LAUSANNE.- Winner of the 2025 Prix Elysée, selected last June by a jury of international experts, Hannah Darabi will unveil her ongoing project Why Don't You Dance? at the Photo Elysée booth.

The artist explores dance as a cultural element whose meaning can evolve according to social and political circumstances. Once completed, this original project will be exhibited at Photo Elysée in June 2026 and will be the subject of a publication by Kodoji Press.

The Prix Elysée is the result of an exclusive partnership between Photo Elysée and Parmigiani Fleurier.

Award-winning project

Why Don’t You Dance? is an artistic research project exploring Iranian popular dance through three key figures: Mahvash, Jamileh, and Mohammad Khordadjan.

Combining photographs, videos and archival material, the project examines how dance, in certain social and political contexts, can become a tool for identity expression and emancipation, particularly within the Iranian diaspora. Inspired by Mahvash’s autobiography and the karaoke nights at Cabaret Tehran in Los Angeles, it connects past and contemporary dance practices.

Hannah Darabi's career

Hannah Darabi (IR, 1981) is an artist-photographer born in Tehran. She studied there at the Faculty of Fine Arts, then at the University of Paris VIII-Vincennes-Saint Denis.

Today based in Paris, her country of origin remains the main subject of most of her photographic series. Hannah Darabi was awarded the Bernd and Hilla Becher sponsorship prize by the city of Düsseldorf for her entire artistic output in 2022, and the Madame Figaro award for her exhibition at the Rencontres d’Arles in 2023.