Tehran – O! Nassaji: The Hope of an Exhausted City, feels like a requiem which lingers in the visitor’s memory long after leaving the gallery. Mohammad Kalantari’s exhibition at Parallel Circuit, explores themes of loss, decay and renewal through the shared collective memory of a community which yearns for its better-seen days of the past…

Weaving the cacophonous rhythm of the metropolis into silent still lifes of light and dark, interwoven dashes of color, and collaged textures, Afsaneh Modiramani masterfully composes pictorial landscapes in her latest show, ‘A City for Everyone’. She crosses the border between weaving, painting and sculpture, creating perplexing loom-woven pieces. Her works are frequently reflections on her urban environment, the city of Tehran. The pieces in the current exhibition were created during the pandemic quarantine period, when the abandoned streets took center stage against the backdrop of the city’s overwhelming buildings, haphazard urban spaces and sprawling developments that encroach upon its sheltered inhabitants.
Modiramani’s woven wall hangings and three-dimensional pieces lay bare a sad and lonely panorama of the claustrophobic city. Devoid of nature and city-dwellers, the warps and wefts of the building facades become an imperfect urban grid that envelope the viewer inside the gallery, just as the cement giants dwarf the living outside. The imposing cityscapes and otherwise barren landscapes are expertly woven in smudged or washed-out grays, pale blues and sepias to create a watercolor-like haze that intensifies the somber atmosphere pervading the works. Against this background, Modiramani employs thin black thread to sew in silhouettes of sparsely displaced inhabitants and birds which hover over buildings, floating like lost apparitions in the city.
Cotton, silk and polyester thread and yarn are the building materials that Modiramani weaves into the richly textured surfaces that create the fabric of the city, while the open warps remind us of spaces yet ‘under construction’. The painting/sculpture-textile landscapes transcend the visual, triggering other sensory inputs that engage memory and perception of a city that has long since abandoned its citizens and the natural world.
Slowing down the fast-paced city to the rhythm of her magic loom, Modiramani invites the viewer to ponder ‘A City for Everyone’.

It may be the envy of many art aficionados around the world when over 130 masterpieces by European and American conceptual, minimalist and dadaist pioneer artists of the 19th – and 20th century are put on display in the hard-to-reach city of Tehran. From Marcel Duchamp’s pen and ink paper study on the large glass (1915) to Dan Flavin’s blue fluorescent lights (1966-67) the Minimalist & Conceptual Art exhibition at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art offers the locals an exceptional opportunity to view first hand masterpieces otherwise seen in photos or read about in art books. Donald Judd’s 4-meter sculpture of the Progression series, Sol LeWitt’s Open Cube structures, and Ed Ruscha’s six
screenprints of insects (from Insects Portfolio, 1972) are among numerous works
displayed for the first time after decades.
“As an architect you design for the present, with an awareness of the past, for a future which is essentially unknown,” says Norman Foster. Although the museum’s iconic modern structure, realized in 1977 by Kamran Diba, has stood the test of time, maintaining the walls and the treasures held inside is another story. A 5-star collection.
Sound: Indeterminacy 1 by John Cage and David Tudor

Since the mid-1990’s the interdisciplinary artist Bita Fayyazi has created public and
gallery installations and work that offer the viewer a strange and fantastical experience
– reflecting a captivating and disturbing dystopic state of being and beings. Fascinated
by creating in large numbers and multitudes…

“EITHER HE’S DEAD OR MY WATCH HAS STOPPED” GROUCHO MARX (WHILE GETTING THE PATIENT’S PULSE)

Conceived by: Nazli Ghassemi

Produced by:

Sina Ahmadi – Dayere Design Studio

“Journey to a Mythical Land” is a short documentary interview with the renowned Iranian architects, Kambiz Haji-Qasemi and Kamibiz Navā’i where they talk about their book, “Architecture and Vision” (Khesht-o Kiāl).

Blurred Borders: Art of the Caribbean Islands

“Best of 2015” – Portfolio: Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh & Hesam Rahmanian

Maya Bibinaz Rostampisheh-Williams has a life almost as complicated as her name. Born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin and raised in Iran, Maya is now a thirty-something jet-setter who winds up in the flamboyant hub of the Middle East—Dubai, a city where modernity collides at top speed with the pillars of tradition. Maya and her odd circle of friends take us on a humorous journey of challenges and adventures among Dubai’s mixed-up cocktail of mercenaries masquerading as businessmen, Muslims claiming to be Zoroastrians, married men posing as bachelors and single couples acting married. Dubai’s colorful, nuanced social scene in a lip-smacking Desert Mojito.

UNDOCUMENTA PST LA/LA

“DreamCatcher”

EVERY BEGINNING IS BUT A CONTINUATION

An interview with curator Tatian Flores and artist Nyugen Smith.

RELATIONAL UNDERCURRENTS: CONTEMPORARY ART OF THE CARIBBEAN ARCHIPELAGO   PST LA/LA

“Children of the Revolution”