Image: Photo Elysée, Lausanne ; Hannah Darabi ; Hannah Darabi
Photo Elysée will host ‘Résister!’, a roundtable examining how images and photography can function as acts of protest, resistance and solidarity. The discussion will take place on Thursday, September 17, 2026, at the Photo Elysée Auditorium–mudac in Lausanne, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. The event will be held in French and admission is free, with registration required.
Organised as part of the ‘Images sensibles’ series of roundtable discussions, the event will bring together artists Hannah Darabi, Zoé Aubry and Nora Rupp. Journalist Alessia Barbezat will moderate the conversation, which is framed around two central questions: how images can resist, protect and bring people together, and what makes a photograph an act of protest.
Darabi, the 2025 Prix Elysée laureate, was born in Tehran in 1981 and is now based in Paris. Her practice combines photography, video and archival material to address the social, cultural and political history of Iran. Her current project, ‘Why Don’t You Dance?’, explores Iranian popular dance as a form of identity-based resistance, connecting figures from Iran’s cultural history with the country’s diaspora.
At Photo Elysée, the exhibition ‘Why Don’t You Dance?’ is presented through three interconnected figures: Mahvash, an early cabaret singer and dancer; Jamileh, known for her mastery of belly dance and the popular ‘Jaheli’ dance; and Mohammad Khordadjan, a dancer and choreographer associated with Iran’s pop scene in Los Angeles. The project uses photographs, videos, collages, texts and ephemera to examine how dance has operated as a vehicle for memory, protest and cultural transmission.
A recent Photo Elysée interview describes Darabi’s focus on the transformation of Iranian popular dance from an activity long perceived as apolitical into a symbol of resistance and countercultural expression. The exhibition also draws inspiration from ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’, the protest movement against restrictions imposed on women by the Iranian government. ‘Why Don’t You Dance?’ remains on view at Photo Elysée through November 1, 2026, and is the project for which Darabi received the Prix Elysée 2025.
Aubry is described by Photo Elysée as a Swiss artist, photographer and activist whose research-based practice is militant, feminist and experimental. Her work addresses the economy of attention and forms of resistance to systems of power and oppression, including those operating through media and digital networks. Rupp, a Swiss artist and photographer, investigates a society that exploits living beings and dispossesses bodies; her photographic practice seeks spaces of solidarity, resistance and reappropriation.
The ‘Images sensibles’ discussion forms part of Photo Elysée’s September programme in Lausanne, alongside its exhibitions devoted to Alfredo Jaar, Ella Maillart and Darabi. ‘Résister!’ is scheduled for September 17, 2026, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., at the Photo Elysée Auditorium–mudac.
