Iran: New Voices
Film & Video Screenings

Presented by Iran Heritage Foundation in association with The Barbican and Magic of Persia

Vali Mahlouji

A rare chance in London to view an eclectic range of films and video works by foremost contemporary artists working inside and outside Iran.

The series will examine what it means to be simultaneously global and local, addressing the question of identity and hybridity. The screenings provide a rich picture of personal and collective dialogue through diverse expressions that negotiate complex terrain in terms of aesthetics, language, emotion and culture.

From two days of video works and installations scrutinising the legacy of the revolution to new works by Shirin Neshat and Abbas Kiarostami, landmark video works and film installations probe what it means to be Iranian today challenging the politicised environment in which the great gap between the image of the country as a dark hole of fanaticism and the reality of a vibrant, creative and modern culture is wider than ever.

An Evening with Shirin Neshat
UK Premiere of two film installations plus three earlier works
Followed by Q&A with the artist
5 December 7:30

Three Videos from the series "Women without Men"
Munis (2008) 13 minute - UK premiere
Faezeh (2008) 13 minute - UK premiere
Zarin (2005) 20 minute

Continuation of Neshat's inspired adaptation of Shahrnush Parsipur's novel "Women without Men", using fantasy to explore the position of women within the rigid confines of patriarchal Iranian culture. Here we see three independent sequences of what is to become a five-part feature film, comprising several metaphorically related short stories about the lives of five different women who are suffering from their respective situations and run away, ultimately finding themselves in a garden where they seek to form their own new society.

Plus

The Last Word (2004) 17 minute
Neshat goes fearlessly into the widening gulf between conformism and revolt, submission and compliance that characterize the women of the Muslim world, seeking out images from the far sides of the divide that will both narrow the distance and help viewers sound its depths.

Plus

Tooba (2002) 10 minutes
Tooba, or tree of paradise, centres on an image of the feminine tree, a symbol which originates in the Koran. Through poetic allegory, and a style of magic realism coupled with spare elegance, Neshat presents a narrative of tension and transcendence.

Kiarostami Double Bill
Introduced by film critic Geoff Andrew
7 December 5:30 pm

Roads of Kiarostami (2004) 32 minutes - UK premiere
Shifting between motion and stasis, the camera follows paths on still photographs and then opens up to context, questioning if context matters at all, and simultaneously showing the absolute beauty that surrounds a man on his journey.

plus

Five (2003) 74 minutes
Shot along the shores of the Caspian Sea, Five comprises a kind of abstract or emotional narrative arc, which moves evocatively from separation and solitude to community, from motion to rest, near-silence to sound and song, light to darkness and back to light again, ending on a note of rebirth and regeneration.

Untitled Series: Film and Video Art
6 December All day

bedun e onvan 1 (untitled 1)
2:30-3:00 pm

Screening of works by Avish Khebrezadeh and Shahab Fotouhi.

Winner of the Venice Biennale's Golden Lion (2003) Avish Khebrehzadeh's highly distinctive body of work features hand-drawn animations creating a poetic effect that is both tranquil and haunting. The subtle and often inconclusive narratives touch upon the universal themes of human vulnerability, man's relationship to the natural world, and the search for solace, love and attention.

In contrast Shahab Fotouhi presents a series of journalistic-style often comic works exploring the function and landscape of power. With documentary-like simplicity Fotouhi's razor-sharp vignettes are witty, direct social critiques.

bedune onvan 2 (untitled 2)
3:30-4:00 pm

Screening of works by Mandana Moghaddam and Barbad Golshiri.

Moghaddam's work is a piece of live installation simultaneously taking place in her native Tehran and adopted Gottenborg. Moghaddam continues her exploration of language and communication with reference to local and global issues surrounding her experiences as an Iranian artist living in Europe.

Barbad Golshiri's polished conceptual works blur the boundary between literature and art exploring the relationship between the word and the image. Using minimalist aesthetics, Golshiri questions the necessity of creating art, and art as a defiant tool for communicating with the world at any price.

bedun e onvan 3 (untitled 3)
5:00-6:00 pm

Screening of works by Shahram Entekhabi and Ghazel.

Two Iranian artists, a male and a female, both use performance - themselves as protagonist - exposing issues of gender and society. Both personal and political, the works centre around clichês and stereotypes of the male and female within their native culture and as represented in the complex image of Iran abroad.

bedun e onvan 4 (untitled 4)
6:30-7:00 pm

Screening of works by Mahmoud Bakhshi and Mitra Tabrizian.

In photographer Mitra Tabrizian's first film, Predator a hit man from an unknown Islamic country is sent to London to assassinate an influential writer who has sought political asylum in Britain. The film focuses on the unusual encounter between the two men; a writer who has given up his life's work and has lost belief in any political intervention, and a loyal soldier who is losing his loyalty. The hunter and the hunted have one thing in common; both have nothing to lose!

Mahmoud Bakhshi's Jesus is an assemblage of 8000 pictures taken with changing light at different times of the day. The video is a reflection on religious iconography as advertisement in the modern urban landscape. In Seoul he recorded the numerous red neon crosses everywhere in the city, reminding him of the numerous street murals "advertising" religion in Iran. The cross became an urban feature introduced by Christian missionaries who came to South Korea along with American soldiers after WWII. Within a short period, half of the Korean population converted to Christianity. The inquiry is featured in the video through an exchange of emails with a contact person in South Korea. To Bakhshi, neon crosses everywhere in Seoul recall American soldiers and the presence of missionaries. They are signs for churches as much as advertisements for a recently-introduced religion and a constant feature of the urban landscape.

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