UNITED-02

Golnaz Payani in these body of works creates a dialogue with the histories of two remarkable women whose destinies revolve around Asia: Alexandra David-Neel, an explorer and lecturer who traversed Asia and Tibet on foot,...
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Golnaz Payani in these body of works creates a dialogue with the histories of two remarkable women whose destinies revolve around Asia: Alexandra David-Neel, an explorer and lecturer who traversed Asia and Tibet on foot, and Krishna Riboud, a Franco-Indian collector who assembled an exceptional collection of oriental textiles, some of which are on loan from the Musée national des arts asiatiques – Guimet in Paris. In these works, Payani draws parallels between two women whose lives intersect without touching, both united by a shared passion for Asia: Alexandra David-Neel (1868–1969), a writer, explorer, and feminist who became the first Western woman to enter Lhasa in 1924; and Krishna Riboud (1926–2000), a Franco-Indian collector whose life's work was to gather nearly 4,000 textiles from the East, which were bequeathed to the Musée national des arts asiatiques – Guimet. Here, Golnaz addresses two forms of travel. Alexandra’s, characterized by walking and encounters, where sensory experiences give rise to trajectories and literary narratives. Krishna’s, a journey as scientific as it is imaginative, undertaken primarily through documented sources and textiles. Her work on the weaving techniques of Asian peoples has become a global reference.
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