March – June 2010
Influences of Homeland and Diaspora on the Artistic Language of Contemporary Iranian Artists.
Curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, Iran Inside Out examines the ways in which artists working in and outside of Iran today reconcile cultural and geographical distances with the search for individual artistic expression. Of the artists on display, some reside in Iran, including Farhad Moshiri, Khosrow Hassanzadeh, Farideh Lashai and Vahid Sharifian, while others such as Shiva Ahmadi, Sara Rahbar and Rokni and Ramin Haerizadeh, find themselves interspersed in the Diaspora. Ironically, contrary to one’s expectations, the artists living abroad often draw more on their cultural heritage, while those on the inside focus on issues of everyday life without much regard to what ‘the outside’ views as specifically Iranian references. Yet, within these disparities, one element stands strong: the recurrent references, sometimes ambiguous, at times emotional, to Iran, to its past, and to its future.
The viewpoints developed by the artists in the exhibition are a result of their individual reflections on their specific places of residence. While those inside the territorial borders of their homeland work within their own cultural and political setting, those living in the Diaspora are reacting to their new environments and struggling to form a new identity. This exhibition presents these two groups of artists side by side for the first time.
A full exhibition catalogue is available to purchase from The Farjam Foundation @ DIFC.
Exhibition Catalog
Media Coverage
