PRESS RELEASE | ARTISSIMA Booth Orange # 14 3

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PRESS RELEASE | ARTISSIMA Booth Orange # 14 3 PRESS RELEASE | ARTISSIMA Booth Orange # 14 3 - 5 November, 2017 A presentation of works by French/Iranian artist, Ghazel, and American/Iranian artist Sara Rahbar marking their first duo presentation together. Through a series of drawings on printed maps and bronze sculptures, their work is an answer to muted questions of alienation in the globalized world - while Rahbar’s approach is through digging into the viewers vulnerability, Ghazel takes a more literal stance by not-so-plainly obliterating political boundaries. Ghazel’s presentation include recent Marée Noire and Dyslexia drawings, from her ongoing drawings on Iranian printed world maps. The work focuses on issues of migration, exile, transnational identities, expulsion, discrimination, and displacement. Ghazel’s work addresses the political aspects of representation, which relate closely to her personal history. Since leaving Iran during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, she has navigated between Tehran and Paris for over thirty years. Interested in radical cartography—an activist approach to mapping—Ghazel’s Marée Noire and Dyslexia works use ink and pen to erase the national borders indicated on Iranian-produced world maps. Clear and direct, with 7 of these works on paper shown in the booth. In gestural marks, the artist covers the national flags on the maps with black ink and incorporates a series of recurrent symbols/representaion of drawings of tree roots, suitcases and houses, illustrating the uprootedness of many people caused by political and social forces. Sara Rahbar’s bronze sculptures stems from her personal experiences. While her initial practice explored more autobiographical ideas of national belonging originating from her Iranian/American history, her current practice has evolved to address issues of the human condition on a broader and more universal scale. Rahbar’s activism is working to expand the individual acts of violence she has experienced into universal ones, to amplify the sufferings of humanity through her chosen materials. The weight of these bronzes is the weight of the world; the marred skin of these bodies is the skin that connects all of us – a skin that can be cut and must bleed even as it can regenerate. These sculptures combine heavy materials – the heft of the soul, perhaps – with intensely precarious arrangements that cause us to feel not optimism, but rather pressure, discomfort and vulnerability. Ghazel b. 1966, Tehran, Iran. Lives and works in Tehran and Paris. Ghazel received her education in Visual Arts, Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (Nîmes) and in Film Studies at Université Paul Valery (Montpellier). One of the most significant Iranian artists on the international contemporary art scene, a pioneer of video art and performance, Ghazel has been shown extensively around the world since 2000, with exhibitions in prestigious institutions and Biennials such as the 50th Venice Biennial, Venice, the 8th Havana Biennial, Cuba, Hannover Museum, Germany, The Hayward Gallery, UK, Centre Pompidou, Paris, MAC, Chile, and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Marseille. Ghazel is in the permanent collections of prestigious museums such as: Centre Pompidou (Paris), MUMOK (Vienna) and Cité nationale d’histoire de l’immigration (Paris). Sara Rahbar b. 1976, Tehran, Iran. Lives and works in New York. Rahbar pursued an interdisciplinary study program in New York and at London's Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Carbon 12 | Unit 37, Alserkal Avenue, Al Quoz 1, Dubai, UAE | www.carbon12dubai.com | [email protected] | +971 4 340 60 16 Her work ranges from photography, sculpture to mixed media installation and always stems from her personal experiences. While her initial practice explored more autobiographical ideas of national belonging originating from her Iranian/American history, her current practice has evolved to address issues of the human condition on a broader-scale. Rahbar has exhibited widely in art institutions including but not limited to Queensland Museum, Sharjah Art foundation, The Centre Pompidou and Mannheimer Kunstverein, and is included in the permanent collections of the British Museum, The Centre Pompidou and the Burger Collection amongst others. COMUNICATO STAMPA | ARTISSIMA | DIALOGUE | GHAZEL & SARA RAHBAR Booth Arancione # 14 3 - 5 Novembre, 2017 Carbon 12 presenta per la prima volta insieme le opere dell’artista franco-iraniana Ghazel e quelle dell’americana-iraniana Sara Rahbar. L’allestimento si snoda attraverso una serie di disegni su mappe geografiche iraniane e sculture di bronzo, i loro lavori affrontano le domande che riguardano l’alienazione umana nel contesto del mondo globalizzato. Se la tecnica usata da Rahbar è di “scavo” dentro la vulnerabilità dello spettatore, quella di Ghazel è più letterale ma per questo non scontata e la formalizza cancellando i confini politici. L’esposizione di Gazel include i disegni Marée Noir e Dislexia che sono parte della sua attuale ricerca in corso sulle mappe geografiche iraniane, il suo lavoro si focalizza su questioni come l’emigrazione, l’esilio, le identità transazionali, l’espulsione, la discriminazione, il disorientamento. Ghazel affronta gli aspetti politici di queste rappresentazioni che sono collegati alla sua storia personale, scappata dall’Iran durante gli anni 80’ a causa della guerra con l’Iraq da allora si è sempre spostata tra Teheran e Parigi. L’interesse di Gazel è verso la radical cartography, un modo di mappare attivista, e si ritrova nelle opere Marée Noire e Dislexia dove l’artista ha usato inchiostro e penna per cancellare i confini nazionali indicati sulle mappe iraniane; nello stand, in modo chiaro e diretto si possono vedere queste opere su carta. Con un linguaggio gestuale l’artista copre con l’inchiostro le bandiere nazionali delle mappe e vi incorpora una serie ricorrente di simboli/rappresentazioni di alberi, valigie, case illustrando in questo modo lo sradicamento di molte persone causato da potenti forze politiche e sociali. Le sculture di Sara Rahbar nascono dalla sua esperienza personale, fin dai primi lavori autobiografici - che esploravano il concetto di appartenenza nazionale e ispirati alla sua storia metà iraniana e metà americana - a quelli più recenti, che affrontano le tematiche della condizione umana in scala più ampia e universale. L’attivismo di Rahbar riesce ad espandere l’atto individuale di violenza che ella ha subito, in uno universale in modo da amplificare la sofferenza dell’umanità grazie anche alla scelta del materiale. Il peso del bronzo è la pesantezza del mondo, la pelle danneggiata di questi corpi è la stessa che collega tutti quanti noi, una pelle che può tagliarsi e sanguinare come anche rigenerarsi. Queste sculture uniscono materiali pesanti - il peso dell’anima forse - con accordi estremamente incerti che non ci danno motivo di essere ottimisti ma piuttosto sotto pressione, infastiditi e vulnerabili. Carbon 12 | Unit 37, Alserkal Avenue, Al Quoz 1, Dubai, UAE | www.carbon12dubai.com | [email protected] | +971 4 340 60 16 .
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