Founded in 2009, The Berang Arts Organisation was created by a group of Afghanistan’s finest artists in a move designed to bring contemporary art to the war-torn country.
One of its foremost figures is Shamsia Hassani, the nation’s first woman street artist.
Born in Iran, Hassani was not allowed to study the arts due to her Afghan heritage. Eventually she relocated to Afghanistan, where she enrolled in a Fine Arts program at Kabul University.
Though the country does not have the same legal restrictions on street art as is common in the West, Hassani often fears for her safety while working in public. As a result, she has also produced a range of digital graffiti.
One of Hassani’s best known works is Dreaming Graffiti, a series which sees graffiti digitised into images of locations or landmarks.
“I want to colour over the bad memories of war on the walls and if I colour over these bad memories, then I erase [war] from people’s minds. I want to make Afghanistan famous because of its art, not its war.”
Kabul at Work have a fantastic video featuring Hassani’s work that you can view below. Otherwise, be sure to check out The Kabul Art Project for information on more contemporary artists currently working in Afghanistan.