No, my intentions are not patriotic. I just want to bring certain generous works under your attention.
Hi Belgium, I’m Nima Bahrehmand. Being a young man from Iran visiting an art academy in Ghent (Kask) as a foreign student, I always run into the same quite spooky questions: “Is there actually Contemporary Art in Iran?”; “Coming from the East, are you familiar with (Western) art?”; “Are artists actually allowed to make art over there?”; etcetera, etcetera.
Although I do understand where these assumptions come from, it still is bizarre and often sad to realize that smart people in a modern Western society like Belgium, who claim to be free minds of their own, tend to be indoctrinated by the stereotypes mainly manufactured by the corporate media (Murdoch.corp, Fox News, etc.).
“Do I come from an isolated society?”
This question became a starting point for me to investigate this confusion of tongues and minds. The answer is yes and no, obviously. Yet, a better answer is a project (‘Points of View’) I want to develop, in which I want to open several windows to my home country. No, my intentions are not patriotic. I just want to bring certain generous works under your attention.
So, let’s set free creativity for a close encounter of some kind. Art should cross (and move) borders, open worlds and harts. In sum, as an answer to some of your questions, I selected a virtual tour for you. Click and explore some Persian atmosphere! Before they (you?) nuke it :-(
‘City as Art’, by: Aliyar Rasti
شهر به مثابه یک اثر هنری - City as Art from Aliyar Rasti on Vimeo.
‘Look’, by: Newsha Tavakolian
‘The Lady in Red’, By: Mohammad Hosseini
'A Dowry for Mahrou’, By: Samira Eskandarfar
A Dowry for Mahrou from Samira Eskandarfar on Vimeo.
