Issue 20 - In Conversation with .. 9!

But every Friday there is something to
go see. That's been amazing for a lot of
people, to have that chance to be able
to go look at and talk about art in lack of
museums and other institutions.
And the art itself? Are artists
dealing with political or
non-political topics in their works?
I see less political work nowadays but
that might just be me and the program
of our gallery even though I try to have a
look at the other galleries’ programs as
much as possible.
When I opened my gallery, I showed a
few exhibitions that were conceptual and
political. Because conceptual art is
difficult to sell, production costs have
risen extremely. I think it's become very
difficult for artists to be able to do that
kind of work.
From your point of view, what’s
life like for artists in Iran at the
moment?
Costs are – I cannot tell you – everything
doubled and tripled within months. Inflation
is crazy. A lot of the artists are trying
to leave, either through continuing their
education or using different talent visas.
They're trying to get out because they
feel there is not much for them left here.
Some of them have lost their studios;
they cannot afford to buy material.
Of course this is not the case for
everyone. A lot of artists have decided to
stay and fight through all the difficulties,
but I’m sure it’s tough for a lot of them.
What's interesting is that with everything
that has happened, even during the last
year when all the protests broke, with
a lot of the galleries closed for a few
months, the market is still good. Even
last year, right at the beginning of the
protests, when we didn't even know what
was going to happen, I was surprised to
see that people were asking to see works,
or they were buying works.
That is a good sign because I think art
does its own thing regardless of so many
things. . It was interesting to see that
people were still supporting and buying
art for their collections.
Can everyone become an artist
in Iran or is it an “upper class”
profession?
Culturally, the thing here was that most
people would want their kids to become
doctors or engineers. When someone
said they wanted to go to art school, that
was frowned upon. But that has changed
in the past 20 years. And of course there
have always been
exceptions too.
.But now you see artists from different
backgrounds and classes. I don’t think it
has even been an upper class thing. It
really depends on the individual’s passion
and interests.
Some of them have gone to university,
others have worked in different artist studios
while some are self-taught. You see
all sorts of different people.
Tell me about one of the more
recent exhibitions, “Faces” by
Donya Aalipour.
As I explained, most exhibiting artists
are young and emerging. I have only two
more established artists, such as the
Berlin-based Ali Nassir. Every couple of
years, he curates shows of young Iranian
artists.
The second time he did it was with Iranian
artists who live abroad. Donya is
based in Vienna. Nassir knew her, sent
me her work, and said he was interested
in showing her work in the group exhibition.
When I saw her work and met her when
she travelled to Tehran, I fell in love with
her work. She didn't have any
representation in Tehran and hadn't had
any solo shows yet. She's in her late 20s.
Her show was actually set for September
last year. All the works were here, framed,
ready to go. But with the protests, we
decided to cancel her show.
Over the period of one year, the amount
of work that she's done and the growth
that you see in her work is absolutely
amazing. We decided to show a selection
of the original artworks that were done
for last year and a few of the ones that
she had done during the past year.
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