Rouzbeh Shadpey is an artist, writer, and musician with a doctorate in medicine and indefatigable fatigue. His work explores the aesthetics and poetics of weariness, alongside anticolonial approaches to the clinic. Through sound, video, performance, installation and writing, he brings the critical to bear on the clinical. 

Rouzbeh has exhibited and performed at TULCA (Ireland), documenta fifteen (Germany), The Mosaic Rooms (UK), Poetry Project (New York), MUTEK (Montréal), and more. His writing appears in artistic and academic journals, including Parapraxis, Lateral, Decolonial Hacker and Momus. His musical practice (formerly under the name GOLPESAR) combines avant-garde electronics, guitar, spoken word, and Iranian sonics. 

In 2025, Rouzbeh was a resident at the Jan van Eyck Academie. He currently resides in the Netherlands.

EDUCATION

2021   Electroacoustic Music Bachelor of Fine Arts / Concordia University / Montreal, CA
2016   Psychiatry Resident Postgraduate Medical Studies / McGill University / Montreal, CA
2015   Doctorate in Medicine / Université de Sherbrooke / Sherbrooke, CA

EXHIBITIONS

Forgetting Is the Sun
Dazibao (Montreal) / February 2024

honey, milk and salt in a seashell before sunrise
TULCA Festival of Visual Arts (Galway) / November 2023
curated by Iarlaith Ní Fheorais 

Sonic Fields of Reflection
Artexte (Montreal) / October 2022
curated by Mojeanne Behzadi 

by these straits to die
Centre Clark (Montreal) / March 2022

SCREENINGS

Forgetting Is the Sun
Cubitt (London) / July 2024
curated by Seán Elder,  part of extended program for Kirsty Russell's Practicing Bodies 

PERFORMANCES

The Romance of the Sick Rose
Dundee Contemporary Arts (Dundee) / March 2026
Part of Daisy Lafarge's public program in We Contain Multitudes

FIELDNOTES Live
The Horse Hospital (London) / June 2025

Situated Institutions, Relational Practices, Liminal Studios  (with Saverio Cantoni)
Jan van Eyck Academie (Maastricht) / April 2025

Qiujiang Levi Lu (卢秋江) / Rouzbeh Shadpey / YATTA (aka. ricky sallay zoker)
Poetry Project (New York) / March 2025
Curated by Ethan Philbrick

Bimarestan (Continent of the Sick)
Dazibao (Montreal) / February 2024

Undiagnosing documenta
documenta fifteen (Kassel) / August 2022
Part of Privation in Three Acts  hosted by Decolonial Hacker, in dialogue with LE18

M2A(2M…) or a cosmotechnics of (e)viscerality
The Mosaic Rooms (London) / April 2022
Part of public program for Hayv Kahraman's Gut Feelings  

TALKS / PANELS / WORKSHOPS

si je suis malade, impudente! A Conversion Workshop
au jus (Brussels) / May 2026

Writer of Clinics, Patient of Lyrics 
Wendy's Subway (New York) / December 2025

Chronic Fatigue and the Politics of Diagnosis (with Emily Lim Rogers)
Red Medicine Podcast / July 2025

A Deferential Diagnosis of Fatigue - Participant Presentation
Jan van Eyck Academie (Maastricht) / April 2025

A Deferential Diagnosis of Fatigue
Lecture-performance followed by discussion with Nima Bassiri
Duke University Department of Cultural Anthropology (Durham) / March 2025

Properties of Voice Symposium
Rutgers Center for Cultural Analysis (New Jersey) / March 2024

Forgetting Is the Sun - Artist Talk
TULCA Festival of Visual Arts (Galway) / November 2023

Learning from fatigue
Discussion with Jonathan Sterne for Radio Insomnia
Curated by Anabelle Lacroix and Nicolas Montgermont / July 2023

L'art guérit-il? 
Panel with Mirna Abiad-Boyadjian & Vivek Venkatesh, moderated by Benoit Jodoin
by Esse arts + opinions / Foire Plural (Montreal) / April 2023

Politics of Music & Art: Experimentalism & Sonic Activism  
Panel with Shaahin Peymani, Farahnaz Hatam, Behrooz Moosavi
by Goethe-Institut in Exile / Acud Macht Neu (Berlin) / January 2023

The Pathological Earwitness 
Lecture as part of Videogram series 
Faculty of Fine Arts Brno, in collaboration with Terén and Masaryk University / December 2022

by these straits to die - Artist Talk  
Centre Clark (Montreal) / April 2022

MUSIC PERFORMANCES

Sled Island
Selected by SET Festival
Palomino (Calgary) / 2024

Dis Fig, GOLPESAR, Rony
La Sotterenea (Montreal) / 2023

Comédie première featuring GOLPESAR, Corporation and Katelyn Clark
Presented by Tropisme
Église Saint-Édouard (Montreal) / 2023

Thomas Ankersmith, Jessica Ekomane, GOLPESAR
Presented by Debaser x Artengine, in collaboration with AKOUSMA
Club Saw (Ottawa) / 2022

Séances d’écoute vol.2
Curated by Les Sympathiques
Café Resonance (Montreal) / 2021

Akousma 
Usine C (Montreal) / 2021

Festival Phenomena présente Marie Davidson et l’Oeil Nu
Opening for Marie Davidson et l'Oeil Nu
La Tulipe (Montreal) / 2021

A Body Without, and in Need (with Sam Bourgault)
MUTEK Montreal 
5e Salle Place des Arts (Montreal) / 2021

Suoni Per Il Popolo
Église Saint-Jean-de-Vianney (Montreal) / 2021

An Exercise in Empathy
Part of Code d'Accès' Portail 20-21
White Wall Studio (Montreal) / 2021

RESIDENCIES

2025         Jan Van Eyck Academie
06.2023   Berliner Festspiele X Ashkal Alwan, School for Dissident Friendships
09.2022   Celine Bureau X Revue Cigale, Writers Residency
05.2022   DAÏMÔN, Artist in residence
04.2022   Eastern Bloc X Art Volt Residency 
2021-22   Montreal Arts Interculturels, Programme Alliance