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061210: Austellungszentrum Heiligenkreuzerhof Iran – preview of the past
Austellungszentrum Heiligenkreuzerhof
Iran – preview of the past
10.11.10 to 10.12. 10
Identity and subversion
Three women came together to jointly realize each of their individual project dreams. In “IRAN preview of the past” the artist Sini Coreth, the art historian Julia Allerstorfer and Barbara Putz-Plecko, professor at the University for Applied Arts, offer a remarkable insight into Iranian contemporary art – a representative cross-section from a personal point of view.
Many of the forty photo- and video works were created in Vienna; others were imported from Teheran with the help of digital data media. The selection of works of the 18 Iranian artists, were created between 2004 and 2010 and focused on the era prior to the questionable elections in 2009.
In “Preview of the past” the individual artistic positions are placed in diverse retrospectives and visions, from the viewpoint of the past as well as that of the current situation. Even if the curators definitely did not aim at organizing a political exhibition, the presence of the repressive Iranian regime in the life and work of the artists cannot be denied.
Immediately upon entering the exhibition the visitor is confronted with the obligatory self-censorship artists are faced with in Iran. The censorship, which even affects depictions of Titian’s Allegories or the Gothic Madonna lactans, whose nudity was cached with the lines of a black felt pen, is transferred into modern fashion photography by Shadi Ghadirian in “West by East” or “Real Ones”: simultaneously representing criticism of political control and art.
The extensive relevance and explosive nature of female-identity and integrity, existent in principle in broad-minded Iranian cultural circles, is evident in practically every exhibited piece. Controversies and paradoxes become obvious in their blatant polarity. In “Harem Project”, Afshan Ketabchi positions voluptuous female protagonists into the traditional art form of Persian book painting. In Ramin Haerizadeh’s “Bad Hejab” (the artist was expelled to Dubai), photomontages demonstrate and unmask the gender role-play in everyday life.
The works are coined by the question of identity: at times they focus on the young generation per se, (Neda Hoisseinyar), and in another instance they concentrate on the definition of their own individual personality (Saleh Rozati). With reference to the violent conflict with Iraq the already multifaceted problem is even more accentuated. The implicit and resulting discrepancies, insecurities, psychic breaches and anxieties find their dismal manifestation in films: poetic and rich in metaphors as in Behrang Samadzadegan’s “Open Seas” or melodramatic in Mehdi Sadr’s “Replica”.
This content-related ambiguity and subversity, which was necessary for artists to survive in the Iranian political system, characterize works that were created outside of the country, in Vienna. Memories and visions are superimposed and intertwined, transformed to an extract and made concrete as essential issues.
By Margareta Sandhofer
Austellungszentrum Heilingenkreuzerhof
1010 Vienna, Schönlaterngasse 5
Tel: +43 1 711 33 6300
Fax: +43 1 711 33 6309
email: veranstaltungsreferat@uni-ak.ac.at
http://www.angewandte.at
Opening hours: Tue to Fri 11 a.m. – 6 p.m., Sat 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. (closed on holidays)
Mehr Texte von translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville
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061210
Universitätsgalerie im Heiligenkreuzer Hof Wien
1010 Wien, Schönlaterngasse 5 oder Grashofgasse 3
Tel: 71133-2160, Fax: +43 1 711 33-6309
Email: pr@uni-ak.ac.at
http://www.dieangewandte.at
Öffnungszeiten: Mi--Sa 14-18 Uhr
Universitätsgalerie im Heiligenkreuzer Hof Wien
1010 Wien, Schönlaterngasse 5 oder Grashofgasse 3
Tel: 71133-2160, Fax: +43 1 711 33-6309
Email: pr@uni-ak.ac.at
http://www.dieangewandte.at
Öffnungszeiten: Mi--Sa 14-18 Uhr
