Parham Ghalamdar is an Iranian-born, UK-based multidisciplinary artist whose work spans painting, film, and writing. Educated in Fine Art and trained across various media, he has emerged as one of the most urgent voices of his generation, weaving together forgotten mythologies, political histories, and speculative futures. His practice often explores how images function in times of upheaval, and what happens when their meaning collapses under the weight of violence and memory.
Ghalamdar’s career has been marked by significant recognition. He has received the UK New Artists Bursary (2023), an Arts Council England Project Grant, and the APP Creative Commissions Award at Leeds Arts University. His works are included in the UK Government Art Collection and have been exhibited at leading galleries, where they have sparked debate about the role of image-making in a world saturated with visuals yet scarred by conflict.
His awarded short documentary, The Sight is a Wound, is among his most powerful and personal projects to date. In the film, Ghalamdar sets fire to over fifty of his own paintings—works that had previously been exhibited and celebrated in major shows. The act of destruction is both intimate and political: a visceral response to the genocide in Gaza, but also a meditation on the futility of images when faced with atrocity.
The film resists simple narrative or call to action. Instead, it becomes a video-poem, a lament for the failure of representation itself. Flames consume the canvases as silence and despair hover over the screen, forcing viewers to confront uncomfortable questions: What can art do in the face of violence? What happens when images no longer suffice?
By awarding The Sight is a Wound the prize for Best Short Documentary, the festival recognized Ghalamdar’s courage in confronting the collapse of visual language. His work reminds us that art is not always about beauty or resolution—it can also be about mourning, about acknowledging wounds that cannot be closed, and about facing the limits of what can be seen.
