Omid Kheirabadi
Born and raised in Tehran, Omid Kheirabdi (b. 1992, Tehran, Iran) is a Rotterdam-based visual artist, performer, and interior architect whose work critically examines late-capitalist societal relationships, decoding their oppressive mechanisms, and exploring their effects on individual experiences. Central to his practice are questions of power, labor, global economic disparities, legal status, and Western (European) hegemony.
Over the past two years, he has developed ‘performance sessions’, inspired by Augusto Boal’s "Theater of the Oppressed" and the concept of "arte útil". These sessions, which he describes as ‘art-get-togethers’, function organically, inviting participants from diverse artistic backgrounds to co-create improvised performances through informed conversations. Emphasizing collective creativity, this process transforms the traditional audience roles into active participants, fostering a shared experience that deeply impacts relationships and dialogue while questioning and redefining the role of the artist in the creative process. As a trained architect, he continues to create spaces, but now with different materials—namely, the interactions and experiences that emerge through performance art. Omid’s ongoing research aims to challenge the narratives that shape our realities and seek to uncover new possibilities for coexistence, connection, and understanding.