Nastaran Safaei

Preoccupations
Farnaz Rabieijah, Hamed Rashtian, Nastaran Safaei, Amir Mousavizadeh, Ali Mousavizadeh, and Armin Pourfahimi
Opening at Aaran Projects on 30th June 2017, on view until 24th July.

Aaran Projects
No. 5, Lolagar st., Neauphle Le Chateau.
Tel +98 21 66702233
Working days, except Saturdays 1-7 PM and Fridays 4-8 PM.


Six artists reveal their preoccupations, varying from concerns for Inequality and Gender discrimination to importance of love, to anxieties over after life.

Armin Pourfahimi builds a temple for Manhood, and criticizes the Discrimination and Gender inequality in our society. Farnaz Rabieijah reveals her anxieties about death and continuity. In Reminiscence, a whooping nine meter length work on paper she traces plants on the fabric of paper, connecting cycle of nature to life of humans. Hamed Rashtian explores the repetitive nature of everyday life. A simple animation is shown on a handmade Praxionscope. Audiences are invited to create their own circle of repetition by manually operating the device. In Stepwise series, Nastaran Safaie paints old Persian rugs, a sac religious act against an ancient art that has taken centuries to perfect. Generations have walked on these carpets and she asks her own generation to take wise steps, prudently and with solid and persistent steps. Amir Mousavizadeh creates a gas station, and the joke is on the user. By falling deeper in to consumerism and devouring our own national wealth, we are accomplices to the international game of exploitation of oil rich countries. Ali Mousavizadeh pays tribute to beauty and importance of love in everyday life. Swans choose one mate and remain faithful to them for their whole life. At the time of death and by night they return to the place where they have met their pair and sing a beautiful song, having been silent most of their life time. A Death that is as beautiful as life itself.

A Few Credible Stories
Group Exhibition
Opening on 20th January 2017 up to 31st January 2017.

Aaran Projects
No. 5, Lolagar st., Neauphle Le Chateau.
Tel +98 21 66702233
Working days, except Saturdays 1-7 PM and Fridays 4-8 PM.


Artists: Parastou Ahadi, Doras Asadi, Shabnam Lohrasbi, Roghayeh Najdi, Pooneh Oshidari, Mahdieh Pazoki, Leyli Rashidi Raouf, Nastaran Safaei, and Rene Saheb.

The story is that Shahryar, the king finds out that his wife is not virtuous and decides to marry a virgin every night, and to behead them by morning, allowing no time for unfaithfulness. He carries on in this manner until his choice falls on Sheherazade, the daughter of the vizier. The king did not know that Sheherazade had studied philosophy and sciences and arts and that she was pleasant, polite and clever. Her stories and ingenuity and wisdom, changed his attitude and outcome of the night, and she continues to inspire and influence the world after centuries from inception of the story.
This exhibition assembles works of nine female story tellers, stories that can only be narrated by women. The aim is to demonstrate their tenderness and initiative and to celebrate their perseverance and humility. Each have found their own unique visual language; a language of compassion and sensitive approach to mostly social issues with emphasize on their own standing in life and the peripheral.
In 1936, twelve women entered Tehran University and as of 2006 women account for more than half of university entries in Iran, however everyday life is mostly controlled by male decision makers, who habitually are not ready to relinquish control or to share power. The dynamic presence of women in every arena in Iranian society today is the result of years of perseverance and determination of generations past and wise men who chose to support them.
It is said that Ishtar the Goddess of Love and power, approaches the gates of the underworld and demands that the gatekeeper open them:
If thou openest not the gate to let me enter
I will break the door, I will wrench the lock
I will smash the door-posts, I will force the doors…

Pulp Narratives
Opening at Aaran Projects on 15th July 2016.

Artists:
Tara Azarm, Leila Imani, Ghazaleh Bahiraie, Fatemeh Bahman Siahmard, Tarlan Tabar, Saman Khosravi, Ali Asghar Khatibzadeh, Afshan Daneshavar, Rene Saheb, Sadegh Sadeghipour, Nastaran Safaei, Kiarash Alimi, Sara Ghanbari, Mina Mohseni, and Masoumeh Mohtadi.

This exhibition aims to show the preoccupations and concerns of a group of artists with diverse practices; Narrations in Pulp that next to each other create a Hall of Mirrors, and consequently a funnel to our times: Nastaran Safaei’s compositions resemble bouquets for an event long forgotten. Pages from a famous women’s magazine of yester years, with pallid and faded colors, enact the theme of life’s transience and fragility. Fatemeh Bahman Siahmard’s large scale drawings create tensions between spatial occupations- actual and imagined- and are charged with energy. Viewer struggles to make the image coherent and through intricate lines artist forces the onlooker to visualize a three dimensional space. Ali Asghar Khatibzadeh who is a playwright transfers his visualizations on to pulp of discarded newspapers. Tragic and comic characters from his favorites writers are moved in to the real world to recite the stories that have fascinated audiences for generations; “Arjasb” of Shahnameh, “Medea” by Euripides and the ever present Clown. Leila Imani focuses her attention on superb delineation in Persian Paintings and by extracting figures from well known imagery of manuscript paintings, offers different readings of age old traditions. Kiarash Alimi’s large scale flowers stand firmly in their isolated world, patient, unyielding and superbly beautiful. The fabulous simplicity of these paintings are a reminder of splendor of life and the plausible lightness of being. Masoumeh Mohtadi creates books that are talebearer of our times. The book speaks of the gloomy disappearance of the ancient lake of the Assyrians, lake Urumieh. The lake that can be the last habitat of Artemia, a 100 million year species that exists as part of the cycle of nature. Unlike humans that disregard the balance of nature for their own ambitions and survival, Artemia, the ancient being, has resisted change. Ghazaleh Bahiraie is a child of our mega city. She has walked the alleys and streets of her beloved city and offers parodies and her own lived experience. Next to her video, her drawings resemble Silhouette Portrait paintings. Through the black and white drawings artist cuts out the cityscapes; tracing lines around the shadows of the city and telling the stories of its citizens. Saman Khosravi takes us back to his childhood. Having grown up in volatile Kurdistan of Iran, and raised amid war and violence, his simple models of aircrafts that are reminiscent of childhood games at schools, is adapted to tell the tale of horrors of war and a childhood that never was. Rene Saheb has consistently used fables and proverbs of our language to criticize and comment on life around her. By bringing the story of Three Wise Monkeys on to paper, she reminds us of the ancient Zoroastrian inbuilt beliefs in all that is good. Mina Mohseni retells the story of the great flood, refreshing the legend of Noah and his survival. The uncertainty of our times and the consistent struggle of humanity against manmade and natural disasters is a large part of the history of the region. Using sheets of wavy transparent plastic to cover her suspended paintings, she forces the viewer to reconsider their perceptions. Afshan Daneshvar, in her delicate compositions and absorbed in her practice, assembles bits of papers that are reminiscent of strings of something that was once was. Re-building a new page, re-assigning morsels and creating a new presence. The final result are Silent and solid entities that are fragile in essence. Sara Ghanbari tackles the subjects of time and memories and how our perception of life changes as time goes by. She illustrates a suspended space: between present and the past. In her twin paintings, she successfully portrays the flow of time and by re-producing the images, she raises the question of vitality and perception of memories, walking on the edge of memories. Tara Azarm with her set of drawings steps in to realm of concept, erosion and passage of time. Her forms seek to establish new structures out of ambiguous circumstances. Her shapes – with no apparent purpose- change from one thing to another and disappear and reappear in a fusion of the real and the imagined. Tarlan Tabar, pictures what she has seen in her subconscious for a long time. In her works Narcissism and absurdity are in conflicting path with eternity and perpetuity. She alternates between agony and ecstasy and offers her interpretation in lively colors as well as in large scale ink drawings. Sadegh Sadeghipour is a book man. His life is spent in a large book shop every day. The books take the shape of sculptures in his intricately hand cut books. If books are to become obsolete in the 21st century, what better alternate than transforming them to a beautiful sculptural piece and keep them around in one way or another.

Bits And Pieces
Curated by Amir Ali Ghassemi
Opening on 27th November 2015 and will be on view until 17th December.

Presenting works by:
Talieh Kamran
Jan Matavoussian
Ardeshir Mohasses

And artists present:
Abbas Badihi – Yousha Bashir – Amirali Mohebbinejad – Alireza Malekian – Ayeh Rahimi – Bahar Vafaei – Farshad Nekoumanesh – Hooman Alizadeh Sani – Tannaz Daneshmand – Kiyan Forouzesh – Maede Jenab – Mahtab Alizadeh – Navid Salajegeh – Nazanin Aharipour – Nima Bahrehmand – Reza Behzadnia – Simin Yaghoubi – Sadegh Sadeghipour – Amir Amiri – Aydin Samami Mofakham – Martyna Kosecka – Nastaran Safaei – Saman Khosravi.

Bits And Pieces, is a collaboration of New Media Society and Aaran Gallery, that attempts to depict a world that is fragmented and floating between various medias. In the process of selection for this group project we have searched for artistic approaches that are experimental and playful in their core with parallel and intersectional tracks: works on paper and collages combined with concrete poetry, scenery juxtaposed with memory, performance in conversation with sound, video footages that combine bits and pieces, and sculptures/found objects that are gathered from the city.

The exhibition itself is a collage of generations and their different approaches and takes shape in different layers: works that have just been created and projects that have long been forgotten. Bits And Pieces, is completed with Performance, talks about Sound Art, and art in public sphere, and animation screening. These events are planned to frame the extended edges of the spirit of this open ended project.

Amir Ali Ghassemi

Presenting works by Malakeh Nayiny and:
Alireza Adambakan – Ala Ebtekar – Mohammad Eskandari – Asghar Aharipour – Mehrdad Jafari – Azam Hosseinabadi – Hamid Hemayatian – Nasim Davari – Maryam Sepiyani – Nastaran Safaei – Emitis Abbassioun – Shirin Fathi – Hadis Fakhr – Reihane Taravati – Farshid Larimian – Dehghan Mohammadi – Allahyar Najafi.

Opening at Aaran Projects on 20th November 2015.

In Arts, liberated from constraints of reason and logic, artists conceive and combine new forms that enrich our lives, in mythology too, we entertain a hypothesis, to perhaps find answers and solutions to our world which essentially is a puzzle. What if this world were not all that there is?

Humans beings are unique in retaining the capacity for play and amusement. More often than not we forget this gift. The power of imagination which forms our mental image of something that is not perceived through the five senses, should not be underestimated. It is essential to recognize the importance of this force that breaks down borders and teleports us beyond our circumstances, and abilities. A world of wondrous charm and endless stories, unrestrained fancy and extremes that challenge belief.

The artists working in the realm of fantasy, violate in a variety of ways, standard expectations by drastic experiments with subject matter, form and style. Constant fusion of every day with the fantastic, mythical and nightmarish. These trail blazers render a world that blurs traditional distinctions between what is serious, trivial, horrible, absurd or tragic.

Once upon a time, Lamassus and Griffins guarded the Capital city of Persian empire, they still do. An echo of a time where kings were transported to the sky by giant birds, and snakes growing from man’s shoulders feasted on human brain, and the white Div was defeated by the super hero and Simorgh was busy saving the albino child. A recurring magical abstractness that permits representation to take a timeless character; recalling the past, expressing hope for future and affirming continuity.

In collaboration with Iranian Association of Sculptors

The very large or “colossal” statues have had an enduring appeal since ancient times, and so does small sculptures, which as personal possessions or small figurines of deities have been found all over the world.
Artists have been commissioned to create large splendid sculptures to mark events and mainly to “exhibit” power and wealth. On the contrary , generally, small sculptures have been for personal use, entwined with personal attachments, and mostly are result of impulses and desires of their creators. Throughout history refined and delicate small statues have invoked positive reaction from the viewers, who find them more appealing and intimate than the glorification that is inherent in grand sculptures. Despite their sizes the small sculptures are often more admired than large scale pieces, because of the fact that the craftsmanship in a small scale is harder to achieve, there is hardly room for error and therefore patience of the creator is always admired.
For the 9th Exhibition of Small Sculpture, 45 artists will be exhibiting their works. Works that cover a wide and appealing array of subjects and materials. What is common in these sculptures is the personal and informal approach, a sample although Small, of the personal language that each artist has applied to reveal their emotions and reflections.
In this selection, ordinary and extraordinary events are touched upon; burning of stray cats along with their guardian in a freak accident (Burnt Cat, by Elnaz Ghaemi), pleasant time spent in Manuchehri House in Kashan (by Sam Nikmaram) to yesteryears and popular women’s magazine (by Nastaran Safaei), to fragility of life (by Massih Moshtaghi)…
This exhibition is a sample of different approaches and practices of Iranian contemporary artists who are persisting on their individuality as any other contemporary human being and showcasing what is spun from the heart and woven from the soul.

Group show of video, installation and sculpture

Curated by Mahoor Toosi

Artists: Mohamed Eskandari, Saffaeddin Emami, Caraballo Farman, Behzad Hatefi, Ali Honarvar, Siamac Sariolghalam, Nastaran Safaei, Hamed Rashtian, Parvin Shokri, Sepideh Taraqi, and Mahoor Toosi

This is not an exhibition about America, rather it is about us, and what we yearn to realize, about what motivates us and what disappoints, it’s a reflection on us. America has long been discovered and continuously changes. In our search to understand it, each time we encounter new paradoxes, fashioned by our inner faculty: hyper-reality, the land of promises, a desert devoid of culture, the New World. These assumptions vary according to the place on Earth that we live in; As if the existence of America depends on its outer reflection. America is not limited to 77 longitude and 39 latitude, it is not simply a piece of land bordering the Tropic of Cancer and Arctic Circle. Depending on where you stand in the world your perception changes and in order to understand yourself and where you are, you are obliged to look at it. This synthesis happens in different ways and manners and this time we offer our own, from a distance of 11469 Km from the center.
Mahoor Toosi