Performance “Azadi”
is the physical embodiment of a multilayered art collaboration titled “Woman in Search of Freedom”, initiated by artist Chandra Li. This live piece brings to life the silk scarf “Women of Afghanistan”, originally painted by Chandra as a visual manifesto in support of Afghan women.
The journey of this work began in the digital realm: the scarf was reimagined in 3D by Lahore-based phygital fashion designer and filmmaker Marium Mujahid, who created the digital look and fashion film “Azadi” as part of the project's virtual collection. Focused on sustainable digital fashion and future-forward technologies, Mujahid’s interpretation explores how fashion can become a medium of liberation beyond the physical form.
From digital to physical, “Azadi” is reinterpreted through a ritual performance created by Chandra Li, Angy Adams, and the Nuan family of Thailand. Together, they transform digital emotion into embodied gesture, communal presence, and textile movement—channeling the emotional depth of the original artwork into real, shared space.
Filmed and produced by Angy Adams, the performance ties together all threads of the WISOF project: painting, fashion, 3D design, and human testimony. The voices of the participants—women from the Nuan family—are woven into the film, sharing what freedom means to them.
This performative act of solidarity was born from an international digital collaboration, premiered as part of the Unique Fashion Show, Paris 2025, and mirrored in a digital fashion showcase inside the Spatial metaverse.
It stands as a testament to how contemporary art, when merged with sustainable fashion and new media, can become a powerful, gentle force of support and remembrance.
About the digital
fashion film “Azadi”
Azadi — the word for “freedom” in Urdu and Persian — is a visual and emotional liberation. The film transforms silence into movement. Each gesture, turn, and step becomes a sacred language of resistance.Inspired by Afghan women who have been deprived of their voices, this dance becomes their unspoken speech, an echo of stories hidden beneath layers of fear, tradition, and oppression.It is a dance of freedom. She moves — overcoming years of suppression, revealing her true essence. It is a rebirth of voice through motion. Dedicated to the Afghan woman — her spirit unbroken, her rhythm still alive.
Physical Interpretation of “Azadi”
The physical interpretation of “Azadi” was realized in Thailand with the participation of the Nuan Muslim family — women who transformed a traditional Eastern dance into a form of support for Afghan women.
