MOT Plus
Collaboration with Han Nefkens Foundation: Shahana Rajani
Four Acts of Recovery by Shahana Rajani. Produced by the Han Nefkens Foundation
The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT) is pleased to announce the launch of "MOT Plus" this year, a new initiative that expands beyond the traditional exhibition format to explore experimental projects and collaborations with other organizations. As part of this initiative, the museum will present "MOT Plus Collaboration with Han Nefkens Foundation: Shahana Rajani," opening on Tuesday, April 29.
Since its establishment in 2009, the Han Nefkens Foundation has been dedicated to supporting artists working with video as a medium, operating from its base in Barcelona while collaborating with art institutions worldwide. In 2023, the foundation partnered with the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Prameya Art Foundation (India), Nottingham Contemporary (UK), Ishara Art Foundation (UAE), the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (Belgium), and Para Site (Hong Kong) to establish the "South Asia Video Art Production Award." This award aims to support emerging artists by providing funding for new works and exhibition opportunities, and fostering artistic development in the region.
From a pool of nominees across South Asia—including Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan—Pakistani artist Shahana Rajani has been selected as the recipient of the award. Rajani’s practice investigates landscapes and communities affected by environmental destruction, particularly in relation to infrastructure projects and military developments in her home country. Working across multiple media, with a focus on video, she documents and archives these spaces, developing a collaborative artistic practice that resists the erasure and violence of occupation and displacement.
This exhibition will showcase Rajani’s new video installation, Four Acts of Recovery. The work follows a family of fishermen who, due to environmental devastation caused by infrastructure projects in the Indus Delta, were forced to relocate to Karachi. The video centers on their act of painting murals depicting the landscapes of their lost homeland, such as sacred shrines and inlets that have disappeared. Rajani links this act to the Islamic tradition of talismans (protective objects inscribed with prayers), reinterpreting it as a ritual of resistance and belonging that calls forth a lost world. Presented as a three-screen installation, the work immerses the viewer in the layered relationship between the present state of the Indus Delta and the landscapes its displaced inhabitants seek to preserve.
Four Acts of Recovery by Shahana Rajani. Produced by the Han Nefkens Foundation
Artist Profiles
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Shahana Rajani
Shahana Rajani is a multi-disciplinary artist exploring the visualities, landscapes and infrastructures of development, militarization and ecological disturbance in Pakistan. Community-based and collaborative approaches to research are central to her practice. Working across multiple media, she engages with dissident histories and lineages of representation and relation that sustain practices of ecological resistance in Pakistan. She is a co-founder of Karachi LaJamia (with Zahra Malkani) which is an experimental project exploring radical pedagogies emerging from struggles around land and water in the city.
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Han Nefkens Foundation
Founded in 2009 in Barcelona by writer and collector Han Nefkens, the Han Nefkens Foundation is a non-profit organization that supports emerging and mid-career artists working with video. Through awards and collaborative commissions with international art institutions, the foundation provides support for the production of new work and opportunities to exhibit internationally.
www.hnfoundation.com
Information
- Exhibition Period
Tuesday, April 29 – Sunday, June 29, 2025
- Closed
Mondays (except May 5 and Jul 21), May 7
- Opening Hours
10 AM – 6 PM
- Venue
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo Exhibition Gallery B2F
- Admission
Free
- Organized by
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo operated by Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture
Related Program
Gallery Talk
Shahana Rajani x Han Nefkens
Tuesday, April 29, 2025, 2-3:30 PM
We welcome Shahana Rajani who presents her new video installation Four Acts of Recovery for this exhibition, along with Han Nefkens, the founder of the Han Nefkens Foundation, focused on supporting video art production. We will explore Rajani's practice, which traverses documentation and expression, activism and artistic practice.
Guest speakers: Shahana Rajani (Artist), Han Nefkens (President of Han Nefkens Foundation)
Venue: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Exhibition Room B2F
Admission: Free (no reservation required)
Capacity: 20 seats (first-come, first-served basis)
Please arrive at the exhibition room at the starting time of the talk.
Those without seats may participate by standing.
*Consecutive interpretation (English-Japanese)