Ebrahim Eskandari

End of Year Group Exhibition

Opening on 24th February 2023
On View until 17th March 2023

Artists:
Farhad Ahrarnia, Shaqayeq Ahmadian, Sara Assareh, Samira Eskandarfar, Mohamad Eskandari, Ebrahim Eskandari, Reihaneh Afzalian, Sanahin Babajanians, Fatemeh Bahman Siyahmard, Dadbeh Bassir,Parisa Taghipour, Sara Tavana, Manijeh Hejazi, Parisa Hejazi, Sara Hosseini, Zari Hosseini, Hamid Hemayatian, Anahita Darabbeigi, Nasim Davari, Raoof Dashti, Navid Salajegheh, Sara Soleimani Qashqayi,Amir Hossein Shahnazi, Hamed Sahihi, Nastaran Safaei, Bahar Samadi, Kiarang Alaei, Maryam Farzadian, Mayram Farshad, Mehdi Farhadian, Naghmeh Ghassemlou, Amirali Ghasemi, Narges Mohamadian, Shirin Mellatgohar,Koosha Moossavi, Parsoua Mahtash, Elmira Mirmiran, Allahyar Najafi, Siamak Nasr, Nazgol Nayeri, Leila Nouraei, Mohammad Hamzeh, Marjan Hoshiar.

Don’t be sad, my land!
I have planted flower seeds in your wounds
One day there will be flower everywhere…
Alireza Roushan
For Women, For Life, For Freedom
It is through artistic creations that Iran reveals her true self and this many believe constitutes her most precious legacy. The Persian legacy has endured many turbulences of history. No historical shock has been able to break the chain. There were interruptions, yet they always permitted even provoked a resumption of creativity; ideas, styles, techniques forcefully imposed, were accepted and integrated in to our existing practice. The Iranian spirit is a tenacious one, we can endure extremes and at the same time our thousands of years of history teaches us to remain optimistic and persistent.
Throughout the last forty-four years of our perpetual revolution, the visual artists have had to carve their independence; in the first years the universities were purged through the so-called Cultural Revolution and artists and professors had to look for other jobs or start private classes. Many left the country. Although it was a difficult struggle, but they succeeded in achieving autonomy from a Regime that controls the distribution of our national wealth and would never support progressive arts. This resilient attitude which is now adapted by the younger generations, was very important in the recent difficult times where despite pressures and the fears, the visual arts has stood its ground and has been an outspoken and integral part of the structure of our brave civil society.
Our artists continue to consciously challenge the status quo and the peripheral environment as well as themselves. They insist on their sense of independence and persist in their capabilities like all other modern human beings. They help preserve a Persian legacy, enriching our lives and inspiring us as a nation to become better than we are. It is this perseverance and humility that is the source of the merit of Iranian arts and its limitless potential.
We are constantly reminded of our legendry bird: The Phoenix who is believed to possess the knowledge of all times, from ashes she rises to create wonderment, she plunges in to flames to be purified , to rise again, every time stronger, every time mightier.
Nazila Noebashari

To see more of this exhibition, please follow us on Instagram: @aarangallerytehran

Address: Neauphle Le Chateau, Lolagar St. No 5.
Tel: +98 21 66702233
We are open Wednesdays and Thursdays 1-6 pm.
For opening day and Fridays: 4-8 pm

Solo exhibition of Ebrahim Eskandari

Opening on 10th August 2018

Ebrahim Eskandari is preoccupied with the forgotten and vanishing city elements, such as double decker buses, the Peykan car, Post boxes, Telephone booths. He draws our attention to details that are often neglected, bringing abandoned objects and feelings and memories associated with them into the limelight. Everything changes in Iran, very often the past and history is disregarded, and then there are also the elements that are purposely removed to obliterate the past. This, again, is the Iranian life, simply cut short and discontinued.
Peykan car was produced under license in Iran for 38 years, beginning by 1967. In the first years, owning a Peykan was a sign of “having arrived”: a symbol of certain social status, and future prosperity. The Prime Minister of the time wished One Peykan for Every Iranian, it was part of the Iranian dream; our spending spree, the tipsiness that came with drinking too much easy petro dollars.
With the Revolution in 1978 Peykan lost its allure, the trendy “Youngster” series went out of production and the “Labor Peykan”, basic and sturdy, was the only option and people queued up and patiently waited for delivery of their Peykans. Few years after the war owning a Peykan was a sign of failure, of belonging to the masses of decent people who lost so much through the years of violence and war.
It is this coming down in the world that is the spice in the new work of Ebrahim Eskandari. A taxi driver who earns his living by driving his Peykan,- and true to form is constantly nagging about his life and the conditions (a national past time). A lion descends a double decker and asks for direction to “Mehrabad”- the old airport of Tehran- and without a pause the man who by now is used to the surreal in Iranian life, gives him the directions.
The regular irregularity of our lives, the pain of Iran, and its illusionary dimensions and at the same time the will to survive and even hope for future, are at the heart of this exhibition. Applying his considerable skill as a sculptor, Ebrahim Eskandari outlines the many changes in the Iranian way of life, a nation that needs to come to terms with the reality on the ground and stay away from illusions and slogans.

Opening at Aaran Projects on 29th January.

This exhibition is dedicated to ten of the leaders, activists and journalists who were brutally murdered during the Constitutional Revolution in Iran (1905-1907). Their names are engraved on conscience and history of this country:
Mirza Reza Jahangir Khan Sour Esrafil – Journalist
Sheikh Ahmad Rouh ol Ghodos – Journalist
Malek ol Motekalemin – Leader and Grand orator of Constitutionalists
Ghazi Ardaghi – Activist
Mirz Ebrahim Agha Tabrizi – Member of Parliament and Journalist
Seyed Jamal ol Din Vaez Esfahani – Leader of Constitutionalists
Sheikh Ahmad Rouhi – Activist and Journalist
Seyed Mohammad Tabatabaie – Leader and Activist
Saqat ol Eslam Tabrizi – Leader and activist and Author
Prince Yahya Miraz Eskandari – Member of Parliament and Journalist

The Persian Constitutional Revolution took place between 1905 and 1907. The revolution led to the establishment of a Parliament in Iran and opened the way for cataclysmic changes in Persia, heralding the modern era and the rule of law and promising freedom of speech.
The monarch Mozaffar ad-Din Shah signed the constitution in 1906, but he died shortly after and was replaced by his son, Mohammad Ali Shah. The latter abolished the constitution and in June of 1908, with support of British and Russians, bombarded the Parliament. Russian colonel Vladimir Liakhov who was the commander of the Persian Cossack forces, formed as a elite cavalry unit in 1879, lead the forces in shelling the Majles, killing hundreds of people and later on executing leaders and Journalists of the Constitutional Movement. The Shah kept himself confined to his residence at Bagh-e Shah fort in west of Tehran. A number of captured constitutionalists were imprisoned at Bagh e Shah and tortured and killed.
In retaliation and by July 1909, pro-Constitution forces marched from provinces of Azerbaijan and Gilan towards the capital and were joined with forces of tribes of Bakhtiari and Qasqai. They were able to capture Tehran and re-establish the constitution.
On 16th July 1909, the parliament voted to place Mohammad Ali Shah’s 11-year-old son, Ahmad Shah on the throne. Mohammad Ali Shah abdicated and fled to Russia, later to Turkey and died in San Remo Italy. Every Shah of Iran since Mohammad Ali Shah has died in Exile.

You are cordially invited to join us for a simultaneous opening of the Group exhibition titled “Tehran Virtual or Real,” which will be held at Aaran Gallery and will mark the opening of “Aaran Projects.”

The new space is located at No 5, Lolagar Alley, Neauphle-le-Château St.

The opening will take place between 4-8 pm on the 18th and 19th of July 2015.

Artists present in this exhibition: Sasan Abri – Asareh Akasheh – Tannaz Amin – Maryam Amir Farshi – Ghazaleh Bahiraie – Nasser Bakhshi – Dadbeh Basir – Majid Biglari – Parinaz Eleish – Ebrahim Eskandari – Mohamad Eskandari – Yashar Azar Emdadian – Maryam Espandi – Farhad Fozouni – Kamyar Kafaie – Amir Nasr Kamgooyan – Myriam Quiel – Amir Mousavi – Aliyar Rasti – Navid Rasouli – Zarvan Rouhbakhshan – Romisa Sakaki – Behrang Samadzadegan – Bahar Taheri.

Solo show by Ebrahim (Amin) Eskandari

Two nights prior to success of revolution in Iran, on 9th February 1979, while the Iranian National TV was broadcasting the meteorological report of the day, and announcing that Tehran’s weather will be sunny and partly cloudy and windy, the garrison at Doushan Teppe, the educational center of Iranian Air Force, which was housing hundreds of cadets at it’s dormitory, became the scene of contention between The Special forces and protesting cadets.
Once shooting began people were informed and immediately surrounded the garrison and began demonstrating. Meanwhile groups of people found their way in to the base and took hold of weapons and barricaded the surrounding streets. Finally the armory of the garrison was captured at 10 am on 10th February. Thousands of hand written messages were circulating in the city announcing availability of weapons for whoever had completed military service. And this was how the intervention of air force cadets changed everything in favor of the people.
Ebrahim Eskandari

Show by Majid Biglari, Ebrahim Eskandari and Hamid Hemaytian

The Chief told the Endangered Spicy that from now own he is better suited to make decisions for his own carrot. Procreation became the order of the day and soon enough the creatures could live a dreamlike life. The Unknown became the executor of the Pattern for Development… a comprehensive policy prevented extinction of species. Animated entertainment replaced drugs and prostitution. Based on a five year plan it was determined that the population of endangered species ought to rise and extinction erased.
Majid Biglari

Room No 22 is a installation about a set moment. A day that has passed. Objects and appliances that invoke common memories. A mutual feeling raised from depth and brought in to surface. A tedious voice used as a language to depict the vague story that is roaming behind the walls of the houses. Artist anticipates the reaction of the visitor. Allowing for direct reaction to subject , it’s components , color and even the prevailing though process. A day among all these days.
Ebrahim Eskandari

It is stupendous to speak of complications that are intent on self destruction. While my creations have not overstepped the boundaries of emanation, albeit in praise of seclusion; this discourse resembles the clod that the followers of Hallaj throw at him which were far graver than the others’ because one can not learn except in the manner advocated by Hallaj.
Hamid Hemaytian

End of Year Group Exhibition

Don’t be sad, my land!I have planted flower seeds in your woundsOne day there will be flower everywhere…Alireza Roushan

For Women, For Life, For Freedom

Solo exhibition of Ebrahim Eskandari

Don’t be sad, my land!
I have planted flower seeds in your wounds
One day there will be flower everywhere…
Alireza Roushan