Erfan Ghiasi

Based in Tehran, Erfan Ghiasi is an artist and curator whose practice shatters realities and speculates new possibilities. Drawing on the concept of ḥarba (حَرْبَة), meaning both "weapon" in Arabic and "cunning" in Farsi, his interventionist projects and curatorial frameworks investigate the entanglements of geohistory, counter-narratives of control, spatial politics, world-building, and speculative thinking. He holds a BFA in Cinema from the Art University of Tehran (2012) and an MFA in Photography from Louisiana State University (2019). His curatorial education includes the Gwangju Biennale International Curatorial Academy with Binna Choi (2025), the Khoj’s Curatorial Intensive South Asia with Raqs Media Collective (2024), and the Autumn School of Curating with Xiaoyu Weng (2023).

Ghiasi is the co-founder of the Tehran Summit (2022–present) and director of the Tehran Biennale (2023–present). These two parallel, counter-institutions cultivate dialogue on contemporary aesthetics, public space, collective experience, speculative thought, and cultural exchange. Beyond curating four editions of the Summit and two of the Biennale, his projects include The World, The Earth, The Planet (O Gallery, Tehran, 2025), Xenotopia Symposium and घर: An Ecological Speculation Within the Web of Life (Khoj International Artists’ Association & Goethe-Institut, New Delhi, 2025), Within the Finitude (Pejman Foundation, Tehran, 2020), Disclosure (Foster Gallery, Louisiana State University, 2018).