45 – Alba Zari

Alba Zari, winner of the Images Vevey 2021/2022 Special Jury Prize for her project Occult, draws on her mother’s life story and her own childhood in Thailand. She retraces the history of the Christian fundamentalist cult ‘The Children of God’, into which she was born after her mother and grandmother joined this community in the 1970s. Through family archives, documents taken from the internet, and thermal images of contemporary rituals, Alba Zari highlights the misogynistic abuse this cult imposed. By means of introspection and deciphering, she denounces the propaganda techniques such movements use. Offering a damning look at the reality of these circles, Occult questions the deceptive nature of images, while also demonstrating their ability to reveal the truth.

The installation Occult by Alba Zari is presented at the Musée Jenisch, alongside other projects awarded by the Grand Prix Images Vevey 2021/2022.