New exhibition opens at Poriginal Gallery
The opening of Zagros Manuchar's exhibition will take place from 18:00 to 20:00, with free admission to all exhibitions at the art museum.
Medya and Leyla, an exhibition by Zagros Manuchar, presents portrait studies of two Kurdish
women living in Finland through installation and experimental short film.
The exhibition features two experimental short films alongside childhood photographs,
schoolbooks, and farewell letters from classmates belonging to Medya and Leyla. Through personal
narrative, the exhibition reflects on childhood, displacement, refugee experience, memory, and
longing for home.
IMAGE:
Leyla
2025, film, video, 11 min 30 s,
colour, stereo sound, 16:9, 4K.
Installation.
This is Leyla. I am Leyla. Here is Leyla.
Can you hear me — can you see me?
I left home at nine o’clock.
I left my friends in the night, my belongings behind.
I waited for my brother at the Jordanian border.
I finally got a fake passport.
I was on the move, detached.
– Extract from a youth poem written by Leyla
Leyla is a kaleidoscopic short film and description about a Kurdish woman. It consists of
Leyla’s childhood photos, farewell letters from friends, a smuggling story, thoughts about
her Swedish support family and what it is like to be Leyla and finally be visible.