Iran: New Voices
Focus: Shirin Neshat

This event is SOLD OUT

Presented by Iran Heritage Foundation in association with The Barbican and Magic of Persia

Vali Mahlouji

We welcome seminal contemporary artist Shirin Neshat to London for the UK premiere of three video installations which form part of her inspired adaptation of Shahrnush Parsipur's novel Women without Men. Using fantasy, Neshat explores the position of women within the rigid confines of patriarchal Iranian culture. Here we see three independent sequences of what is to become a five-part feature film, comprising several metaphorically related short stories about the lives of five different women who are suffering from their respective situations and run away, ultimately finding themselves in a garden where they seek to form their own new society.

Munis, Faezeh and Zarin explore the journeys of three of these women:

Munis (2008)
13 min.
In Persian with English subtitles

Munis, who lives her life in the shadow of her domineering brother, commits suicide after witnessing the death of a political activist. Reunited with the activist in death she is finally able to personally experience the full turbulence of political unrest.

Faezeh (2008)
13 min.
In Persian with English Subtitles

Formerly a devoutly religious woman, Faezeh's hopes for marriage and family are devastated when she becomes the victim of rape. Faezeh takes refuge in a magical orchard where she is haunted by the image of a veiled woman.

Zarin (2005)
20 min.
In Persian with English Subtitles

Trying to escape prostitution, her livelihood since she was a child, Zarin leaves the brothel for a bathhouse where she attempts to cleanse her body and find redemption.

In addition Neshat's two key video installations The Last Word and Tooba, examining Iranian identity and the power of art to challenge repressive regimes will be screened.

The Last Word (2004)
20 min.
In Persian with English Subtitles

A surreal and politically potent depiction of a woman on trial by the bureaucratic authorities for her 'dangerous' writings.

Tooba (2002)
10 min.
In Persian with English Subtitles

Tooba, or tree of paradise, centres on an image of the feminine tree, a symbol which originates in the Koran. Through poetic allegory, and a style of magic realism coupled with spare elegance, Neshat presents a narrative of tension and transcendence.

www.barbican.org.uk

+44 (20) 7638 8891 or www.barbican.org.uk/eticketing

£7.50 Online
£9.50 Full price
£7.50 Concessions (subject to availability)
+44 (20) 7638 8891 or www.barbican.org.uk/eticketing