February 15, 5 pm
This event will mark the closing of the current “Fragile Frontiers” exhibition.
“Territorial Challenges”
Moving Images from Parking Video Library
Curator’s statement:
The lines which interconnect the works are oscillating between the tangible and the intangible: Water and geography play a role, being shot at Iranian coasts of Caspian sea in Allahyar Najafi’s Row, where the fisherman repeats his attempts which we are offered an intro of Iranian Classical music and its “Maghams” and in Paliz & Kasra’s Apnea, a flood of ladybirds struggling to survive the waves, pause to dry their wings. The passage is made when headless men are moving their bodies fit or obese, the unknown souls caught in a loop of their activities in a tank. While using found footage moving images or sounds alike in are helping us to remember and to forget where we have been, in the heart of a tornado or harsh weather conditions(Anahita Hekmat’s Gah-nameh, in American style villas in Venezuela, built for Iranian engineers (My Calm Town by Amirali Mohhebinejad) or fighting our way forward on the bridge to Tahrir Square(Bahar Samadi’s 101). Language, visual, or otherwise appear and disappear from the scenery Sanaz Sohrab’s notes on seeing double: weaves together observational footage with historical images and wavers between being imaginative, fictitious, or real.
Through a rare juxtaposition of a documentary photograph taken in February 1979 in Tehran and a painting drawn by Rembrandt depicting the famous anatomy theatre of Amsterdam in 1632, on the other hand, The Veronica (“true image”) a short video by Zeinab Shahidi Marnani, investigates the story lingering between the truth and whatnot, a territory yet to be discovered.
When necessary the pace is sometimes slow, inviting us to immerse and returning us to a wake-state or better a Deja Vu, as shadows of the city appears we are confronted by unidentified roads(Nebras Hoveizavi’s), struggle to define personal space (Roya Keshavarz’s Khalvat) or the right to the city being threatened by gentrifiers(Niyaz Saghari’s Charcoal Alley). The finale also depicts a mountain route, shot while climbing down with a cable car, Contradictory Scene is revealed as we witness human changes in nature, marking pure environment deformed by boundaries, barriers, and fences.
http://newmediasoc.com/rl_gallery/territorial-challenges/
Participating Artists:
Anahita Hekmat | Nebras Hoveizavi | Roya Keshavarz | Amirali Mohebbinejad | Siavash Naghsbandi | Allahyar Najafi | Kasra Pashaei / Paliz Khoshdel | Niaz Saghari | Bahar Samadi | Mojtaba Saranjampour | Zeinab Shahidi Marnani | Sanaz Sohrabi