An exhibition of selected photos by the renowned director, photographer Abbas Kiarostami taken over three decades, was inaugurated at Boom Gallery in Tehran on January 1.
A total of 29 very large photos and a video art, selected from six photography collections by Kiarostami, 75, provide an all-inclusive picture of diverse works of this pre-eminent figure of Iranian art and film industry, Honaronline reported.
The collection includes photos from ‘Snow White’, ‘Roads’, ‘The Moonlight’, ‘Doors and Memories’, ‘The Walls’, and ‘A Window to Life’ series, some of which are on display for the first time in Iran.
Prominent art figures attended the opening of the expo including film director Bahman Farmanara, painter Aydin Aghdashloo, actor Reza Kianian, theater director Mohammad Rahmanian and art deputy at the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Ali Moradkhani.
“Kiarostami is truly a special person whose uniqueness can be seen in artworks he creates which are originally rooted in his unique perspective,” Moradkhani said.
The display from the ‘Doors and Memories’ collection has given visitors a nostalgic sense of the old narrow alleys and homes that the older generation of Iranians lived in earlier. “Although an international artist, Kiarostami has retained his ethnic and local look in his works which suggests his deep roots and great devotion to his home country.”
A statement in the exquisite catalogue of the expo, written by Alireza Sami’-Azar, art history researcher and former director of Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts, says, “The photos have been taken in an effort to produce an allusion and meaning in the picture of objects that we see in everyday life. The works provide a rare opportunity to catch a glimpse of Kiarostami’s creative thinking and his visual vocabulary that are as evident as ‘Four Seasons’ in his works”.
He further says, “He turns natural phenomena and the surrounding world into abstract forms – to defamiliarize them – in a way that the audience will soon discover that the main subject of his art is not the aesthetic significance of snow, rain, roads, doors, and walls, but the concepts beyond them.”
“Photography is the mother of cinema,” Kiarostami had once said. He has held exhibitions in London, New York, Torino, and most recently, he showcased three collections of his photography at Ankara’s Contemporary Arts Center, Turkey.
The exhibition will be open to art enthusiasts till March 18 at the gallery at No.11, West Armaghan St., Valiasr St. The gallery is closed on Saturdays and Sundays.
