NEW YORK, NY — Daisy Chain Biannual is pleased to announce the appointment of Vali Mahlouji to the position of Contributing Editor. Mahlouji joins the publication’s leadership to ground its inquiry within a framework of rigorous historiography and archival research.
“Vali is an intellectual force whose work transcends traditional editorial boundaries,” says Daisy Chain's Creative Director, Phillip Bogart Duncan. “His practice, rooted in the excavation of marginalized histories, reflects a stewardship that is essential to the conceptual ambitions of Daisy Chain.”
A London-based curator and art historian, Mahlouji is the founder of Archaeology of the Final Decade (AOTFD), a non-profit platform dedicated to recovering erased cultural narratives. His landmark research on the Festival of Arts, Shiraz-Persepolis (1967–1977), and the photographic archives of the Kaveh Golestan Estate have set new standards for the recovery of lost cultural memory.
Mahlouji brings significant institutional weight to the masthead, having staged curatorial projects at Tate Modern, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, and Whitechapel Gallery. As an advisor to the British Museum, his expertise identifies the subterranean links between forgotten avant-gardes and contemporary practice, bridging high-academic inquiry with visual storytelling.
At Daisy Chain, Mahlouji brings an archaeological lens to the publication’s interrogation of visual culture, grounding its engagement with the transversal narratives and hidden histories that shape how images are constructed and understood today.