In an exhibition at the Willy Brandt House in Berlin, five contemporary photo and video artists who live in, come from, or have worked in Iran address their personal histories, their impressions and experiences of the country, and their position within society. In doing so, they deal - each from their own point of view, from a distance and from close up - with self-determination between modernity and tradition. The series of the group exhibition "Iran inside out" have been created since 2010 and show the upheavals and developments in the country.
Shirana Shahbazi: The photo project "Tehran North" from 2015 to 2017 is a subjective road movie, taken from a car driving through the Iranian capital at night. The resulting black-and-white photographs play with light, contours, landscapes, and objects, leaving the viewer with many possibilities for interpretation.
Sarah Sasani: The series "Monotony" stages the heteronymous word from Persian "Death of Day", which has a different pronunciation but is spelled the same way as the word "everyday life" in Persian. With this linguistic association, the artist stages women in her photographs in everyday situations, with their feet stuck in a pile of earth reminiscent of a burial mound.
'Freedom Is Not Free', Mashid Mohadjerin's series explores the private and public worlds of Iranian women who grew up after the 1979 revolution. For her own family history, the artist goes in search of traces and returns to places of her childhood over a period of three years. The resulting very private impressions are compiled in a multidimensional work that takes the viewer on a journey.
Forough Alaei: The photographs and videos of the series "New Faces of Iran" let the viewer look behind the public scenes and show private moments of joy, lightheartedness and happiness of a very young generation that hopes for a better future in their country and fights for their freedom and takes to the streets. It quickly becomes clear that the Iranian Generation Z hardly differs from the Western generation we know.
In her current series "Iran Interrupted" Beatrice Minda Lavasan describes the society and culture of the country through the depiction of different interior and exterior spaces such as courtyards with empty pools, ceremonial spaces and private living areas. These are deserted, but through the interiors tell stories about the current inhabitants and also of several genrations and thus of the history of an entire country.
About the exhibition: The exhibition of the Freundeskreis Willy-Brandt-Haus (Stresemannstr. 28 10963 Berlin) is curated by Andy Heller and Mirja Linnekugel. The exhibition can be seen at the Willy Brandt House in Berlin from June 23 to August 27, 2023.
Sources:
https://www.fkwbh.de/ausstellung/iran-inside-out
https://www.lespressesdureel.com/EN/ouvrage.php?id=4628
https://www.artbooksonline.eu/art-49605
https://www.sarasasani.com/works/death-of-day/
https://www.presseportal.ch/de/pm/100055421/100897037
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/m-le-mag/article/2022/12/26/youth-on-probation-iranians-through-the-lens-of-forough-alaei_6009236_117.html
https://beatriceminda.de/iran-interrupted-2/iran-interrupted-text/