mop cap 2013 finalists' exhibition
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MOP CAP 2013 Finalists' Exhibition 15-19 October Royal College of ArtTRANSCRIPT
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Royal College of Art | Kensington Gore | London, SW7 2EU
Magic of Persia
Magic of Persia (MOP) promotes Iranian art and culture to a wider audience outside of Iran, and strives to make a notable contribution to its long-term advancement worldwide. This is accomplished by establishing programmes in modern and contemporary Iranian art, music, media and academia in partnership with world-class institutions. MOP’s programmes include:• The Magic of Persia Contemporary Art Prize (MOP CAP); a global search for the next generation of Iranian visual artists• Family days bringing together more than 120,000 people at the British Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum in London• Art residencies and exhibitions for young Iranian artists at the Delfina Foundation, Parasol unit and the Royal College of Art in London• Scholarships and grants in higher education at the Royal College of Art, London Film School, and Goldsmiths, University of London• A series of artists’ panel discussions entitled ‘Different Perspectives on Modern and Contemporary Iranian Art’, in collaboration with the British Museum.
The charity’s primary source of funding derives from the auction of artwork generously donated by established and emerging Iranian artists. Conducted by Christie’s, and held in Europe and the Middle East, the success of these fundraising events relies entirely on the participation and support of artists and patrons alike. Sponsorship from organisations and individuals also support MOP’s various projects.
MOP is a non-political, non-religious, UK registered charity (No. 1104066) established in 2004.
Magic of Persia Contemporary Art Prize
The VisionThe Magic of Persia Contemporary Art Prize (MOP CAP) is a worldwide search for the next generation of contemporary Iranian visual artists who have the potential to make a significant impact in their field. The goal of the prize is to provide an opportunity for emerging artists to gain international exposure, and to engage in artistic experimentation and cultural exchange. Through its archival material, including an online artist database and printed publications, MOP CAP aims to provide an educational interchange and contribute to the development of Iranian art and culture.
The ProcessMOP CAP is open to young, emerging Iranian visual artists, living in and outside of Iran, through an online application. The profiles of all eligible entrants to the open call are reviewed by the MOP CAP Selection Committee and a shortlist of up to 21 artists is compiled.
The MOP CAP Shortlist Exhibition in Dubai showcases works of the selected artists, at which time the Judging Panel meet to deliberate on and choose up to seven Finalists. Subsequently, an exhibition of the Finalists’ work is held in London, where the Judging Panel meet once again to select the MOP CAP Winner.
The PrizeThe MOP CAP Winner receives a one-year mentorship with curator and theorist Doreen Mende resulting in a solo exhibition at a leading gallery space in London, as well as a three-month residency at the Delfina Foundation.
Doreen Mende lives in Berlin and London. She submitted her practice-based PhD in Curatorial/Knowledge at Goldsmiths, entitled “The Itinerant,” which addresses the geopolitics of exhibiting. Mende is co-founder of the magazine DISPLAYER at HfG/ZKM Karlsruhe. In 2010, she received the Justus Bier Preis for Curators. Since 2010, she has been a faculty member of the Dutch Art Institute.
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Selection Committee Fereshteh Daftari is a curator and scholar based in New York focusing on Middle Eastern, and particularly Iranian, modern and contemporary art. From 1988 to 2009 Daftari worked at the Museum of Modern Art where she helped Kirk Varnedoe and Robert Storr organise major retrospectives, such as Cy Twombly and Chuck Close; as well as exhibiting works by artists such as Shirin Neshat and Y.Z. Kami as part of MoMA’s prestigious Projects series. Media Farzin is a New York-based critic and PhD candidate in art history at the City University of New York. She received her BFA in Painting from Tehran University and MA in Curatorial Studies from Columbia University. She is the author of numerous monographic essays on artists, and a regular contributor to Bidoun and Art-Agenda. She is a lecturer at the City College of New York, and instructor at the Museum of Modern Art. Hamid Severi is an art historian and curator based in Tehran. He has taught theoretical courses at universities and private institutions and has acted as the educational deputy at The Art and Architecture Faculty of Azad University in Tehran and as the head of the research centre of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. Severi has curated many photography and video art exhibitions and has directed many conferences. He contributes to many magazines and is currently on the editorial board of Art Tomorrow Magazine.
Judging Panel
Philippa Adams
Dr. Anthony Downey
Judging Panel
Dr. Ziba Ardalan
Irit Rogoff
Judging Panel
Mat Collishaw
Payam Sharifi
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Philippa Adams Senior Director of the Saatchi Gallery, London Philippa Adams works directly on the collection, liaising with artists and galleries on new acquisitions and commissions. Since 1998, she has worked on the Saatchi exhibitions and accompanying publications drawn from the collection, many of which have travelled to major museums and institutions worldwide.
Dr. Ziba Ardalan Founder, Director and Curator of Parasol unit, LondonA graduate in the History of Arts from Columbia University, New York, Ardalan worked as Guest-Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and went on to become the first Director/Curator of the city’s Swiss Institute. Before moving to London and founding Parasol unit, Ardalan was based in Zurich, Switzerland, where she lectured on art and worked as an Art Advisor. Ardalan has curated numerous contemporary art exhibitions, about thirty of which have been at Parasol unit. Prior to a career in art, Ardalan obtained a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry. Mat Collishaw ArtistOver the past decade, Mat Collishaw’s work has been exhibited in numerous solo shows around the world, including Camden Arts Centre, London (1995); Life/Live, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris and The Brooklyn Museum, New York (1998); Museum of Contemporary Art, Warsaw (2000); Hysteria, Freud Museum, London (2009); Retrospectre, BFI Southbank, London (2010); Creation Condemned at Blain|Southern London (2010); and Vitacide, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York (2012). Other Criteria and Thames & Hudson have published books with Collishaw’s work, and in 2010 the Victoria & Albert Museum commissioned Collishaw with a monumental onsite project, Magic Lantern.
Dr. Anthony Downey, Chair of the Judging Panel
Dr. Anthony Downey holds a Ph.D from Goldsmiths College. He is the Editor of Ibraaz (www.ibraaz.org), a research forum for visual culture in the Middle East and North Africa. He also sits on the Editorial Board of Third Text and is a Consulting Editor for Open Space (Vienna). He is a member of Advisory Board for the Kamel Lazaar Foundation; a trustee of the Maryam and Edward Eisler Foundation; and sits on the Advisory Board of Counterpoints Arts, a forum on migration and the arts. As part of the 54th Venice Bienniale,
Director of Contemporary Art Programme, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London
Judging Panel
he co-edited the catalogue for The Future of a Promise (with Lina Lazaar), and has contributed essays to publications such as Art and Patronage in the Near and Middle East (2010); Giorgio Agamben: Legal, Political and Philosophical Potentialities (forthcoming, 2013); Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art:A Sourcebook of Artist’s Writings (revised edition, 2012).
Irit Rogoff Writer, Theorist and Professor of Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths, LondonIrit Rogoff holds a university chair in Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths College, London University and is director of an AHRB funded international research project “Cross Cultural Contemporary Arts”. Professor Rogoff is head of the MA Global Arts and of the Ph.D program “Curatorial/ Knowledge” at Goldsmiths and is honorary visiting Professor at Helsinki Aalto University and at Copenhagen University. She writes extensively on conjunctions of critical theory and contemporary arts with particular interest in issues of geography, location, performativity and cultural difference. Rogoff has published “Terra Infirma - Geography’s Visual Culture” (2001); A.C.A.D.E.M.Y (2006); and “Unbounded – Limits’ Possibilities” (2012) among others and is currently working on a study of the participatory entitled “Looking Away - Participating Singularities and Ontological Communities” to be published in 2013. She has curated “De_Regulation - with the work of Kutlug Ataman” (Antwerp, Herzylia, Berlin 2006/7) and “Academy – Learning and Teaching” (Hamburg, Eindhoven, Antwerp 2005/6). Payam SharifiCo-Founder of Slavs and TatarsPayam Sharifi is an essayist, artist, and strategist concerned with the politics of culture and the culture of politics. After graduating from Columbia University, Payam received a Marshall Scholarship to attend the Royal College of Art in London where he studied for an MPhil. He is a contributing editor to the Berlin-based bi-annual 032c and the co-founder of Slavs and Tatars, a collective devoted to Eurasia who have exhibited in institutions across Europe, North America and the Middle East, including the Tate Modern, Salt, and 10th Sharjah Biennial. Slavs and Tatars’s recent solo exhibitions include Beyonsense at the MoMA, NY and Khhhhhhh at Moravian Gallery, Brno. His writing has been translated into French, Czech, Portuguese and Russian; with Slavs and Tatars, he has authored and edited several books, including Kidnapping Mountains (Book Works, 2009), Not Moscow Not Mecca (Secession/Revolver, 2012) and Molla Nasreddin: the magazine that would’ve, could’ve, should’ve (JRP-Ringier, 2011).
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MOP CAP 2013 Finalists
Claudia Djabarri Negar Farajiani Azin Feizabadi Mahmoud Mahroumi
Bijan Moosavi Anahita Norouzi Behnam Sadighi
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In my work, I try to investigate how social structures and geopolitical circumstances influence form, as well as how everyday life can be transformed into a personal formal language and be put up against a sculptural tracery. My work is based on personal observations and experiences, rather than objective analysis, and yet still touches on and questions a certain collective self-image. One of the origins of my sculptural installations is based upon the fact finding process in the questioning of how certain social stereotypes of living, working and housing manifest themselves in the world of things. A special interest here lies in the collecting, accumulating, storing and sequencing of things. Recontextualised, these objects are freed from their original function. Assembled, reproduced and referential replicas, and invented collections of things with an internal logic, function as exemplary models for projections, phantasms, social rituals, and codes.
B. 1976 / Lives and works in Munich and London 13 12
Caviar Plantations DjabbariI was seven when my father invited a befriended Austrian couple to come over for some Iranian caviar. Their behaviour differed from when they were usually invited for khoresht or chelow kabab. This time they left their child at home and arrived with a solemn look on their faces as if ready for some kind of ritual.
They were eating really fast and I thought they must be really hungry, or that they were looking forward to eating some chelow kabab afterwards. There was one tin for all of us and I felt an imbalance of supply and demand. To my surprise they left euphorically and emphasised that we should repeat this very soon.
Caviar Plantations Djabbari / 2013 / Framed C-Type print / 198 x 133 x 7 cm
Claudia Djabbari 15 14
Grand Hotel Djabbari /Bathrobe carries on the phantasm of a resort-like upmarket hotel for which the parental Orange-Garden on the Caspian Sea in northern Iran serves as the conceptual setting. Like a souvenir or trophy brought back from vacation and kept in a private closet as a representation of the whole holiday experience, the piece functions as a vignette of the phantasm Grand Hotel Djabbari, and is embedded in an abstract composition of related materials and objects. Regarding the complexities of current geopolitical circumstances in contrast to this potential holiday paradise, the very illusory character of the project unfolds.
Grand Hotel Djabbari / Bath-Robe / 2013 / Latex, ink, metal / Bathrobe: 160 x 50 x 2 cm, Installation: 200 x 160 x 70 cm
Claudia Djabbari 17 16
See you Christmas in Goa is an ensemble of referential objects on western Wanderlust.
See you Christmas in Goa / 2013 / Mixed media / Dimensions variable
Claudia Djabbari 19 18
Born in Munich, Claudia Djabbari is a German-Iranian installation, sculpture and multimedia artist currently living and working between London and Munich.
After studying Theatre Design at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and Fine Art at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich she completed her MFA at Goldsmiths College, University of London for which she received a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service.
Solo Exhibitions
2012 Migration of Dreams / Haleh Gallery / Berg, Germany2005 Perserbilder / Akademiegalerie / Munich, Germany
Selected Group Exhibitions
2013 Acting in the City / Norrköpings Konstmuseum / Norrköping, Sweden Paradise Lodge Residency / Mumbai, India MOP CAP Finalist’s Exhibition / Royal College of Art / London, UK Expedition Me dora / Schaustelle / Pinakothek der Moderne / Munich, Germany From Outside or Otherwise / Mottahedan Projects / Dubai, UAE MOP CAP Shortlist Exhibition / Dubai, UAE MC Live 2 / Van Horbourg / Zurich, Switzerland Summershow / Cul de Sac Gallery / London, UK
Biography
Solo Exhibitions
2012 Migration of Dreams / Haleh Gallery / Berg, Germany2005 Perserbilder / Akademiegalerie / Munich, Germany
Selected Group Exhibitions
2013 Acting in the City / Norrköpings Konstmuseum / Norrköping, Sweden Paradise Lodge Residency / Mumbai, India MOP CAP Finalist’s Exhibition / Royal College of Art / London, UK Expedition Me dora / Schaustelle / Pinakothek der Moderne / Munich, Germany From Outside or Otherwise / Mottahedan Projects / Dubai, UAE MOP CAP Shortlist Exhibition / Dubai, UAE MC Live 2 / Van Horbourg / Zurich, Switzerland Summershow / Cul de Sac Gallery / London, UK
Claudia Djabbari
2012 Unconscious Architecture / Visual Artists Association / Nikosia, Zypern Constructed Scenario / The Third Space / 4 Wilkes Street / London, UK Home Thoughts 2 / Cul de Sac Gallery / London, UK Winter Pavillion / Waterside Contemporary / Solo project in the Gallery-Space / London, UK2011 No Neutral Ground / German Ambassador’s Residence / London, UK Portability and Network / Spaces Gallery / Cleveland, USA The Nightingale and the Rose / Rathausgalerie / Kunsthalle Munchen / Munich, Germany Question de principe / Matter of Principle / Art Mûr / Montreal, Canada SAGS / The Woodmill / London, UK Diving for Pearls / Kunstraum Morgenstraße / Karlsruhe, Germany Perverted Minmalism Nr.3 / The Woodmill Galleryspace / London, UK Home Thoughts / The Sense of Belonging / Kunstraum / Munich, Germany 3. Edition/ S.A.L.T.S / Basel, Switzerland Für Sie / Rathhausgalerie / Landshut, Germany Für Sie ’ Kunstverein Passau / Germany Perverted Minimalism Nr.2 / Galerie Maat thias Jahn / Munich, Germany Versailles / The Gallery in Redchurch Street / London, UK LA Pedestrians (with Nicolas Grenier) / Los Angeles, USA2010 Perverted Minimalism / Minitrop 8 / Düsseldorf, Germany Outside In / Aichi Triennale 2010 / Nagoya, Japan Museum of Small Things / Selfridges / London, UK
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B. 1977 Lives and works in Yazd and Tehran 25 24
The wrestling quilt is a set of networks that create a single unified space: a circle, a battlefield.
A circle is round and dynamic, generative and immortal; it spins for all eternity. This circle could be the globe, the sun, a cell, a woman! To be in its company, you have to step into it. That is exactly when the game starts. In this game, there are companions as well as competitors and technical officials in the four corners of the circle to determine the result of the game.
Your rhythm and movements have to be strong and harmonious.And you have to know the rules of the game. If not, as in a wrestling match, you will lose your balance and you will be taken down. Thus, you will lose. Then, you have to watch the game from outside the circle.
This wrestling quilt is an idealistic image of either victory or defeat, which has been woven by women. On such a quilt, the wrestling
match, as the national and masculine sport of Iran, was played. Although today it is probable that wrestling will eliminated from the Olympic Games!
This network of cloth symbolizes the multiple identity of today’s cultural, social and political situation.
With television as the most influential media on this wrestling quilt, we face a new character and identity as they become domestic, at least in this situation, where the whole family gathers together to watch masculine, feminine, and even childish games.
Wrestling Quilt / 2013 / 5.5 x 5.5 m / Mixed media / Edition of 3
Negar Farajiani 27 26
Foot DanceIn Iranian culture, the type of unarmed, fair battle to achieve symbolic victory has always been accompanied by forgiveness as well as violence. You could witness such hand-to hand combat, for instance, on a wrestling mat. It is a challenge to survive and not to be thrown out of the small circle; or perhaps an image of masculine quality of both the participants and the spectators!
Foot Dance / 2013 / Video: PAL DV 720x576 (4:3), Audio: Stereo 48KHz 16Bit / 4 min 35 sec / Edition of 10 + 1 AP
Negar Farajiani
It has become a habit after all of these years, to challenge men to a combat to see who is the winner, and who is the loser!
In modern times, struggles have become a tool for political powers and even of hard activists for international discussions andnegotiations. Today, it is the world powers that dictate who can step into this bigger circle and begin such a masculine game to eliminate or to get eliminated!
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Who Controls the Controllers?Once our beliefs identified who the main controller was, and our beliefs made us believe that our lives were totally in His hands.
Since the earliest of times, mankind has attempted to discover the role of the controller, or a controller perhaps, in order to know how the whole universe is controlled in the hope that he could get a hold on this process. Even since man designated the borders and began this kind of game in order to take control of the way people lived, and kept pushing beyond the limits at times to control this entertaining game, the issue has always been and still is the central mystery of human life.
Today, after centuries, human control still depends on the beliefs mankind has held during the past centuries, such as the belief that the earth is surrounded by the sundering seas, which are restrained by the encircling Qaf Mountains. It is supported on the back of, and sometimes on the horns, of an ox that stands on a fish in a bowl, and all that is carried on the shoulders of an angel (Ajaib al-Makhluqat).
Who Controls The Controllers / 2013 / Video: PAL DV 720x576 (4:3), Audio: Stereo 48KHz 16Bit / 5 min / Edition of 10 + 1 AP
Negar Farajiani 31 30
Made in China/Ball is an interactive outdoor art installation. This 4 x 4 meter giant inflatable beach ball explores an invisible and inevitable power play. As it fills up with air, the ball expands and gets ready to destroy everything in its path. The project was conceptualized in Iran, produced in China, and will tour throughout the globe. Cheerful and harmless in appearance, Made In China/Ball evokes playful memories from our childhood, while simultaneously questioning economies of scale.
The tricolour ball addresses ideas and debates on globalisation and the homogenisation of cultures. This playful object pops up unexpectedly to distract people from their harsh realities. It becomes a mirage, a beautiful and unexpected surprise-filled game. However, this over-sized installation has a dual meaning: the beach ball signals a carefree
Made In China/Ball / 2013 / Video: PAL DV 720x576 (4:3), Audio: Wireless headphones / 4 min 5 sec / Edition of 10 +1 AP
Negar Farajiani
time, when play was important and the politics of production and consumption did not factor into our daily routine.
Made In China/Ball has no rules for play, and rejects the serious game that is monopolised by a few people, for the benefit of the privileged. I want the audience to play with the ball, but also ask themselves to ponder this metaphor for globalisation, and how we factor into the big game.
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Born in Iran in the historic city of Yazd, Negar Farajiani is an interdisciplinary artist and curator, living and working between Yazd and Tehran. Farajiani works with a variety of media, including installation, video, photography, painting and drawing. After graduating with a Painting Diploma from the School of Fine Arts in Yazd, and a BA in Graphic Design from the Art Institute of Tehran in 2000, she returned to Yazd and began painting abstract forms in an attempt to uncover the truths about traditional and religious life. In 2003, she moved back to Tehran to continue painting and began to exhibit her work in galleries. She has had several solo exhibitions in Iran and the USA and has been included in group exhibitions in the UK, Canada, Georgia, Brazil, China, Japan, the UAE, Kuwait and the USA.
Farajiani has consistantly considered games as a serious topic throughout her practice: her giant ball from the Factory’s Garden Project, the game of Puzzle, or the Apt 12, No.1 installation, in which all the furniture from a house was turned into children’s toys and placed in a park playground. Negar Farajiani has used games to express the concept of identity.
In 2009, Farajiani developed the Puzzle series, the concept for which arises from the confusion and mishmash of meanings in our daily lives, as a result of globalisation.
Biography
Negar Farajiani
Since 2011 Farajiani has worked on the site specific installation project ‘‘Made in China/Ball’’. A tricolour ball addresses ideas and debates on globalisation and cultural homogenisation. This playful object pops up unexpectedly in the down-town areas of cities, deserted factories, and underprivileged neighborhoods to distract people from their harsh realities. The artist states, “I want audiences to play with the ball, but also to ponder this metaphor for globalisation, and how we factor into the bigger game”.
Farajiani also focuses on social and environmental issues through collaborative project experiences. Since 2010, Farajiani has curated two large collaborative projects titled, Destination Known and Tehran Monoxide Project. Both of these long-term projects involve the public as they aim to collaboratively investigate social and environmental issues.
In 2012 her solo exhibition, titled UNDO, challenged the physical abuse, brutality, and bullying of women in Iran. In the same year she held her first solo exhibition in the USA, titled Mix & UnMatch. In March 2013, her work was displayed at the Emirates Financial Towers, in Dubai, as part of the Magic of Persia Contemporary Art Prize, where she was selected as one of the seven finalists.
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Solo Exhibitions and Projects
2013 Made in China/Ball / Toronto, Canada Made in China/Ball / Tbilisi / Rustavi, Georgia2012 Mix & Unmatch / M.I.A Gallery / Seattle, USA UNDO / Sazmanab Project / Tehran, Iran2011 Made in China/Ball / Tehran, Iran Made in China/Ball / Yazd, Iran Insect’s March / Etemad Art Gallery / Tehran, Iran 2007 Painting Exhibition / Assar Art Gallery / Tehran, Iran2004 Painting Exhibition / Assar Art Gallery / Tehran, Iran 2002 Painting Exhibition / Assar Art Gallery / Tehran, Iran
Group Exhibitions
2013 The Third Space / York Quay Gallery / Toronto, Canada SubTehran: Subjective truth from Iran / CCA-Tbilisi / Tbilisi, Georgia Don Quixote / Aun Gallery / Tehran, Iran Tehran Calling London/London Calling Tehran / London, UK Magic of Persia Contemporary Art Prize Shortlist Exhibition / Emirates Financial Towers / Dubai, UAE 2012 Encore / M.I.A Gallery / Seattle, USA Void / Sareban Gallery / Tehran, Iran 2011 On Paper; Without A Name / Parkingallery / Tehran, Iran The invisible present video Program at Oi Futuro / Public Project by Factory’s Garden / Rio, Brazil Public A rt / The Second Contemporary Art Exhibition / Sanandaj, Iran A Report and an Exhibition of Factory’s Garden / Mohsen Art Gallery / Tehran, Iran Tehran Monoxide Project / Manzoumeh Kherad Institute / Tehran, Iran 13 x 18 / Etemad Art Gallery / Tehran, Iran Factory’s Garden / Site-Specific Installation / Yazd, Iran
Biography
2010 Exhibition for Charity (Khaneh Khorshid) / Tehran, Iran 2009 Painting Exhibition / Iranian Arts Forum / Tehran, Iran 2008 Painting Exhibition for Charity / Dar-ol-Fonoon Gallery / Kuwait City, Kuwait2007 New Trend of Iranian Painting, Collected Memories / Art Space Gallery / London, UK Exhibition of Contemporary of Iranian Arts / Iran Heritage / London, UK Painting Exhibition / Assar Art Gallery / Tehran, Iran Painting Exhibition / Iranian Arts Forum / Tehran, Iran Painting Exhibition / Baran Art Gallery / Tehran, Iran 2006 Painting Exhibition / Assar Art Gallery / Tehran, Iran2005 China Expo / Beijing, China Painting Exhibition / Assar Art Gallery / Tehran, Iran 2004 Painting Exhibition / Assar Art Gallery / Tehran, Iran 2000 Self-Promotional Posters Exhibition / Museum of Contemporary of Art / Tehran, Iran1999 Children Book Illustration / Noma, Japan Children Book Illustration Exhibition / Museum of Contemporary of Art / Tehran, Iran1995 Painting Exhibition / Fine Art School / Painting Exhibition / Yazd, Iran
Curating Experience
2013 Monoxide 2 / Manzoumeh Kherad Institute / Tehran, Iran 2012 Destination Known “Sha’rbafi” Kashan 256 km / Kashan, Iran 2011 Monoxide 1 / Manzoumeh Kherad Institute / Tehran, Iran Destination Known “Factory’s Garden” Yazd 677 km / Yazd, Iran
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The three works “Conference of the Birds”, “Chronicles from Majnun until Layla – Stage 1 – The Museum of Modern Iranian History” and “Enqelab”, exhibited at the MOP CAP 2013 Finalists’ Exhibition, are part of Azin Feizabadi’s ongoing project “A Collective Memory”.
Act IIIAs part of I is A Collective Memory, nothing of I is contemporary;I, my love, I am I & I, not a political artist. In the same manner as I do not speak your language! I don’t speak any language!But ‘The Agent of Love, Language and Misunderstanding’ I am.
Act IIV“A Collective Memory” was launched in 2009 as a research and production framework, in response to the socio-political transformations in Iran and across the Middle East. The approach of this multidisciplinary series is characterised by the use of a poetic grammar to combat the three-act-narrative structure of (his)story telling and by capturing and collecting dreams, subjective stories and subconscious facts from the past, present and future historical events.
Swaying between fiction and reality, aesthetics and politics, A Collective Memory aims to connect various transitional moments in recent history. Through its multiple reiterations, the multi-chaptered project looks for spaces of political imagination and emancipatory participation, alternative ways of historiography that are based on notions of ‘projection’, ‘spectres’ and ‘time travel’, instead of merely foreseeing the past.
B. 1982 / Lives and works in Berlin 41 40
Architectural model of ‘The Museum of Modern Iranian History’ Interior view
Ready Made. School Book: History of Iran
List of contents & Introduction school book. English
Print. Logo of the Museum exterior view
Azin Feizabadi
Chronicles from Majnun until Layla – Stage 1 – Museum of Modern Iranian History / 2011-2013 / Architectural Model (Print, Plexi Glass, Wooden Plate, Trestles, Modelling Tree’s and Figures) Graphic (Drawing on Print, Framed) Library (Book, Prints & Texts) Sculpture (Kapa, Film Projector, Light, Shadow) / Dimensions variable / Edition of 3 +1 AP
3D Object. Fragment of the Museum
43 42
Chronicles from Majnun until Layla is a film project structured in three phases:Stage 1 – The Museum of Modern Iranian History (2013 – 2011)Stage 2 – Layla and Majnun (In preparation)Stage 3 – The Film (In preparation)Each with their own approach, format and mode of presentation, stages 1 and 2 are conceived as preparation for the 3rd and final stage: the merging moment, which is in the form of a feature-length futuristic hybrid fiction-documentary film.
Synopsis:“Chronicles from Majnun until Layla”, depicts a couple, lovers, visiting a virtual museum of modern Iranian history. Within the film, the lovers appear both as themselves and as “Layla and Majnun”, characters adapted from a classical Middle Eastern love tale. The film portrays the couple walking through the museum whilst engaging in dialogues about individual and collective stories, memories, dreams, rages, and desires. The lovers’ affairs, the actor’s performances and conversations, interact with the tale of histories from within the museum: representations,
“documentations” of major historical moments of Iran including the 1906 constitutional revolution; the Green Movement uprising of 2009; the coup d’état in 1953; the oil nationalisation movement; and the 1979 revolution, amongst others.
Stage 1 – The Museum of Modern Iranian History:Inspired by the system of Persian miniature painting, through the architectural design of the museum (the site of the dramaturgy), different times are meant to merge with each other and become part of a single moment. By using direct references from an official narrative taken from the “Contemporary History of Iran”, a third-year high-school book, the imaginary museum itself causes the various historical periods of Iran to transform into a ‘Kairos’ –the Now–, contradicting ‘Chronos’ and the “scientific and analytical historiography”. The architecture of the museum is designed in such a way that it represents the history of Iran not as vertical, but rather as horizontal. This structure evokes the non-ephemeral and non-physical characteristics of the black-box, which are the necessary tools that allow the spectator in the later stage to become a participant in the film: editor, and narrative producer.
Azin Feizabadi 45 44
EnqelabThe sculptural installation ‘‘Enqelab’’ consists of a replica of a seat/chair from the former plenary meeting hall of the Baharestan Parliament Building (the first Iranian Parliamentary Building that was used officially as a legislative building from the Constitutional Movement in 1906 until the Iranian Revolution of 1979), which has been demounted and installed as a script of the word ENQELAB.
Accompanied by a booklet containing illustrations and background information on Baharestan and the historical path of the parliament building,a handwritten text on the platform/pedestal translates the word ENQELAB as follows: Means in Farsi ‘Revolution’ In Arabic it means ‘Coup d’état’.No equivalent meaning In US and British English.
Enqelab / 2013 / Wood sculpture, installation, booklet (illustration and text) / 4.5 x 2 m / Edition of 3 + 1 AP / Produced with the support of the Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin
Azin Feizabadi 47 46
Conference of the Birds Drawing on the medieval saga Mantiq at-Tayr, composed in 1177 by the Sufi poet Attar, the eponymous project ‘‘Conference of the Birds’’ is a cinematically projected event that takes the form of a narrative film. The scene is a trial in an empty, abandoned space, a no-where, a moment in-between time. There are two characters: a judge and the accused. The accused is a filmmaker who has made an amorous film in order to illuminate the distance between himself and his beloved. Following the film’s completion, he is arrested and
Conference of the Birds 2011 / HD Video, colour & B/W, stereo sound / Dimensions variable / Edition of 5 + 1 AP
Azin Feizabadi
accused of creating a film that has induced hypnosis amongst the citizens, causing them to rise up and turn their inner reality outward into the public sphere.
Spread out across these two narratives the spectator migrates, together with the voiceover, through seven acts as the group of birds travel through seven valleys in search of the ‘bird of the birds’, the Simorgh. Arriving at the final scene, the seventh stage, all the answers are supposed to be given and yet, nothing will be revealed.
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Born in Tehran, Azin Feizabadi is a Berlin-based filmmaker and visual artist. He graduated with an MFA from The New School in 2011, and attained a ‘Meisterschueler’ degree from the University of the Arts Berlin in 2009.
In 2006, together with Kaya Behkalam, Feizabadi co-founded the art collective Reloading Images, a platform for artistic research as well as curatorial and publishing projects in the Middle East and Europe. He has designed and co-edited the Reloading Images Publication Series as well as the book ‘then we went to search of some where to stay the night’ (together with Ashkan Sepahvand and Sohrab Mohebbi, for the Sharjah Biennial 2011), amongst others.
Feizabadi is currently a lecturer at the trans-disciplinary institute ‘Studium Generale’ of the University of the Arts in Berlin 2013/2014.
Selected Screenings and Exhibitions
Upcoming Deutsche Herbst salon / Palais am Festungsgraben & Maxim Gorki Theater / Berlin, Germany2013 Physical Principles for the Choice of Red, Green & Blue / Exhibition Space Beirut / Cairo, Egypt (RE)written (UN)written / Galerie im Koernerpark / Berlin, Germany2012 Berlinale - Forum Expanded / Berlin, Germany Conference of the Birds / Townhouse Gallery / Cairo, Egypt The Stage / Heidelberger Kunstverein / Heidelberg, Germany2011 Iran via Video Current / Thomas Erben Gallery / New York, USA
Biography
2010 Gruppenbild / n.b.k. / Berlin, Germany Being Visible / CHAN Contemporary Art Association / Genoa, Italy On Rage / House of World Cultures Berlin / Berlin, Germany Handheld History / Queens Museum of Art / New York, USA How To Do Things With Words / Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, New York, USA2009 Baz in che Shooresh Ast / Silk Road Gallery / Tehran, Iran Creative Rights / Art Laboratory / Berlin, Germany2008 Katasrophenalam / NGBK / Berlin, Germany2007 European Media Art Festival / Osnabrueck, Germany 2006 52nd Short Film Festival Oberhausen / Oberhausen, Germany 55th Short Film Festival Hamburg / Hamburg, Germany
Selected curatorial projects
2012 Citizens Reporting, A Collective Memory / Four-day symposium and screening at Mind Pirates e.V. / Berlin, Germany2010 Reloading Images Series / House of World Cultures / Berlin, Germany2007-2008 Reloading Images / Damascus, Syria2006-2007 Reloading Images / Berlin, Germany & Tehran, Iran
Azin Feizabadi 51 50
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B. 1976 / Lives and works in Tehran
The itch over the body or ’’what the sculpture is demanding from me’’
Seventeen years have passed since, as a labourer, I made casts for the construction of lamp posts. One of my main tasks was to make sure that the moulds were tight enough that the concrete would be secure. If the nuts and bolts that were fastened into the cast did not operate properly the frame would not withstand the concrete’s pressure, rejecting the cast. While working with my materials during this period, I experienced many problems, which ultimately paved my way. These problems included the control and discipline of the materials, the transformation of liquids to solids, interiors, deterioration and entropy, as well having things in order and the split of modernised totalitarian ideas. Each time I tried to escape from this itching pattern, or attempt to start a different game, I fell back into it, in one way or another, as if such a snag was pleasant to me. It has been seventeen years that I have been scratching this itch; this huge snag has become a massive mould for me.
55 54
Ah (sigh)Birth is to differ from a whole. There is no hope for the one in the grave to be released, though the prisoner always carries the hope of becoming free and seeks the revealing moment. In this piece, I am not interested in archiving or preserving, however I aim at mixing the energy
Ah (sigh) / 2012 / Concrete, sigh (breath), plastic bag / 15 x 100 x 100cm / Full set, edition of 1. Each cube, edition of 25.
of being-ness with memory and bury them under the cement to make them unreachable.
This piece was made after a few visits to Evin Prison in Tehran, where the political prisoners were kept. During these visits I met some of the mothers of the prisoners who were hoping to meet with their children outside of the prison. I provided them with clear plastic bags and asked them to sigh into them.
Eventually a selection of these bags was hidden inside cement cubes and the number of the prisoners’ cells was engraved on them.
Mahmoud Mahroumi 57 56
Destruction is the first and last way to blot out deletion or destroy a phenomenon or an existence In this participatory piece, the aim was to produce a monument of mass destruction. Despite the fact that blinking in passport photos is not accepted by international rule, in this project the audience/participants were asked to stand in front of a camera and take a photo of themselves (using a shutter release cable) while rapidly blinking. After printing the images, which contained an act that is disapproved of, the participants were encouraged to use the shredder provided in order to demolish the printed photos.
The pulp that was produced by hundreds of demolished photos was then molded into a number of cubical monuments, as a gesture of destruction.
Destruction is the first and last way to blot out deletion or destroy a phenomenon or an existence 2012 / Mixed media / 150 x 300 x 80cm / Installation, edition of 1. Cubes, edition of 3.
Mahmoud Mahroumi 59 58
On Our TableDear compatriots get ready for the supper. Our host. Brother prepare a table, as promised. Our share of this table is the endurance of this suffering.
On our table is the memorial of violence used to destroy the collective honor and dignity.
On Our Table / 2013 / Bronze, oil / 27 x 120 x 120 cm / Full set, edition of 1. Each cube, edition of 25.
Mahmoud Mahroumi 61 60
On Our Table / 2013 / Bronze, oil / 27 x 120 x 120 cm / Full set, edition of 1. Each cube, edition of 25.
Mahmoud Mahroumi graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Sculpture in 2004 from the Faculty of Fine Art Tehran University, Iran
Solo Exhibitions
2008 Stipulation / Ave Art Gallery / Tehran, Iran
Group Exhibitions2013 MOP CAP 2013 Shortlist Exhibition / Emirates Financial Towers / Dubai, UAE2012 Farvahar Art Gallery / Tehran, Iran Belgium Embassy / Tehran, Iran2011 6th Sculptural Biennial / Tehran, Iran2007 4th Sculpture Biennial / Tehran, Iran2003 3rd Sculpture Biennial / Tehran, Iran 3rd Conceptual Art Exhibition / Tehran Fine Art University / Tehran, Iran2002 2nd Conceptual Art Exhibition / Contemporary Art Museum of Tehran / Tehran,Iran2001 1st Conceptual Art Exhibition / Contemporary Art Museum of Tehran, Tehran, Iran2000 2nd Sculpture Biennial / Tehran, Iran
Biography 63 62
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B. 1983 / Lives and works in London
Being born into a communist family who were highly involved in the Iranian Revolution of 1979, I inherited an unwillingness towards taking part in public life in the Islamic society. Having been initiated at an early age and developing through time, this unwillingness eventually left me in a state of remoteness, separating me from the society. From early childhood, in order to put up with the isolation, I took refuge in the world of sound and music. Since music was frowned upon by the Iranian government I decided to engage with it as a hobby and do a graphic design degree at university instead. A few years later though, having completed my first album of rock music, I found myself part of a movement known as “Iranian Underground Music”. While through rhythm, melody and lyric I learned how to tell stories, studying graphic design familiarised me with techniques of visual production, as well as ideas of presentation and communication via different mediums. Since then, video and sound have become the main elements of my artistic creation.
Since the early 2000’s, and as the accessibility of satellite television in the highly controlled society of Iran became increasingly vast, I started to gain an interest in television as the most popular means of mass communication around the globe. Additionally I was interested in the fact that it was enabling me to peep into the outside world from the comfort of my home at the touch of a button. The introduction of the Internet around the same time also facilitated access to the free flow of information, while creating the possibility of interacting with the ‘outside’.
Having been in England for more than two years now, and being exposed to almost endless sources of information and knowledge, especially through mass media and the Internet, this interest has expanded quite rapidly. This is not only because these tools have given me the chance to discover the new society I’m living in, but also because it has provided me with greater access and the ability to follow events back in my country, Iran.
Taking more or less the position of an observer, what I am seeking in my practice at the moment is to study, analyse and reflect upon the societal behaviours and the politics as they are reflected through means of mass communication and most predominantly through television and the Internet. What I find fascinating in this practice are the methods of production, presentation and consumption of sound and image, and the politics involved in different stages of this process, in addition to the ways in which contemporary history unfolds through mass media, how it affects and relates to the society, and how people react to it.
67 66
Iran Through Airwaves is a multi-channel sound installation in which six of the most popular local Iranian radio stations are streamed into the gallery. First exhibited at Enjoy Art Space in Leeds, the installation is meant to create a real-time sonic experience of being in public spaces in Iran. At the same time, ‘‘Iran Through Airwaves’’ creates a sonic environment that reflects and creates an impression of the sound cultures that exist within those political borders.
Considering the fact that the audio materials and radio programmes used in the installation consist of much of the same sonic ingredients (due to the use of the Iranian language on a massive scale, Iranian musical traditions and even the vigilant choice of particular types of musical and other sonic and literary products that would meet with the Islamic principles of the state and have become a tradition since the 1979 revolution in Iran, etc.), ‘‘Iran Through Airwaves’’ attempts to put this idea into practice and to examine whether this collection of sounds brought together as a whole is capable of creating a unique and distinctive atmosphere reminiscent of the cultural characteristics of the Iranian nation through the medium of sound.
Bijan Moosavi
Iran Through Airwaves / 2012 / 6 speakers, Iranian flag, stick, clock, laptop, cables, 14” display, DVD player / Dimensions variable / Edition 1 of 2 + 1 AP
69 68
The Sound And The FuryIn 2009, after the presidential election in Iran, a number of protests and demonstrations took place in some of the major cities of Iran. These were later followed by other countries in the region to become known as the ’Arab Spring’. Thousands of video clips were made by people in the streets and uploaded to YouTube, filling the news channels all over the world as the only visual source of information reflecting what was happening in these places. But what seems to be appearing for a few seconds on the safe television screen and in the comfort of someone’s living room could hold a life-changing story within its every frame for every individual who witnessed the event in person.
“The Sound and the Fury” attempts to stretch out and articulate a horrendous emotional experience I shared with a number of random people at a certain time and space back in Tehran in 2009 through the medium of sound, ac-
The Sound and the Fury / 2012 / Audio, video, HD 1080p25, Stereo 48KHz / 6 min 10 sec / Edition 1 of 4 + 1 AP
companied by video footage made by anonymous people present at that very incident, which I surprisingly happened to discover through YouTube later on. The sound in this piece consists of field recordings of the protests in Tehran as well as extremely high and low frequencies which draw upon the ideas of sonic weaponry.
Bijan Moosavi 71 70
All That Is Solid Melts Into Air2013 / Framed 40” flat screen, 2 speakers mounted on stands, DVD player / Dimensions variable / Edition 1 of 2 + 1 AP
Bijan Moosavi 73 72
All That Is Solid Melts Into AirThe ‘Supreme Leader’ in the political system of the Islamic Republic of Iran holds the ultimate authority. Despite the fact that the president and members of the parliament are elected by the people’s vote, at his will, the leader has the power to remove any of them. Although the leader attempts not to play a role in the process of the election or apply his views onto it directly, the position that the constitution and the Islamic regime have provided for him in the past two decades, and through a variety of political and social strategies, have given him the position of an untouchable holy figure who is responsible for guiding the Iranian society morally and ethically. In fact many of the critics of the Islamic Republic of Iran believe that it is this very position in Iran’s political system that contradicts fundamental democratic principles, and a transition to a genuine democratic system would happen only by eliminating such a position.
From the time of its establishment, the Islamic regime has succeeded in brutally eliminating the opposition from political and social activities, reducing the political scene in Iran down to two main parties: the conservatives and the reformists; both of which are still faithful to Islam and obedient to the supreme leader. Following the 2009 presidential election though, and following the support of the totalitarian leader of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who was the conservative candidate against the reformists, an incident occurred in the political and social climate of the country which, more than ever, challenged the position of the ‘Supreme Leader’. In the months following the election, this incident began to reflect through different layers of the Iranian society.
After the results of the presidential election came out in favour of Mahmoud Ahmadenejad,
supporters of the reformist candidates flooded the streets, believing that electoral fraud had taken place. In his speech following the election, the leader clearly expressed his support for Ahmadinejad and asked for the riots to come to an end. The speech resulted in serious confrontations between the protesters and the government, which resulted in tens of people being killed and hundreds being arrested. It was only after the killings that for the first time on the streets of Tehran and other cities, people started shouting against the leader himself. On the other hand the brutal measures taken by the regime against the protesters provoked a number of political and cultural figures within the main body of the government. In the months following the 2009 election these reactions were reflected through the society in different forms: from open letters blaming the leader for being responsible for the losses, to documents disclosing the supreme
leader’s personal life which were being circulated amongst people. However, the indication of this challenge at its highest level was reflected at the presidential endorsement ceremony and through Iranian national television. The supreme leader, who had thought of supporting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the most practical way to keep the reformists from gaining power, was now faced with Ahmadinejad’s demand for power as the highest administrative authority in the country.
At the endorsement ceremony of the president conducted by the supreme leader, which took place on the 3rd of August 2009, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who at a similar ceremony four years ago had kissed the leader’s hand and cheeks as a sign of “closeness and loyalty”, decided to go for his shoulder this time, featuring an awkward moment between the two men.
Bijan Moosavi 75 74
Biography
Bijan Moosavi received an MA in Audio Post Production from Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds in 2012, and a BA in Graphic Design from the Islamic Azad University, Tehran in 2007.
Solo Exhibitions
2013 Iran Through Airwaves / ENJOY / Leeds, UK
Group Exhibitions and Screenings
2013 Magic of Persia Contemporary Art Prize Shortlist Exhibition / Emirates Financial Towers / Dubai, UAE The Strange Impression of Seeing Things for the First Time / Mile End Art Pavilion / London, UK2012 Echochroma IX / Leeds Metropolitan University / Leeds, UK2011 Unity / Leeds Metropolitan University / Leeds, UK2010 Human Emotion Project / Mohsen Art Gallery / Tehran, Iran Tehran: 1mile² / Azad Art Gallery / Tehran, Iran Limited Access II / Azad Art Gallery / Tehran, Iran2009 Human Emotion Project / Formverk Gallery / Eskilstuna, Sweden2008 International Roaming Biennial of Tehran / Bethanien / Berlin, Germany International Roaming Biennial of Tehran / Hafriyat Karakoy / Istanbul, Turkey
Discography
2013 Turn Around The Receiver / CD – Digital2007 In My Headphones / CD – Digital
Music Performances
2012 SOAS University of London / London, UK 1in12 Club / Bradford, UK2011 Free Word Centre / London, UK2010 Prague Cafe / Tehran, Iran Sazmanab Project / Tehran, Iran Vino Cafe / Tehran, Iran Urban Lousy / Berlin, Germany 2009 Dogzstar Club / Istanbul, Turkey Gusar Club / Belgrade, Serbia Zica Club / Belgrade, Serbia Azad Art Gallery / Tehran, Iran2008 Galerie Wallywoods / Berlin, Germany New Yorck im Bethanien / Berlin, Germany
Bijan Moosavi 77 76
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One Hundred Cypresses / 2013 / Video documentation of performance / 2 hours 5 mins / Dimensions variable / Colour, sound / Edition of 3
B. 1983 / Lives and works in Montreal 81 80
We all knew that here is the place of ordinary objectsHere I am standing where I belong. The world is around me. I am at the centre of my world as if I turn and move, so will the place around me.
Here I am standing in this place, assertive, rigid, and aloof. I’m standing upright, feeling my full human stature, watching the horizon expanding toward four cardinal points; I command the place and my experience of the place. Does solitude jostle the sense of immensity?
This man-altered space continues the efforts of my father’s fathers to heighten awareness by creating a tangible world that articulates their experiences; those that are deeply felt as well as those that can be verbalised, individual as well as collective. This monument is a small part of a ‘whole’-- the history, which can represent and reflect the whole. It is a temporal space, not significant, but experienced through the historical
Anahata Norouzi
We all knew that here is the place of ordinary objects / 2013 / Four-channel video installation / 18 min 25 sec / Dimensions variable / Colour / Edition of 3
memory of a nation. That explains how an abandoned temple transforms to a mystical space; it imputes a personality into the place whose epic swings between the two poles of history and myth.
The past reincarnates into a mosque, a man-made landscape and makes it timeless; immune from the erosion of time.
83 82
Tehran, the Apocalypse The question of ‘violence’ is not a new issue; all Iranians have somehow experienced it; be it in a subjective or objective way. The gradual process of imposing violence on society has been valourised and institutionalised through political authorities and religious practices as well as Iranians’ socio-historical experience. What is crucial to note is the increasing metastasization of the violence and its interjection into the core citizens’ lives. The occurrences in “Seadat Abad – Meidan Kaj”* evidence this very process. Society constantly vents outside pressure within itself, which in turn causes a gradual transformation of citizens in to reproducing machines of violence. Disregarding the active (murderer) or the passive (observer) roles of citizens in such circumstances, the displacement of the space of violence - from private to public - indicates the fact that violence has turned into a conventional, formulaic,
and over-simplified phenomenon. As a result, we are faced with a collective passivity with a structure and ethics that stem from its prime essence; a society in which morality is paralysed.
This work is not video art but rather the documentation of a performance in which I, as a citizen-artist who is socio-psychologically a result of such a society, attempt to push my limits. This is achieved experimentally by placing myself in a situation in which I examine my capability to involve myself in the act of reproducing violence at an ultimate level; a level which is beyond my capacity to tolerate. The public sphere (here, a national park) is a ground that provides me with the opportunity to regard myself again.
Art is representational; however there is a difference between representing and reproducing. In this work, I intended to reduce the gap between the two as little as possible, in order to re-present
Tehran, the Apocalypse / 2012 / Video documentation of performance / 5 min 50 sec / Dimensions variable / Colour, sound / Edition of 3
Anahata Norouzi
the subject as overtly as possible (which itself is an ultimate matter). “I”, as a citizen, am transformed in to the producer of such a degree of violence; when just a few minutes earlier I was completely unaware of what I would be capable of carrying out.
*A man stabbed and killed another man in front of a large crowd. Passers-by recorded the scene on cell-phone cameras and passively watched the victim bleed to death.
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Biography
Anahita Norouzi is an Iranian born, Montreal based artist, who graduated from Soureh University, Tehran in 2007 and Concordia University, Montreal in 2013. Norouzi’s practice engages with a variety of media, but primarily utilises photography and video. In her art practice, self-representation is an integral component.She frequently uses self-portraiture as means of engaging with various contemporary social situations. By merging the images and voices of personal experiences with socio-cultural reflections, her body of work revolves primarily around the idea of questioning the representation of the position one holds as a minority within a socio-political system.
Anahata Norouzi
Selected Group Exhibitions
2013 Ultramodern / Art Mur / Montreal, Canada Sortie / Ecole des Beaux-arts / Montreal, Canada Le Festival Des Arts de Montreal Nord / Montreal, Canada2012 14 / Stewart Hall Gallery / Montreal, Canada Tehran, Virtual or Real? / Aaran Gallery / Tehran, Iran2010 New Folder 1 / Silk Road Gallery / Tehran, Iran 2009 “Ashura” / Silk Road Gallery / Tehran, Iran Black and White / Art Center Gallery / Tehran, Iran Appropriation Allowed / Aaran Gallery / Tehran, Iran 2008 Landscape / Mah-Mehr Gallery / Tehran, Iran 11th Biennial of Iranian Photography / Tehran, Iran2006 10th Biennial of Iran Photography / Tehran, Iran Famous Slide Show / Tehran, Iran 2005 Sachsenhausen and Stone Garden / Khak Gallery / Tehran, Iran2004 First Iranian Dialogue Festival / Tehran, Iran
Honours and Awards
2014 Graduate Mobility Award for the project No-place-land / Concordia University, Montreal, QC2013 Finalist / Magic of Persia Contemporary Art Prize / London, UK 2012 Partial Tuition Scholarship for International Students / Concordia University, Montreal, QC
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Holidays / 2012 / C-Print / 80 x 100 cm / Edition 1 of 5 + 1 AP
B. 1979 / Lives and works in Sari
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Holidays / 2012 / C-Print / 80 x 100 cm / Edition 2 of 5 + 1 AP (Opposite top)
Holidays / 2010 / C-Print / 80 x 100 cm / Edition 1 of 5 + 1 AP (Opposite bottom)
Holidays / 2012 / C-Print / 80 x 100 cm / Edition 1 of 5 + 1 AP (Above)
Holidays | 2012-2010In this documentary project, I focus on a group of Iranian youth who travel together to be in nature, where they can pass their holiday calmly. Despite choosing a deserted location, they sense that something is wrong; that something is not under their control. It seems as though they have brought their boredom with them. All of this in turn has an effect on their relationships as well as the nature surrounding them.
Behnam Sadighi 93 92
The Last Day Alireza & Parisa & Avesta - Australia / 2013 / C-Print / 80 x 100 cm / Edition 1 of 5 + 1 AP
The Last Day Saeid - Turkey / 2013 / C-Print / 80 x 100 cm / Edition 1 of 5 + 1 AP (Opposite)
The Last Day Manijeh - U.S.A / 2013 / C-Print / 80 x 100 cm / Edition 1 of 5 + 1 AP
The Last Day | 2013 -2011 (work in progress)This ongoing series looks at the emigration of Iranian youth, to distant countries where they aspire to find a better situation and lead a successful life. They leave their own country, not to experience new things, but as a form of evacuation, like those who are flood-stricken and forced to seek refuge in a foreign land. This is a daily experience, visiting
Behnam Sadighi
young students who are trying desperately to leave their country; some wishing to pursue their educational goals and others seeking permanent residency abroad.
This project presents their last portraits, taken before they leave their motherland, as a memory for them to hold, of a land that they may never see again.
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Unfocused Moments | 2013Accustomed as we are, we pass by peeping at each other, close to each other, yet unknown and inattentive. We are strangers to each other and untraceable.
On the sidewalks of Tehran streets and in the flickering lights, the darkness spaces everything quickly. I move around slowly here and there in a labyrinth of passageways, in a city that hides any sign of the existence of its people. I turn my head around in search of a familiar sound. In a moment when I am about to find familiar faces, they run away from my field of vision and disappear into the blackness.
I cannot recall the way I see. Sounds are not the guide here. They only augment the wandering.
Unfocused Moments / 2013 / Video, colour, sound / 10 min / Edition 1 of 5 + 1 AP
Behnam Sadighi 97 96
2008 Received BA in Photography from the Faculty of Fine Art, University of Tehran, Iran
2012-Present Photography instructor at the Professional Photography School, Tehran, Iran | 2012-2013 Photography instructor at the Tehran Technical Complex, Tehran, Iran | 2012 Photography instructor at the University of Applied Science and Technology, Sari, Iran | 2011-Present Photography instructor at the Free Education Center, Tehran Iran | 2009-2011 Photography instructor at Mayzar Higher Education Institute, Nour, Iran | 2003-2008 Photojournalist for Culture & Research Magazine, Jam E Jam Newspaper, Ayandeh No Newspaper and Soureh Photo Agency
Solo Exhibitions
2013 Holidays / Silk Road Gallery / Tehran, Iran2011 Ekbatan, West of Tehran / Faryad Gallery / Kerman, Iran2010 Ekbatan, West of Tehran / Gallery of Hoze Honari / Shiraz, Iran Ekbatan, West of Tehran / Gallery of Hoze Honari Guilan / Rasht, Iran2009 Ekbatan, West of Tehran / Aria Gallery / Tehran, Iran2004 Life in Bam / Iranian Artist Forum Gallery / Tehran, Iran
Selected Group Exhibitions
2013 Magic of Persia Contemporary Art Prize Shortlist Exhibition / Emirates Financial Towers / Dubai, UAE2012 Art Takes Times Square / Billboard Presentation / New York, USA 2011 Presence / Aria Gallery / Tehran, Iran National Museum of Fine Art / Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan2010 Mohsen Gallery / Tehran, Iran Photography and Installation / Boomerang Art Gallery / Tehran, Iran
Biography
2008 Portrait in Photography and Painting / Molaeian Gallery / Babol, Iran2007 Self Portrait of Photographers / Gallery of Iranian Photographers Center / Tehran, Iran2006 Nowrouz / Laleh Gallery / Tehran, Iran
Selected Awards
2012 1st prize / 4th Mashhad National Photo Festival / Mashhad, Iran2011 1st prize / 2nd Hamrahan Festival / Rasht, Iran2010 1st prize / 3rd Photo Festival of Islamic Azad University / Tehran, Iran2009 2nd prize / Festival of Iranian Young Cinema Society / Oroumieh, Iran2008 3rd prize / Firouzeh Festival / Tabriz, Iran 2nd prize / Black and white Festival / Tehran, Iran 3rd prize / Festival of Traveling with Train / Tehran, Iran2007 3rd prize / For Better Life Festival / Tehran, Iran 1st prize / Tehran’s Film and Photo Festival of Students / Tehran, Iran 1st prize / Environment Contest / Tehran, Iran 2nd prize / Health Photo Contest / Iran 3rd prize / Documentary Photo Contest of Iran / Isfahan, Iran2006 Honorable Mention / Kaveh Golestan Press Photo Contest / Tehran, Iran 3rd prize / Annual Photo Contest of Iran / Rasht, Iran2005 1st prize / Abrang Festival / Mashhad, Iran2004 1st prize / Palms of hope Festival / Tehran, Iran2003 2nd prize / Festival of Iranian Young Cinema Society / Qazvin, Iran 2nd prize / Annual Photo Contest of Iran / Rasht, Iran 1st prize / Humor Festival Of Hozeye Honari / Tehran, Iran2002 1st prize / Ghasedak haye Soukhteh / Tehran, Iran 1st prize / Our City Photo Contest / Tehran, Iran
Publications
2010 Ekbatan, West of Tehran / EYE Books Series / Mahriz Publication
Behnam Sadighi 99 98
Special Thanks
The Art NewspaperCanvas MagazineMaryam EislerChris FranklinColin Morris Saghi Oushal TFCornerstone
Acknowledgements
Philippa AdamsFiza AkramAlborz Fine ArtLeila AmiriDr Ziba Ardalan The Art Newspaper Parul AryaAaron CezarMat CollishawCrown Fine ArtFereshteh DaftariDelfina FoundationDr. Anthony Downey Sherry FarhadiMohammad Hasham Firouz Delfina EntrecanalesShadi FahidMedia Farzin
Harriet GordonHarper’s Bazaar Art ArabiaSara KalantariSahar Khajeh Michael-Henry KrayemSoroush Lashkari [Hichkas]Nikki MeftahMichael MichaelArsalan Mohammad Morris AssociatesViolet PakzadPrint Pro MediaIrit RogoffSiavash SabbaManzar SamiiHamid SeveriPayam SharifiNoor SoussiMohammad Yarand
Imprint This catalogue has been published on the occasion of the Magic of Persia Contemporary Art Prize 2013 Finalists’ Exhibition
Trustees
Sara Amiri - TrusteeShirley Elghanian - Chairman of the Board of Trustees Shirin Elghanayan - Secretary of the Board of Trustees Vajihe Soleymani - Treasurer of the Board of Trustees Asal Sobati - Trustee
Committee
Shirley Elghanian - Chief ExecutiveFereshte Moosavi - Art DirectorSharareh Naghibi - Bookkeeper/TreasurerAlexandra Terry - Art Director and Curator
Catalogue design
Sahar Khajeh - Graphic [email protected]
Printed byPrint Pro Mediawww.printpromedia.com
Magic of Persia16A Lowndes Square, London, SW1X 9HB, UKT: +44 (0) 207 235 8026, F: +44 (0) 207 259 [email protected], www.mopcap.com
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Index
Acknowledgements 102Djabbari, Claudia 10 Exhibition Programme 1Farajiani, Negar 22Feizabadi, Azin 38Finalists 8Imprint 103Judging Panel 5Magic of Persia 2Magic of Persia Contemporary Art Prize 3Mahroumi, Mahmoud 52Moosavi, Bijan 64Norouzi, Anahita 78Sadighi, Behnam 88Selection Committee 4Special Thanks 102
