Sarmad is an independent, non-profit interdisciplinary platform for research, publishing, collective thinking, and education in the fields of art, architecture and design.

Based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Sarmad has been evolving since its foundation in 2012. It started as a magazine for experimental photography and evolved into a platform working across different disciplines from photography, visual arts and architecture to writing, performance art and film.

Sarmad consists of various interrelated activities: we organize public events, lectures and screenings, curate exhibitions, publish books, make podcasts and organize workshops. We cooperate with national and international art institutions, universities, art collectives and individual artists.

What makes Sarmad work is collaborating with others, so please do not hesitate to contact us if you have a proposal that you think can fit what we do. And always check for our open calls. Currently, we have .



Members

The core of Sarmad is made of the following members:

Alireza Abbasy
Founder, editor

Golnar Abbasi
Founder, editor

Arvand Pourabbasi
Editor, facilitator

Themes

The following would give you an idea of our current thematic interests:

Image

Sociopolitical importance and influences of various forms of image making

Image and power

Visual and non-visual image making (verbal, mental and perceptual images)

Walking on the border of the visual and the non-visual

. . .

Otherness

What/who is “other”?

Whiteness

The non-normative

minoritized and majoritized groups

Queerness

Identity-based forms of oppression

Moving the “center”

. . .

Precarity

Nomadic life

Autonomy

The self-employed, the freelancer

Exhaustion and comfort

Burnouts
Domesticity

. . .

And:

Persian cats

Buddhist thought

No-mind

No-self

Mattresses 

Back pain
Talisman

non-duality

. . .