Danial Shah - Becoming, Belonging and Vanishing
24.10.2025
04.01.2026
Belonging, Becoming and Vanishing is an exhibition by Danial Shah based on his ongoing artistic research.
Through photography and film, Shah explores the world of photo studios in his hometown Quetta (Pakistan). Spaces originally characterized by hand painted backdrops, costumes and material props, these studios have today morphed into digital collage playgrounds. Nevertheless they still serve the original function as spaces for constructing and reworking identities, aspirations, and belongings.
Shah’s work highlights how people use these studios to project themselves into imagined realities and to construct themselves amidst changing personal dreams and social dramas.
The exhibition Danial Shah – Becoming, Belonging and Vanishing takes place on the first floor. Shah's PhD research is supervised by Sint Lucas School of Arts Antwerp (KdG) and Visual and Digital Cultures Research Center (ViDi, University of Antwerp), partners of ARIA, Antwerp Research Institute for the Arts.
About the artist:
Danial Shah (Quetta, Pakistan, 1989) works with the medium of photography and film and is currently pursuing an artistic PhD at Sint Lucas Antwerp and University of Antwerp. His debut feature film Make it Look Real (2024) premiered at International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in 2024 and is currently being shown at various film festivals.