Far Near Distance
Contemporary Positions of Iranian Artists
By Haupt & Binder

The Project "Far Near Distance" consists of an exhibition, a film program, concerts, theatre performances, readings, discussion panels, and workshops. With this exhibition, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin is presenting a panorama of contemporary positions of artists of Iranian origin operating between Tehran, London, Paris, and the metropolises of the USA.

The program was conceived in cooperation with Rose Issa of Iranian-Lebanese origins, who lives in London working as an independent curator, critic, and author. For "Far Near Distance" she organized the film program and the fine art exhibitions.

In an e-mail interview we held with Rose Issa, she wrote, "The key issue to convey in Far Near Distance is not a political one, as is always expected from artists from the Middle East. It is an artistic one: that of a new aesthetic language, which blurs the line between reality and fiction, documentaries and features, real life stories and imagined ones. The strength of Iranian contemporary art scene is reflected in this combination of the fabric of life and art, which hopefully gives a glimpse of the state of the world, of Iran, of art in a fragile moment of our turbulent history." (See complete interview).

The exhibition has collected works from 19 artists. Some of them are long-renowned names from the international art world (e.g. Shirin Neshat, the photographer Abbas, the architect Siah Armajani and the film director Abbas Kiarostami), others, generally younger artists, participated in important biennales in 2003 (e.g. in Sharjah, Venice, and Havana). Whoever followed our biennale reports (in the section Caravan of Universes in Universe -) will once again meet up with some old acquaintances when touring the exhibition.

Haupt & Binder
Gerhard Haupt and Pat Binder, co-publishers and editors-in-chief of Nafas Art Magazine. Since 1997 they publish Universes in Universe - Worlds of Art. Based in Berlin, Germany.

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