Azernews.Az

By Laman Ismayilova

A group exhibition "Fragile Frontiers: Visions on Iran’s in/visible borders" has solemnly opened at YARAT Contemporary Art Space.

Public and art figures, representatives of diplomatic missions accredited in Azerbaijan attended the event.

In her speech, the artistic director of the YARAT Contemporary Art Space, Suad Garayeva-Maleki, noted that exhibition is a large-scale project which displays works of Iranian artists. The exhibition brought together artists who live both in Iran and other countries.

She added that 15 young artists presented their works at the exhibition. The art piece of Mirza Kadym Irevani (19th century) takes an important place both in Azerbaijani and Iranian history.

The work of Mirza Kadym Irevani was provided by the Azerbaijan National Art Museum. Especially for YARAT, Iranian artists created six new works.

Anna Fech, the project curator, said that the exhibition is presented on two floors of the YARAT Center for Contemporary Art.

On the first floor, art lovers can explore the invisible frontiers between body space and city space; chaos and order; social and personal space; "I" and "other".

The second floor offers a counter-position, focusing on the experience of boundlessness and exploration beyond physical limits, referencing elements of nature: earth, sky, water.

Farah Piriye, the project curator, emphasized that a lot of research was done.

"We examined the work of about 200-300 artists, a trip to Tehran took place, we also met with authors located outside the country. The choice fell on these artists, since it is their work that refers to those topics that it is important for us to talk about within this exhibitions. This is a topic of borders, restrictions both physical and metaphorical. If we talk about physical boundaries, these are geopolitical borders, if we are talking about metaphorical, that is, invisible borders, these are the social, cultural, mental limitations that we face sometimes daily. In addition to the specified boundaries, at this exposition we also consider relations between Azerbaijan and Iran, therefore the work of Mirza Kadym Irevani was included in the exposition, " she said.

Speaking at the event, the Iranian artist Navid Nuur, expressed gratitude to the project organizers as well as to all the guests of the event. He spoke about the works that were on display, as well as their meaning and significance.

Further, the guests of the event got acquainted with the exhibition.

The exhibition features newly commissioned as well as recent works of 15 artists who view frontiers as precarious, ephemeral or frictional, arguing that no border – whether cultural, territorial or psychological – is completely durable.

The art project brought together talented artists Nazgol Ansarinia, Kamrooz Aram, Dadbeh Bassir, Samira Eskandarfar, Ghazaleh Hedayat, Samira Hodaei, Gelare Khoshgozaran, Robin Mandel, Ali Momeni, Timo Nasseri, Jaleh Nesari, Navid Nuur, Leila Pazooki, Sara Rahbar, Neda Razavipour and the old master Mirza Kadym Irevani.

The exhibition’s title is inspired by the essay Fragile Frontiers: The Diminishing Domains of Qajar Iran by Professor Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet, which outlines two types of frontiers: literal, physical separation, and metaphorical "cultural" boundaries.

Kamrooz Aram’s new multi-media work Elegy of Blue Architecture (2019) contains multiple cultural references from Iran, Azerbaijan and Afghanistan - countries united by a Persian heritage – through various materials and forms.

"If the object in question is hundreds of years old and the borders that delineate nations have shifted and evolved over centuries, then the claim of national origin assigned to an object is dubious (geographic and national origin, of course, are not necessarily the same," the artist explains.

His installation is set in dialogue with a masterpiece by Azerbaijani portraitist Mirza Kadym Irevani, famous for his "typical" Persian miniatures.

Leila Pazooki’s work Untitled – Room #3 (2012/2019) also explores the notion of barriers: "Unwritten rules, social and cultural taboos, conservative and traditional limitations, laws that we are not familiar with – those are all invisible borders we encounter every day, boundaries we don’t realise we cross each minute."

The second floor offers a counter-position, focusing on the experience of boundlessness and exploration beyond physical limits, referencing elements of nature: earth, sky, water.

An immersive marble and mirror gateway by artist Navid Nuur acts as a mediator of time, creating an entrance to a parallel universe.

The cosmos is also discussed in Timo Nasseri’s commissioned work "It’s always night, or we wouldn’t need light" (2019), tracing the starry sky with small, black stone grains, dissolving and disappearing in the course of time.

In her commissioned work The fluid body (2019), Neda Razavipour investigates the notion of inner/intimate memory and collective memory, related to her childhood spent on the shores of the Caspian Sea.

The sound and video installation documents true stories gathered by the artist from Astara to Jolfa, Iran, including tales of people separated by the Aras river border. The Aras river border has also inspired the newly commissioned video by Jaleh Nesari, who whispers verses from poet Nizami Ganjavi, well known for his masterpiece Leili and Majnun (1188), where the protagonists bemoan their forced separation.

The project is curated by Farah Piriye and Anna Fech. Admission is free.

The exhibition will last until February 16, 2020.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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