SILINA SYAN

Silina Syan’s practice (born in 1996) is transdisciplinary, oscillating between photography, video, and documentary forms. Through elements drawn from kitsch, popular culture, patterns, overload, excess, and rich color schemes, her works recreate a fantasy, a story, a narrative, or an almost mythological connection with a new place — the space of migration and the cultural in-betweenness created by exile.
 
Drawing from her own trajectory between France, Armenia, and Bangladesh, Silina Syan’s work explores the details of rituals and everyday life to bring out alternative and expanded narratives of our intimate and collective histories. A graduate of Villa Arson in Nice in 2020, she has been in residence at Ateliers Médicis for the past four years, where she has been developing a documentary film project in Bangladesh, also supported by Mondes Nouveaux and the University of Côte d’Azur.
 
In 2021, she was also in residence at Triangle-Astérides (Marseille) and presented her work at Magasins Généraux (Pantin) during the festival Les Chichas de la Pensée, then at Galerie art-cade (Marseille), at the Villa Arson art center (Nice), and at Ateliers Médicis (Clichy-Montfermeil) for Nuit Blanche 2021. The following year, she participated in the group exhibition Comme si, curated by Marion Zilio at Galerie Éric Mouchet. Her work was also shown in the exhibition 100% L’EXPO at La Villette (Paris), at POUSH (Clichy), and at 109 (Nice) during the Image Satellite festival.
 
In 2023, she won the 5th edition of the Fonds régional pour les talents émergents (FoRTE #5), in collaboration with Artagon Pantin, and also received the Sheds contemporary art prize. That same year, she presented a performance reading at the Centre Pompidou and exhibited at the Sample (Bagnolet), at Magasins Généraux (Pantin), and during the Jeune Création festival in Paris.
 
In 2024, she is organizing her first solo exhibition, Crystal Oud, at the Institut des Cultures d’Islam (Paris). In 2025, she will present a new solo exhibition, En chaîne et en or, at Confort Moderne, curated by Madeleine Mathé. Her work will also be featured in the collective exhibition of FoRTE award winners at Frac Île-de-France. In spring 2025, she will present a new duo exhibition with Amine Habki at Galerie Éric Mouchet (Paris).
 
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// Noor Reflections (19/04-24/05/2025 | Paris)