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Critics & CriticismReflections on Iranian Contemporary Art
Panel Discussion
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Organised by
Iran Heritage Foundation and the British Council
Date
Monday 4th September, 18.30-20.00
Followed by a drinks reception Location
British Council, 10 Spring Gardens, London SW1A 2BN
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Covers from art magazines 'Herfe Honarmand' (L) and 'Tandis' (R)
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Description
The aim of this panel discussion is to facilitate a critical reflection on the contemporary Iranian art scene and the issues surrounding its criticism. The conversation will include looking at what the challenges are in practising contemporary art in Iran, how it is discussed both inside and outside the country, as well as what the role of art criticism is in contemporary practices in Iran. The discussion will be followed by a Q&A session with the audience.
The panellists involved are Dr Helia Darabi (University of Art, Tehran), Dr David Hodge (The Art Academy, London) and Mahan Moalemi (Goldsmiths, London), chaired by Dr Sussan Babaie (Courtauld Institute of Art).
The panellists involved are Dr Helia Darabi (University of Art, Tehran), Dr David Hodge (The Art Academy, London) and Mahan Moalemi (Goldsmiths, London), chaired by Dr Sussan Babaie (Courtauld Institute of Art).
Biographies
Dr Sussan Babaie teaches at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. Her research interests include the early modern Safavid period with topics on urbanism and empire studies, on sexuality and social habits of ‘seeing’, and on transcultural visuality and notions of exoticism with an emphasis on the historiography of the global contemporary and its implications for the arts of Iran and the Middle East. She is the author of the award-winning Isfahan and Its Palaces: Statecraft, Shi‘ism and the Architecture of Conviviality in Early Modern Iran (2008), and the co-author of Persian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1989), Slaves of the Shah: New Elites of Safavid Iran (2004), Shirin Neshat (2013), and Persian Kingship and Architecture: Strategies of Power in Iran from the Achaemenids to the Pahlavis (2014).
Dr Helia Darabi is an art critic based in Tehran. She received her PhD in Art Research from the University of Art, Tehran, and her dissertation was entitled ‘Methods and Approaches of Art Criticism: A Survey in Educational Meta-criticism’. She has been teaching art history and criticism in the University of Art, Tehran since 2007 and is a member of the Contemporary Art Committee, at the Art Research Center, Iranian Academy of Art. She has also written in various local and international art magazines.
Dr David Hodge is Head of Art History, Theory and Contextual Studies at The Art Academy, a fine art school in London. He completed a PhD at the University of Essex in 2015. His writings have featured in Art History, Oxford Art Journal, Sculpture Journal, e-flux, The Burlington Magazine and other publications. Along with Hamed Yousefi he is currently co-editing a book on the work of Siah Armajani, which will publish in Iran this year. He co-curated the exhibition Recalling The Future: Post-Revolutionary Iranian Art, which opened at Brunei Gallery, SOAS in London in 2014. In 2016 he received a grant from the British Council to undertake research for a project on art writing in Iran.
Mahan Moalemi is a writer and researcher currently based at Goldsmiths, University of London where he is finishing an MRes in Curatorial/Knowledge. From 2011 to 2015, Mahan was part of the team of organizers at Kaf, an independent project space in Tehran. He also recently started blogging on runovers.wordpress.com.
Dr Helia Darabi is an art critic based in Tehran. She received her PhD in Art Research from the University of Art, Tehran, and her dissertation was entitled ‘Methods and Approaches of Art Criticism: A Survey in Educational Meta-criticism’. She has been teaching art history and criticism in the University of Art, Tehran since 2007 and is a member of the Contemporary Art Committee, at the Art Research Center, Iranian Academy of Art. She has also written in various local and international art magazines.
Dr David Hodge is Head of Art History, Theory and Contextual Studies at The Art Academy, a fine art school in London. He completed a PhD at the University of Essex in 2015. His writings have featured in Art History, Oxford Art Journal, Sculpture Journal, e-flux, The Burlington Magazine and other publications. Along with Hamed Yousefi he is currently co-editing a book on the work of Siah Armajani, which will publish in Iran this year. He co-curated the exhibition Recalling The Future: Post-Revolutionary Iranian Art, which opened at Brunei Gallery, SOAS in London in 2014. In 2016 he received a grant from the British Council to undertake research for a project on art writing in Iran.
Mahan Moalemi is a writer and researcher currently based at Goldsmiths, University of London where he is finishing an MRes in Curatorial/Knowledge. From 2011 to 2015, Mahan was part of the team of organizers at Kaf, an independent project space in Tehran. He also recently started blogging on runovers.wordpress.com.
