Shirin Neshat
01 October - 04 November 2005
SYMPOSIUM – Photographic Orient
Saturday, the 5th November 2005, 10-18 p.m.
Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart Berlin
Invalidenstraße 50-51
D-10557 Berlin
Telefon: ( 49 30) 397834-11
Fax: ( 49 30) 397834-13
hbf [at] smb.spk-berlin.de
Untitled, (Woman of Allah Series), 1996. RC print & ink, 121.6 x 85.7 cm, Foto: Larry Barns. © Shirin Neshat, Courtesy Gladstone Gallery, New York.
Part of the supporting programme of the exhibition Shirin Neshat (1 October 4 November 2005), the conference Photographic Orient addresses one of the key focuses of the Hamburger Bahnhof, transcultural art, in this instance concentrating on the medium of photography.
Photographic Orient a symposium at the Hamburger Bahnhof
The orient no longer exists. It has become a historical category and now stands, in nostalgic retrospect, for a utopian, supposedly archaic fairyland among other things. The medium of photography still serves to validate this topos today. Yet a number of contemporary artists take up images of the Orient in their work, setting in motion a complex interplay between authenticity, historicity and fiction. This conference seeks to address these artistic concepts.
The first section will discuss the medium of photography in terms of its significance for representations of the Orient, examining the historical dimensions of Oriental photography. The second part of the conference will focus on the images of the Orient produced by the mass media. The third section will discuss contemporary art´s interaction and examination of the topos of the Orient.
Shirin Neshat a exhibition the Hamburger Bahnhof
Shirin Neshat, an Iranian-American artist based in New York, is one of the most significant contemporary artists working today. Having achieved international renown as a photographer in the 1990s, Neshat has since shifted her focus towards the more fluid and complex media of video and film. Shirin Neshat at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin surveys the recent developments in the practice of this leading international artist, introducing two films Mahdokht (2004) and Zarin (2005) from the yet to be completed five-part feature film Women without Men. These two films are to be shown for the first time in Berlin in a museum, the second of which will receive its world premiere on this occasion.
The Berlin presentation centers on Shirin Neshats most recent body of work entitled Women without Men. Based on the novel of the same name by Iranian author Shahrnush Parsipur, which was banned soon after being published in Tehran in 1989, and its author imprisoned, this new series of films signals her entry into the realm of feature filmmaking.
The exhibition surveys the key moments and vicissitudes in Neshats already rich artistic and personal trajectory. A selection of large-format black-and-white photos drawn from her seminal Women of Allah marks the point of departure. Retrospectively conceived as a trilogy, Neshats second major body of work encompassing Turbulent (1998), Rapture (1999) and Fervor (2000) transplanted her interrogation of the interface between gender and culture, the exploration of cultural displacement and exile, to the medium of film installation. The trilogy is represented by Rapture in the Berlin exhibition.
The exhibition is curated by Britta Schmitz, curator at the Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin, and guest curator, Beatrice E. Stammer, and has been generously funded by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds.
Address:
Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart Berlin
Invalidenstraße 50-51
D-10557 Berlin
Telefon: ( 49 30) 397834-11
Fax: ( 49 30) 397834-13
hbf@smb.spk-berlin.de www.hamburgerbahnhof.de
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