September 2020, in this thesis Dutch-Iranian artist Tina Farifteh asks the question: ‘what is empathy?’ And, more importantly: ‘what is it good for’? Also: ‘How does our response to images of suffering and devastation affect our attitudes and our ability to act’?


2021
Thesis

Iran Protests

From her home in the Netherlands, Tina Farifteh follows the protests in her motherland on social media. She takes in the images of the brave freedom fighters and the brutal violence they face. She compiles found footage and searches for a way to deal with what she sees.


2022 - ongoing (work in progress)
Found and edited social media footage

Iran Protests

From her home in the Netherlands, Tina Farifteh follows the protests in her motherland on social media. She takes in the images of the brave freedom fighters and the brutal violence they face. She compiles found footage and searches for a way to deal with what she sees.


2022 - ongoing (work in progress)
Found and edited social media footage