Category: Uncategorized

I’m not sleep, just closed my eyes, Fatemeh Pasha at Azad Art Gallery

I’m not sleep, just closed my eyes


“Looking” is the most basic form of painting, both historically and experimentally speaking. Countless images exist only within the minds; images that are nowhere to be found except through our rich database of memory segments. Bits and pieces that no one except the person him/her self knows they even exist. Painting as a looking phenomenon is an amazing practice. What happens when painting is a secretive moment of “not looking”. In both subjective and objective sense, all types of paintings include a distance between looking at the image and painting it which can be of few tenth of seconds (When painting of a model) to years long (In subjective painting). But its length has no effect on its nature whatsoever. All that diversity in painting and all that happens within it depend solely on what happens during. Through this process image turns to something else. When we want to remember something, we close our eyes to be able to see it better and that is the repetition of the moment of “not looking” in painting.

By choosing the title “I’m not sleep, just closed my eyes” and the estate of the faces, Fatemeh pasha separates the status of her closed eye portraits from what could have been her sleeping portraits. The exhibition includes portraits with closed eyes among images of possibilities that at first glance would seem irrelevant both in topic and size. The artist has asked three of her friends to close their eyes and think about the things they like, from objects to people, animals, movies and or complete imaginary images. Not much of a faithful appearance but the artist’s perspective from them, together with her melancholic alterations has helped in realization of their subjective nature.

In this exhibition we are faced with a whole new form of the old and traditional way of painting portraits. Mental images of the portraits give us far more information about the main subject who is the model him/her self rather the portraits alone. Information that are as inexpressive as the mental images are and this specialty makes them more real than they really are. Each of them occupies a corner of the mind at the same time but not to the same extent. The mental images being separated from the main portrait and their diverse sizes are like an image of something a person can imagine with his/her eyes closed. Even though they say that the eye is a window to the world inside, but by closing this window Fatemeh Pasha has opened up a much bigger window to the insides of her models.

Hamed Sahihi

Translated by Sohrab M. Kashani

Friday gallery update

The Nest Has Been Distroyed, Curated by Gaia Serena Simionati, focusing on the works of three prominent Middle eastern artists, will be on view at AZAD ART GALLERY in Teheran from April, 8th 2011 through April, 20th 2011.

The show will highlight the works of: Navid Azimi Sajadi from Iran, actually an Iranian immigrant in Rome. Italian origin Yousef Moscatello, now converted to Islam and living in the UAE. And finally the Turkish artist Baris Saribas.

Losses that life implies, from childhood to adult life and its unavoidable changements, as part of the growing process, will be on show. Not only from the artists’ personal point of view, who have left their country of origin or the place of birth to live like strangers in a new reality with all the difficulties that this choice can imply. But also losses in their artworks which deal with either the history of their countries’ splendid past, somehow nowdays completely faded or only a document on politics “fight” which refuse to focus on the beauty of life.

VACUUM; Jalaladeen Anvari’s exhibition at Atbin art Gallery

VACUUM

An exhibition by Jalaladeen Anvari
June 10 -14, 2011; 5-9 PM
Out of hours visits are possible by appointment.

ATBIN ART GALLERY
(No .42, Khakzad st. Touraj st. Valisar Ave. (Parkway Crossing
Tel: +98 21 26210395

 

Jalaladeen Anvari’s latest project, Vacuum (Tohigi in Persian), touches upon many critical issues like Identity, Histori(es) and our Iranian legendary oblivion. He carefully juxtaposes various mediums, from text to archaeological imagery, tourist pictures and documentary photography in addition to his sculptural installation; a model version of one of our most talked about historical monuments, which camouflages in an ironic manner, a timed bubble maker machine.


Although Anvari doesn’t tend to force us, into a pre-imagined conclusion either toward blaming ourselves for being too conceited, or necessarily pushing us to obtain a sarcastic point of view of the past. He neutrally shows us about how our cultural heritage remains as a façade while the sites are being visited frequently. As if we are developing a habit, which praises our sense of patriotism without paying attention to the meaning of ignorantly practicing this often-empty ritual. Exposing a shell, which has remained from our understanding of histories. and at the same time he playfully invite us to re-think our identity in the short while before its bubble burst.
Amirali Ghasemi. June 2011
Limited edition poster is designed at parkingallery studio by Amirali Ghasemi,  silk-screened at Dara Print House and newbookz created the exhibition catalog.

 

 

Tanakora Parking, a short Review

Parkingallery’s inaugural event after renovaion, wasn’t an ordinary exhibition,  followed by a call for 2nd hand cloths and short stories, we’ve overwhelmed by  the variety of materials we received, turning our project space to a meeting place were people were allowed to read, write and buy vintage clothing only if they were accompanied with a note, short story and/or a comment by a random visitor and often it’s owner him/herself,

Sky & Earth

Sky & Earth is the title of Sculpture collection by Ghodratollah Agheli  in Henna Art gallery
Opening: March 4th 2011
Visiting Hours: 4-8 pm
End: March 18th 2011The gallery closed on Thursdays
Address: No 19,  East Biglarpour  st,  Gheytarieh Ave.
Tel/Fax: +98-21-22587879

Iran & Co. A Presentation by Amirali Ghasemi at Delfina Foundation

The Knowledge – Stop 2: Tehran: Artist Talk with Amirali Ghasemi
15. Oct – 15. Oct 10 / Delfina Foundation
Free. Rsvp required at rsvp@delfinafoundation.com
18:00 – 19:00

Artist/Curator Amirali Ghasemi discusses Iran & CO, his ongoing curatorial project. Iran & CO includes an exhibition, a documentary and an archive project. The exhibition gathers a number of site and context specific commissions conceived by the newest generation of Iranian artists, who have all been invited to produce works outside of the gallery space.

The ‘documentary/film/installation’ Iran Beyond Borders (1960-2010) maps out the history of modern and contemporary art in Iran, from the late 50s to today. It aims to archive and review more than 100 Iranian art exhibitions in the last 10 years, and features interviews with key figures of the contemporary Iranian art scene (such as Khosrow Hassansadeh, Ghazel, Alireza Samiazar, Fereydoun Ave, Hamid Keshmirshekan, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Barbad Golshiri and Rose Issa) on subjects including the impact of the market on artistic practices, the local in relation to the global, the politics of representation and identity. The film will be premiered in Bruges, Belgium, in October 2010. Continue reading Iran & Co. A Presentation by Amirali Ghasemi at Delfina Foundation

Benevolent Presence of Mikaeil Rahmani at Siin gallery,Tehran

Benevolent-Presence حضور خوشخیم
Benevolent-Presence حضور خوشخیم

Siin Art Gallery hosts Mikaeil Rahmani’s exhibition Benevolent Presence, from 27th of may to June 11th, 2011 3-7 pm except Thursdays. the gallery will be closed on June 2nd to 5th due to the public holidays.

Opening night: Friday May 27th, 2011, 4-8 pm
Poster is designed by Foad Sharifi

Mikaeel-Rahmani from Benevolent-Presence Serie
Mikaeel-Rahmani from Benevolent-Presence Serie

Siin gallery :
No 16,  12th St, South Pirouzan Ave, Hormozan Ave, Shahrak Gharb,Tehran
Tel: +98 21 88376623
http://www.siingallery.com

Ramblings of a flaneur Arash fayez at Silkroad Gallery

Ramblings of a Flaneur
Photo exhibition  by Arash Fayez
Opening: Friday, May 27, 2011 – 4:00 to 8:00

28 May to 13 June Sat. to Wed From 3:00 to7:00 pm
Thur. from 5:00 to 8:00 pm – Closed on Friday and public holidays
103, Lavasani (Farmanieh)St., Tehran Tell:22727010
www.silkroadphoto.com

Ramblings of a flâneur
A flâneur is an urban, post-industrial phenomenon. The city is where he dwells and the act of roaming is itself his objective. What is brought about, as such, is less important than the peripatetic exercise. By extension, a flâneur lays no claim to discovery. She is autistic, suspended in cacophonous space, under the sway of a diverse regime of signs that she is unable/unwilling to compile or process. Thus, his act is suffused with randomness, of a kind that makes certainty about signs and events impossible. This lack of certainty is indeed the fulcrum on which the above-mentioned relationship with the general public rests. He offers to view that which doesn’t require interpretation, doesn’t bring surety and must be taken at face value.

Arash Fayez’s use of the word in this exhibit is both true-to-form and paradoxical. As viewers of his (fake or real) Polaroid images, we relate to them on a simple plane of understanding and association. Some hint at nostalgia, especially the “real” (old bookstore fronts, abandoned movie houses, forsaken confectionary shop, old municipal markers, etc.). Others frame simple humorous moments (the wall drawing of a dove perched over the wreath of flowers highlighting the word “Iran” in the middle, the graffiti depicting a smiling young boy with the letters BBC added later by another graffitist, the meddling with municipal wall paintings, a sheep on the back of a van on a quiet street, etc.). No matter how we see them, however, these images tell a simple story, one that doesn’t require erudition to unscramble.

Arash Fayez Translated by Sohrab Mahdavi
—————
1 I had come across the word Flâneur in a collection of Mehran Mohajer, a word that Charles Baudelaire, Walter Benjamin and thenmany others used to propound their theories.