Iran Now Joins the Series in Asia

PARIS — Asia NowA fair dedicated to contemporary Asian art, this year will be a little different.

The usual list of galleries from China, Japan, and Korea is remarkably thin, so the fair has expanded its scope to bring a selection of Iran’s contemporary art galleries to a special platform called “Tehran Now”.

“We’re exploring the wealth of art scenes from the Asian continent and it was important that we look at art from Iran,” said Alexandra Fain, co-founder and president of Asia Now.

He attends this fair in a face-to-face format throughout Sunday at the Salons Hoche, a mansion on Avenue Hoche, a few blocks from the Arc de Triomphe in Paris’ Eighth District. Online monitoring room is available.

Besides those from Iran, many European galleries and two art foundations fill the stands to showcase the art of artists from or linked to the Asian continent.

Three important Paris-based galleries are back – perrotin, templon and Nathalie Obadia. They came aboard for the first time last year, FIAC Canceled due to the pandemic. They have booths at both Asia Now and FIAC this year.

Templon showcases new works by Indian artists, among them. Jitish Kallat and Atul Dodiya, both featured at the 2019 Venice Biennale. Perrotin has tapestries handmade in Nepal based on designs by the Japanese artist. Aya Takano; Nathalie Obadia has a cross-cultural display of Indian, Chinese and Iranian art. As Chinese travelers face the prospect of quarantine – if not in Europe, at least when they return – many Chinese galleries have stayed away. Participating Asian galleries include Yavuz from Singapore and two from China, HdM and Effect Onoperates areas in London and Los Angeles, respectively.

Asia Now has partnered with the Musée National des Arts Asiatiques Guimet, located in District 16, where two off-site performances by Paris-based Vietnamese artists Thu-Van Tran and Huong Dodinh can be viewed.

“This is our seventh edition and we have reached maturity accelerated by the health crisis,” Fain said.

This maturity, he said, is in the fair’s “engagement with social and environmental issues” and its full program of roundtable discussions, musical performances and special projects, all aimed at raising public awareness through art.

The project “Making Worlds Exist”, a selection of works curated by Kathy Alliou, director of the “Oeuvres” department at Paris Beaux-Arts, questions identity, renewal and tradition through the eyes of nine artists. Another, curated by historian and art critic Nicolas Bourriaud, explores the concept of “Shun” (“going with the flow”) in China and the distinction between nature and industry.

A third project opens the door to the Iranian platform. Titled “Burning Wings” is a 70-minute video projection compiled by Odile Burluraux, curator at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris. Dedicated to Iranian poet and writer. Forough Farrokhzad, a symbol of artistic and personal freedom in Iran, who died in 1967.

A single projection of several videos of three to 10 minutes made by 10 female artists from Iran. A line from one of Miss Farrokhzad’s poems sets the tone for “Burning Wings”: “Do not seal my lips with the padlock of silence, for I have an untold story in my heart.”

“These are personal histories told by women, some in subtle and poetic ways, others in more radical ways,” said Ms. Burluraux.

“These women are the repositories of a collective memory,” he said.

“A sense of nostalgia for Iran’s landscapes, tradition and architecture and a strong evocation of places left behind run through his work.”

One of the artists featured in “Burning Wings” Estimeh Monzaviaddresses issues related to women and marginalized populations living in Iran, often including addicts and transgender people. It shows three videos from the series “The Past Goes On” (2016), “Dancing in the Ruins”, “Secret of Layoff” and “Lullapes”. used to be a large building.

“Tehran Now” is presented in a venue staged by Tehran-based graphic artists. Studio Headquarters To evoke the winding, shop-filled labyrinths of Tehran’s Grand Bazaar.

Iranian artists are rarely the main focus of a Western art fair. For artists living in Iran, their exposure is largely regional, if not local, partly due to the sanctions imposed on the country and combined with the impact of the pandemic.

“Artists working in Iran have been largely cut off from the Western world for 40 years,” said Jean-Marc Decrop, an expert on Chinese contemporary art and a member of the fair’s art committee.

“Iran’s culture dates back a thousand years and is infiltrated from all strata of society,” Mr Decrop said. “The poem informs the works of many Iranian artists who interpret today’s world from a unique perspective.”

Eight galleries from Iran — Aran, Ab Anbar, Free Art, your petition, Etemad, Mohsen, +2 Gallery and Saradipur Art – They braved an obstacle course of visa and vaccination requirements to travel to Paris.

They exhibit the works of around 60 Iranian artists. Farideh LasaiThe new study, which died in 2013 and which Mr. Decrop calls “fresh and surreal” Hodja Kashiha. At the Etemad booth, Maryam “Mimi” Amini, a multidisciplinary artist based in Tehran, has a variety of mixed media pieces from her colorful, soul-seeking “Secret Landscape” series that combines gold leaf and collage on wood and industrial fabric.

The Ab-Anbar gallery displays digital prints of Arash Hanaei, based on a real landscape or still life photograph, with color saturation to suggest a suspended reality.

The deconstructed and sometimes caricatured human form is the subject of works by Tehran artist Bayan Kashiha, presented by Galerie Nathalie Obadia. Shahpour Pouyan.

In an interview from Tehran, Ms. Kashiha said, “I like to airbrush for the flattering effect, but there are a lot of overlapping layers in my pieces.” “The airbrush puts a tool between me and the canvas. It takes the ego away from the painting process. It’s a more feminine way of painting.”

“For me, this fair is not about selling my business,” he said. “I want people to see this and talk about it.”

by “The Secret” Sepand DanisA French-Iranian artist living in Paris, also in a cartoonish but pixelated style of painting. Inspired by Giotto’s “Virgin Gospel”, Nouchine Pahlevan, a gallery opened last month In the Marais district of Paris.

“My inspiration comes from curiosity, which is ‘konj-kav’ in Persian, which literally means ‘to dig into the corner’,” said Mr. Danesh. “My shattered figures are stuck in a corner trying to escape.”

Mr. Danesh is also a sculptor. He was commissioned to create 25 outdoor sculptures for the French Pavilion, of the same “digital” quality as his paintings, and some that could be used as public benches. Expo 2020 Dubaiopened this month.

“When you look at my work, it’s not Iranian, but there is something from my personal story,” said Mr. Danesh. “Nationality is important, but I prefer people to look at the art and what the artist is saying.”