Iran’s Pavilion Opens in Venice Biennial Arte 2019

The pavilion was opened on Friday, May 10, in a ceremony attended by officials and artists from Iran and other countries.

The opening ceremony was also attended by the director general of the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s cultural diplomacy department, Seyyed Ali Pakdaman, as well as Iran’s cultural attaché in Italy Reza Qoli.

Before its official inauguration, Iran’s pavilion in the biennial was visited by various gallery and museum managers from across the world as well as leading journalists.

The Venice Biennial is among the most significant and oldest festivals of visual arts. This year the 58^th edition of the festival is underway in Venice and is attended by artists from 90 countries. It is expected that over 600,000 people visit the art festival.

21 art events are also being organized by galleries, foundations as well as artists on the sidelines of the art festival.

This year Iran is attending the festival with three artworks: “The Life” by Reza Lavasani, “The Rigid Ghost of Memory” by Samira Alikhanzadeh, and “The Witness of The Song” by Ali Mir-Azimi. The Iranian artists held a presser to brief the reporters on the themes of their works.

“The title of my artwork is Life. And due to my interest in the Persian literature, my artworks always establish a connection to our poems. I’ve always sought to portray Persian poems in my works. This work is made of renewable materials,” Lavasani said in the press conference.

Samira Alikhanzadeh said her piece deals with the people who are not depicted in it. “The artwork is made up of five pieces which can be installed in an 11-metre long wall. I’ve named it The Rigid Ghost of Memory because our memories of people remain with us like a ghost.”

Ali Mir-Azimi said he began his project three years ago. “I’m interested in cinema and literature. My work is inspired by the works by French director Jean-Luc Godard on Palestine and Bosnia.”

Mir-Azimi underlined that in the artwork, he has used iron, wood, glass, lamp and so on. “The main issue is that I had to use raw materials in the work.”

At the end of the press conference, Iranian officials elaborated on the impacts of the US unilateral sanctions on Iran hampering the country’s efforts to take part in the biennial.  They also underlined that despite the odds, Iranian artists have done their best to take part in the international event to promote Iranian art.

The 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, held in locations throughout Venice, Italy, has been opened to the public since May 11. This year’s exhibition is titled “May You Live in Interesting Times,” and will remain open until November 24.

Below, you can see a series of photos of Venice Biennale Arte 2019 retrieved from Honar Online.