The Artists
“NIETZSCHE WAS A MAN”
Video art by 20 Iranian women
ALPHABETICAL ORDER BY LAST NAME:
Fereshteh Alamshah (Iran)
Morehshin Allahyari (USA)
Maneli Aygani (USA/Iran)
Neda Darzi (Iran)
Mozhgan Erfani (France)
Samira Eskandarfar (Iran)
Celia Eslamieh Shomal (Netherlands)
Roxy Farhat (Sweden)
Tara Goudarzi (Iran)
Samira Hashemi (Iran/USA)
Haleh Jamali (UK)
Gelare Khoshgozaran (USA)
Shahrzad Malekian (Iran)
Nooshin Naficy (Isfahan/Iran)
Azadeh Nilchiani (France)
Raha Rastifard (Iran/Sweden)
Farideh Shahsavarani (Iran/USA)
Alysse Stepanian (USA)
Parya Vatankhah (France)
Raheleh (Minoosh) Zomorodinia (USA)
Fereshteh Alamshah (Isfahan/Iran)
Alamshah is a member of the Chakad Group, and the Painter’s Association in Isfahan. Her work can be found at the Wead Women Environmental Artists Directory. She has taught painting at the Alamshah Visual Arts Institute for nine years, and was The Executive Director of The 22nd Environmental Art festival, Gav khuni pond, and the Manager of Land Art Workshop, both in Isfahan (2009). Her activities include 3 solo painting shows, over 27 group shows, and over 10 environmental art festivals in Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, Tabriz, and other cities in Iran. Alamshah has won awards at The Manifestation of Feeling Festival in Tehran, Niavaran (2009), in Isfahan at The Tabriz Painter’s workshop (2008), Sugvare Painting Festival (2007), Ashura Painting Festival (2006), and The First Conceptual Art Festival (2006). Her videos were screened at the Videoholica Festivals in Bulgaria (2010, 2011); 1st Azadegan Festival in Tehran (2010); Athens Video Art Festival in Greece (2011); 6th Crosstalk Video Art Festival in Budapest (2011). She has held a solo exhibition of her photo, video, and installations at the Isfahan Museum of Contemporary Art, in 2010.
Morehshin Allahyari (California/USA)
Allahyari is a new media artist and an art activist. She was born and raised in Iran and moved to the United States in 2007. Her creative and research interest encompasses 3D animation, digital filmmaking, web-art / design, performance and extensive activity as a curator and producer. The topics of her practice include the social, political and cultural issues of Iran, creative writing, art activism, media art, and collaborative art. Morehshin’s animated films and curatorial projects have received worldwide acclaim. She has been part of exhibitions, festivals, and conferences in Tehran, Denver, Dallas (Dallas Biennale + Oliver Francis Gallery), Chicago, New York, Germany (The 7th Berlin International Directors Lounge (Berlin) + 25th European Media Art Festival (Osnabrück), Virginia (The Taubman Museum of Art), San Francisco, Denton (University of North Texas), Portland, Ohio, Brazil, Sweden, Romania (Arad art Museum), Netherlands, and Canada.
Maneli Aygani (Minneapolis/USA & Tehran/Iran)
Aygani was born in Tehran. In 2007 she received her BFA In Graphic Design from the Soureh University of Tehran. Recently she received her MFA in Printmaking and Drawing/Painting from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Maneli is an interdisciplinary artist; her works portray different approaches to confront oppression in different cultures. She has exhibited in various international venues in places such as New York City, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Ann Arbor, Tehran, Finland, etc. Maneli currently lives and works in Minneapolis and Tehran.
Neda Darzi (Tehran/Iran; Co-curator of this show)
Ms. Darzi is a multimedia artist and the Founder of Persbook Art. She currently lives and works in Iran. By combining some of her original Tapestry, ceramics, and photographs, she has created conceptual video installations, which reflect Iranian culture as well as her own identity. Darzi states, “My interest in video installation is the creation of a simulated experience. The archiving of information and imagery is much like memories I have collected from my past and childhood. Despite the tactility of my tapestry sculptures, the projected moving image requires only the act of watching from the viewer. Unlike sculptures that are within the physical space of the viewer, directly interacting with them, video installations are imitations of reality. I am interested in combining these two media, in order to engage the viewer both physically and virtually.” Darzi has held 8 solo exhibitions and has taken part in more than 47 group shows in Iran, France, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Romania, Finland and Greece. Most recent screenings of Darzi ’s videos include: CologneOFF 2011at the Arad Art Museum in Romania, and Athens video art festival.
Mozhgan Erfani (Paris/France)
Iranian multimedia artist, Mozhgan Erfani lives and works in Paris. Fascinated by art, she continued her superior studies in applied arts in Iran and in Arts Plastiques at the University of Pantheon Sorbonne in Paris. At present, a PhD student in Arts and Science of Arts, she presents her work in the form of video, installation, photography, and art performance. Erfani is a member of the K-droz association, and A.D.C.I. (Association pour la Défence du Cinéma Indépendant). She has been selected as a Persbook’s winner award in 2011 and for the III International Biennale for Young Art of Moscow in 2012. Her work has been screened and exhibited at the Isfahan Contemporary Museum of Art in Iran, Les Ephemeres/Château Landon, Figures du Sommeil/vitry sur Seine in France, Paris21/Hamm in Germany, (MMoMA) Moscow Museum of Modern Art in Russia, Art Takes Times Square of New York/USA, Edinburgh Iranian Festival /UK and Dublin/South Ireland.
Samira Eskandarfar (Tehran/Iran)
Born in Tehran, Samira Eskandarfar graduated from the Iranian Youth Cinema Society with a Filmmaking degree in 2003. From 1999 to 2001 she studied drawing with Hannibal Alkhas and one of his students Vahik Hartounian, during which and up until now she has had fifteen solo exhibitions and has participated in more than fifty group exhibitions worldwide. In 2005 while participating in Abbas Kiarostami’s filmmaking workshop, she made six short-films and videos. In 2009 Tate Modern, London acquired one of her videos, “A Dowry for Mahrou”. Eskandarfar has made sixteen short-films and videos overall which she has shown extensively at festivals, exhibitions and screenings all around the world. “Root Canal” is Eskandarfar’s first feature film completed in 2012.
Celia Eslamieh Shomal (Netherlands)
Eslamieh Shomal was born in Tehran, Iran and lived there as well as in the Northern city of Rasht, until the age of 26, when she moved to the Netherlands. Celia studied Media Art at ArTEZ (Hogeschool voor de Kunsten). Her videos have been shown at “How To Philosophize With a Hammer” at The White Box in New York City (2011), and “The Third Eye” Iranian Contemporary Art Exhibition at Other Gallery in Shanghai (2011). She has also participated in the Women’s Voices Now online and offline film festival based in New York City, with a screening at the L.A. Film School in Hollywood (2010 - 11).
Roxy Farhat (Malmö/Sweden)
Farhat is a feminist filmmaker, video and performance artist currently based in Malmö, Sweden. Her work focuses on gender, ethnicity, migration/immigration and class and often utilizes the simple language of popular culture to provoke complicated intersectional issues. Humor is an important element of her work, used as a tool to disrupt our emotional responses to conventional myths and stereotypes in society. Farhat received her New Genres MFA from University of California Los Angeles (2012) and her BFA from Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design (2010). Her work has been screened and exhibited in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Texas, San Francisco, Baltimore, Santiago, Cape Town, Oslo, Helsinki and Stockholm to mention a few.
(Photo by Ahang Bashi)
Tahereh Goudarzi (Iran)
Goudarzi was born in Khorramabad, Iran. She is a 2000 Visual Arts graduate of Fateme, AL. Zahra University of Isfahan. In 2009 she received her BA in Painting from Shahed University in Tehran. She is a member of the Open 5 Group, Low art Group, WEAD, and YATOO International Project. In 2010 Goudarzi was the Director of the 30th Environmental Art Festival in Shoushtar, Iran. Since 2006 she has participated in more than 21 Environmental art Festivals in Polour, Hormuz, Shoushtar, Uremia, Isfahan, Nowshahr, Genaveh, Arak and Tehran. Goudarzi has been a visual art teacher since 2000, and has been managing recycle art projects with participating junior high school students for 5 years. She has participated in video art festivals in France, Bulgaria, and Iran, and group exhibitions in Iran, Canada, America, Romania and Korea.
Samira Hashemi (Isfahan/Iran & San Francisco/USA)
Samira Hashemi is an Iranian interdisciplinary artist, curator and educator who lives and works in San Francisco/CA and Isfahan/Iran. Her work has been exhibited internationally, recent venues include, Copenhagen Contemporary Art Centre in Copenhagen/ Denmark, Disjecta Art Centre in Portland/OR, Museum of Ex-Teresa Arte Actual in Mexico City/Mexico, Parramasala Media Festival in Sydney/Australia, Fonlad Festival/ Portugal and YATOO-i/ South Korea. She is the winner of FOKUS Video Art Festival 2014 Best video Prize/ Copenhagen/Denmark, and the recipient of ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) Artist Contact fund 2014. She is also nominated for the Video Production award from Kadist Foundation 2013, San Francisco/ CA. She has received MFA in New Genres from San Francisco Art Institute in San Francisco/ CA and Bachelor of Fine Arts from Birmingham City University in Birmingham/ UK.
Haleh Jamali (Glasgow/UK)
Jamali has a fascination with all varieties of materials and has extended her artistic talent to Painting, Photography and Video making. She looks at the hidden layers beneath the visible, using the mediums of painting and installation. Jamali’s interest in portraiture and narrative stems from her desire to address the social aspects of representation, particularly as it relates to the female gender. Jamali states: “For me, the diversity, versatility, and unrivalled ability of portraits to communicate, make them an enigma. Indeed, my particular concern is to reveal the paradoxes and ambiguities behind the eyes of the portrait subject who tries to communicate emotions, arrest attention, and often express feelings of both attraction and repulsion”. Encouraging an intimate relationship between the viewer and the subject, Jamali considers how an individual’s identity can be constructed in relation to Others, while simultaneously suggesting that the Self and the Other are inseparable. Jamali’s artwork appears in solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally. Most recent exhibitions of her work include: Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts, Toronto- Canada; Edinburgh Iranian festival, Edinburgh- UK and La Viande Gallery, London- UK.
Gelare Khoshgozaran (Los Angeles/USA)
Khoshgozaran is an artist, writer and independent scholar living and working in Los Angeles. Born in Tehran, Iran Gelare finished her undergraduate degree in Photography at the University of Arts in Tehran and she contributed to Iranian art journals and magazines before moving to the States. She received her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Southern California in 2011. She is currently a columnist at Mardomak.org, a prominent Iranian news and media website where she reflects on Iranian arts and culture especially among the diaspora. From pre-revolutionary Iranian TV commercial footage to personal home video, from static noise to an iconic American pop song, from the lobby of an art museum in New York to the communal virtual space of “online lifestyle”, from childhood games to every day rituals of living under societal rules, how is culture “formed” through our intake and experience of images, sounds, spaces and practices? How can artistic practice, alongside scholarly research be an entry point to approach the hybridity of culture and contemporary existence in the age of “post”? These questions, amongst others unfold in the videos, performances, films and writings of Gelare Khoshgozaran.
Shahrzad Malekian (Tehran/Iran)
Malekian is an interdisciplinary artist working with video, performance and sculpture. Her works are often embodied with contemporary humans in their complex relations, power structures and gender, from the private to public domain. Malekian has a bent for enveloping the artistic concepts in layers of glamour, fantasy, and sarcasm, with socially critical and gender conscious statements. She has shown her sculptures in various exhibitions and biennials in Iran, in addition to wearable objects she creates for her performances. Her videos have been shown internationally, in group exhibitions in Brazil, USA and Germany. Her latest video piece was selected for the International Film Festival Rotterdam and the Göteborg International Film Festival in Jan 2013.
Nooshin Naficy (Isfahan/Iran)
I was born on June 5, 1959 into a large cultural family in Isfahan. My father was a physician who was interested not only in advancing his knowledge and skills in modern medicine but also in studying traditional medicine and medicinal plants, and he dedicated a large portion of his work to the latter. Traces of his love and curiosity towards nature and the man’s body can be found in my art. I was interested in painting since I was a child. I painted a lot and was always learning. But my youth coincided with the throbbing and crisis-ridden years leading to and following the Revolution, which resulted in a decade-long gap between me and art. In 1986, I left for Tehran to learn painting professionally. I took classes on the theory and practice of painting for five years, and since then, art has become a part of my life. I have held twelve solo exhibitions and participated in forty group exhibitions in various cities and countries. During this time, I have also made book illustrations. I have been a member and instructor at the Isfahan Association of Painters and have created many joint projects with the Godar Group. I established an art workshop called Baran [Rain] particularly for children and young adults in 1991. It still is active. I also have been working in New Art (Environmental art, Installation,Video art, Performance and…), since 2001.
Azadeh Nilchiani (Paris/France)
Nilchiani began her studies in fine arts in 1999 at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Tehran University, Dept. of sculpture. She continued at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Decoratifs in Paris (2007). She studied music at the national music school of Orleans (2006), and sound art and electroacoustic composition at the National School of Music Pantin (2009). In 2010 she received a 2nd Master in Music and Media at the University Paris Est, Marne Valley. She has presented her work at: IMMAF, Yangon, Myanmar (2012); Third Persbook’s Winner – Video, Tehran/Iran (2012); L’ Art Show Cannes, L’AVIFF, EVENEMENT D’ART CONTEMPORAIN PHOTO § VIDEO (2012); Contemporary art Biennale d’Issy - The French Museum of Playing Card, Issy-les-Moulineaux (2011); Traverse Video Festival: “Art proxime”, Toulouse / France (2011); International Festival of Electroacoustic Music Ai maako, Santiago, Chile (2010); 21st International Conference of the Iranian Women’s Studies Foundation - University Paris 3 - Sorbonne Nouvelle PARIS (2010); Museum of Contemporary Art CAM Casoria, Naples / Italy (2010); Festival Traverse vidéo13ème Edition, Toulouse / France (2010); Contemporary art Biennale de Bourges / France (2008); Festival Miden, Municipal Gallery of Kalamata, Greece (2007).
Raha Rastifard (Stockholm/Sweden)
Iranian-born artist, Raha Rastifard's work ranges from photography to video, design and installation. Her work always stems from her personal experiences, and is largely autobiographical. In her highly lyrical art, she creates works full of (trans)cultural, poetic and historical art references. Her work as an artist is based on narrating a story.Rastifard graduated from the National University of Art in Tehran with a Bachelor degree in 2000. Later she moved to Germany to gain new experiences in art and to study. In 2011, she received a Master’s degree in European and Islamic Art History and Iranian Studies at the Frei University, Berlin. Rastifard has been very productive as a contemporary mixed media artist, and her work has been exhibited internationally, including a solo Exhibition at the Pergamon Museum, Berlin. She was a Finalist for “Freedom to Create Prize” and she has exhibited in Victoria & Albert Museum, London as part of a group Exhibition. Her work has also been exhibited in galleries and public spaces in Bonn, New York City, Tokyo, New Delhi, Kabul, Stockholm, Mexico City, Shanghai and Konsthall Malmö Sweden. Rastifard's works are in several private collections and international galleries, as well as in the Pergamon Museum collection in Berlin.
Farideh Shahsavarani (Tehran/Iran & Chicago/USA)
Shahsavarani is a well-known painter, photographer, video art and installation artist. Born in Iran, she holds an MFA in Painting. Having served as Department Chair of the Graphic Department at Islamic Azad University in Tehran, she currently teaches and serves as a member of the faculty board of Azad University-Architecture group. She is a Member of the Association of Iranian Painters (AIP), and a Member of the Visual Art Development Center of Iran. She has participated in over 12 Solo Exhibitions and over 100 Group Exhibitions in Iran and abroad. Shahsavarani began her art career as a painter, but in the course of time, her search for other means and ways of creativity led her to installation and video art. All these are instruments for her to express her quest for light, spirituality, and the forgotten meaning of life. Shasavarani’s works have won awards and honorary mentions at the Moscow International Film Festival (2008, 2009); 3rd New Art Exhibition, Saba Museum, Tehran (2007); Women Artistic Festival, Niavaran Cultural Center, Tehran (2006); 1st Experimental Painting & Graphic Exhibition, Tehran (1992).
Alysse Stepanian (Los Angeles/USA; Co-curator and Organizer of this show)
Transmedia artist, curator, and "animal" rights advocate Alysse Stepanian was born in Iran and currently lives in Los Angeles. Her videos, installations, paintings, photographs, web art, performances and curations have been presented in over 300 shows in 45 countries. She is the creator and curator of Manipulated Image videoart screenings and multimedia events, and URBAN RANCH PROJECT on Facebook. URP is a 2013 recipient of a Culture & Animals Foundation Multi-media Research Grant. It features work in all media, bringing awareness to the interconnectedness of racism, sexism, ageism, speciesism, and other social and hierarchical prejudices; using the power of social media, URP inspires change. Recent publications of her writings and interviews include the Journal for Critical Animal Studies and STIGMART10, VIDEOFOCUS 2013. Stepanian has created installations with Philip Mantione under the the name BOX 1035. These works are multi-sensorial, with social, political, psychological and philosophical references. From 2005 to 2007 BOX 1035 created installations in Berlin, Beijing, and New York. Beijing’s City Weekend magazine listed "Don’t be afraid, be ready" (2006) as number one of the top 5 exhibits.
Parya Vantankhah (Paris/France)
Vatankhah currently lives in Paris. She has served five years as an Art professor at the Art University in Tehran, Iran. Vatankhah explores the social paradoxes that Iranian women face outside of Iran. She believes that these paradoxes have been present in the lives of women all around the world, throughout history. She looks at the psychology and emotional behaviour of humans and she feels that women need to look within and connect with their inner selves. Vatankhah states: “I believe that there is no such thing as absolute truth; the truth is not to be found or observed. Under the smiling skin of anyone there may be a wandering and disturbed soul.” Vatankhah has participated in over 20 exhibitions. Most recent screenings of her videos include: group shows at Gallerie Alter Ago in Aix-En-Provence-France, Cologne OFF 2011 at the Arad Art Museum in Romania, and a solo show at the Queen Art Gallery in Toronto, Canada.
Raheleh (Minoosh) Zomorodinia (USA)
Zomorodinia is a photographer and environmental artist. She has her BA in Photography and MA in Graphic design from Islamic Azad University, Iran. She studies Multimedia Video Art in Berkeley City College, USA, to improve her skills in New Media. She is a board member of WEAD, Women Environmental Artists Directory in the USA, also a member of the environmentalist group in Iran, Open Five. Her works have been shown locally and internationally. She has been part of 40 exhibitions, environmental art festivals and workshops in Tehran, Isfahan, London, Italy, Canada, Davis, Colorado, Nevada (Nevada Art Museum), Albuquerque, Oakland, Novato (Marin Community Foundation), Hayward, Romania, and Korea. Recently, her video, “Red Line” received an honorable mention from CCC Student Film Festival in California, USA.
