Monir Farmanfarmaian 2004-2013

Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian

March 18 – April 19, 2013

The Third Line is proud to present a survey exhibition of Iranian artist Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian that reflects upon the past decade of her remarkable artistic journey. Showcasing works from 2004 to present, the exhibition highlights Monir’s stellar career as a pioneer in contemporary Iranian art.

Mapping a chronological trajectory through the different series of works that Monir completed over the past nine years, the exhibition follows the evolution of her signature style of aineh-kari mirror mosaics and her art practice of correlating mysticism with numerology, Islamic geometry and architecture also remain quintessential features within this exhibit.

April 10 - 14, 2013
Booth ZMS6

The Third Line is pleased to be participating for the first time at Zona Maco México Arte Contemporáneo, exhibiting works by multi-disciplinary artist collective Slavs and Tatars at the Zona Maco Sur section.

Participating alongside leading regional and international galleries, The Third Line will be introducing its artists for the first time to the Latin American audience. Zona Maco Mexico Arte Contemporaneo, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, has become one of the most important contemporary art fairs providing an in-depth look into the art of the region.

The Zona Maco Sur section, for which Slavs and Tatars has been selected, is curated by Juan Andrés Gaitán and brings together art practices that look into how the migration geography has been shaped by the historical events of the latter half of the twentieth century. In its presentation, the exhibit brings attention to the impact of history, and the various cultural and political movements in this time, on the development of historical consciousness today.

Farhad Moshiri, Tarek Al-Ghoussein, Youssef Nabil

Safar/Voyage, Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver, Canada | April 20 – September 15

Safar/Voyage will be the first major exhibition of contemporary art from these regions to be shown in Vancouver. It is constructed as a journey in the company of 16 artists, each of whom is neither fixed inside the territories of the Middle East nor permanently diasporic. These artists define themselves and the world according to their own creative representations, often informed by culturally specific conditions.

Wrapping the globe, their diverse artworks speak to the universal theme of voyage (a translation of the Persian safar), from the external and geographical to the internal, emotional, and existential. They acknowledge the realities of political turmoil and revolution, and how politics frames both trauma and desire, whether individual or collective. Voyage is seen to take many forms. Expressed in media ranging from painting, sculpture, and video installation to performance and a carpet, it is as innocuous as tourism (with a twist), as disturbing as war—the violent crossing of borders—and as philosophical as the transience of life. The artists of Safar/Voyage are positioned as our guides, their visions mined for reflections on some of the most urgent issues of our time.

Abbas Akhavan

United Nations Revisited, Galerie M, Berlin | April 20 - August 4

Abbas Akhavan presents a site-specific installation titled Study for a Blue Shield in the upcoming group exhibition United Nations Revisited. Akhavan’s work builds upon a language of painting that sits precariously between abstraction and representation, and painting and sculpture, pioneered by artists such as Jasper Johns. The International Committee of the Blue Shield is the cultural equivalent of the Red Cross. Akhavan appropriates the symbol, cutting and removing a large section of the gallery wall in its shape. The drywall crest, painted with the Blue Shield triangles, remains absent from the gallery for the exhibition’s duration. Instead, the piece is installed on the building’s roof.

United Nations Revisited, an exhibition of art interventions in political spaces explores the tension between the political and the aesthetic poles looking at the example of the United Nations. The intervention focuses on pictorial and symbolical acts around the United Nations. The exhibition presents reflections of these symbols and questions whether they are appropriate for the 21st century.

Slavs and Tatars

L'ange de l'histoire, Palais des Beaux Arts, Paris | April 25 - July 7

The Angel of History is the inaugural exhibition in the newly launched programme of the oldest art academy in the world, the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris, under the new direction of Nicolas Bourriaud. Taking Walter Benjamin's Angel of History as a departure point, the group exhibition brings together contemporary artists who turn to fragments of history and the archival potential of the internet. Slavs and Tatars will be presenting a new piece Molla Nasreddin, la marionnette de Malaquais, a push-puppet of the collective's retroactive mascot, conceived in collaboration with the students of the academy.

Friendship of Nations: Polish Shi'ite Showbiz, Presentation House, Vancouver | April 12 - May 26
Opening reception and book launch: April 11, 7PM

Curated by Babak Golkar, the exhibition Friendship of Nations: Polish Shi’ite Showbiz, the Canadian debut of the artist collective Slavs and Tatars, traces a shared genealogy between Iran and Poland. Beginning as an investigation into the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the Solidarność movement of 1980 – two key modern moments that form bookends to the geopolitical narratives of twentieth-century communism and twenty first century Islamic modernity – the project has drawn on archival research that stretches from the seventeenth-century Sarmatism of the Polish nobility, to the contemporary Green movement in Iran, via the samizdat publications and recordings of 1979 and the 1980s. Presented in varying forms that range from the newspaper 79.89.09 to public projects, the elements brought together for this exhibition include pająki, banners, river-bed sculptures, photo mural, a fountain and mirrored mosaics.

Arwa Abouon

Cross-border: Contemporary Female Artists from the Arabian Mediterranean Region, ZKM Museum of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe | April 27 - September 8

The focus of the exhibition Cross-border is on artists' critical investigation of various thematic aspects of the concept of borders, the attitudes and approaches to borders and strategies of overcoming them. Questions emerge within the context of the exhibition, which adopt a clear position to this issue and elaborateon a range of solutions, which treat regionally specific, political or cultural aspects.

Youssef Nabil

A new self-titled monograph on Youssef Nabil’s work has been published by Flammarion and was launched at Art Dubai 2013. It includes conversations with noted art critic and historian Hans Ulrich Obrist and New-York based Serbian artist Marina Abramović. Egyptian-born artist Youssef Nabil is known for his hand colored silver gelatin photographs. The book provides an in-depth look at the work and mind of the artist and his evocative vision.

Slavs and Tatars - Friendship of Nations: Polish Shi'ite Showbiz

Beginning as an investigation into the disparate events that bookend the 20th and 21st century — the collapse of Communism and the Islamic Revolution in Iran — Friendship of Nations: Polish Shi’ite Showbiz traces unlikely points of convergence in Iran and Poland’s economic, social, political, religious and cultural histories. Drawing on Slavs and Tatars’ multi-disciplinary practice encompassing research, installations, lecture-performances and print media, this publication embraces new contributions on subjects that range from 17st century Sarmatism to the 21st century Green Movement.

Slavs and Tatars is joined here by Agata Araszkiewicz, Ramin Jahanbegloo, Adam Michnik, Mara Goldwyn, Shiva Balaghi and Michael D. Kennedy.