Nasser Teymourpour
Art & Design
Conceptual Art
"The conceptual art movement is a savior of the arts."
No!
Today, after enduring countless ups and downs over the years, the cry of “No” against dictatorship, discrimination, and oppression has once again emerged. It is a “No” expressed in various forms and captured in images. A “no” that takes shape with graceful calligraphy pen movements or with the resounding shout of complexity. Amidst fire and blood, on the darkest days of the homeland or in the place I stand... in exile, far from that homeland, and in the corner of so-called safety.
It is a “No” that echoes from the depths of our anguished chests, continuing throat to throat, chest to chest, forever, until we see no color other than freedom and equality...
Fresh Air
After the initial days of the recent uprising in Iran, known as "women, life, freedom," I started thinking and acting through images. The memory of Jina (Mahsa) Amini's tragic killing filled me with restlessness, anger, and an overwhelming sense of rage. I tried to organize a demonstration by reaching out to a few friends, but my efforts were unsuccessful. Determined, I walked alone towards the Iranian embassy, hoping to find others who shared my desire to protest. To my surprise, the atmosphere was shockingly quiet and devoid of life. I walked for hours, unsure of how to express my emotions. Even my creative mind fell silent, unable to find the right means of expression.
A few days later, I learned about a protest taking place in London. Naturally, I began drawing a portrait of Jina (Mahsa) Amini. Her hair transformed into a fist, symbolizing our protest against the oppressive restrictions that led to her death while in the custody of the moral police in Tehran. Taking my artwork to the protest, it became my very first creation for the "women, life, freedom" movement. When I shared my drawing on social media, I received a message informing me that my artwork had inspired a series of graffiti in Tehran. It felt as if my art had taken on a role I couldn't fulfill myself, reaching Iran to cry out for freedom alongside my fellow people.
Feeling the need for a more impactful expression of my emotions and the situation at hand, alongside my drawings, I started creating artwork using Lino cuts and printing techniques. I also ventured into performances to show the impact of the daily bad news bombardment, ranging from the gazing of girls' schools to the shooting of protesters with shotgun and military rifles, deliberate targeting of faces, eyes, and sexual parts of the body, as well as capturing, imprisoning, executing, and perpetrating violence against those who simply demanded their rights, life, and freedom. This ongoing process has become a new language for me to convey my solidarity with the people of Iran, even from my distant exile. My artworks serve as a way to demonstrate my unwavering support and hope for this emerging movement, which I firmly believe will find its rightful place in history.
Cat Fish...
(Our history is history of forging sacredness in conformity with necessities of time)
Mixed Media 10x35 cm
Stand: 14x45 cm
For us who confused politics for act of seeking a holy father
pr(a/e)ying for God
(Three dimensional thoughts)
A Collaboration with Vooria Aria
Kolbar
Nasser Teymourpour/Vooria Aria
Vocalist: "Lullaby of Taher Azizi's Mother" (one of the martyrs of the revolutionary movement 'Women, Life, Freedom') at his grave.
Music by: Amir Konjani
Woman,Life, Freedom
Nightmare of fascists across Middle East
(A night out In Vienna with Vooria Aria)
digital print on sticker-2022-Vienna
At the Sixty and a half second!
Khavaran* mass grave soil and breast milk on paper
56x77cm
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[If you cannot be bothered with reading, this is a summary of the work ahead:
"At the sixty and a half seconds" is a narrative of an artwork production using the soil of Khavaran* and with the cooperation of the survivors of the massacres of the sixties. This work is a document with the aim to continue the advocacy movement and for the historic preservation of our collective memory.]
This is not about re-documenting the events, but about crawling through the seconds of time; time on a historic scale.
Here we are talking about sixty and a half seconds.
A few years have passed since I received a handful of Khavaran’s soil, from an unknown and unseen friend, in a box sealed with the customs stamp of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s post. The package itself and its contents were so upsetting that it could be an obstacle for me to touch it.
I was constantly thinking about how this living thing can be transformed into a new existence. In other words, how its existence becomes something beyond its current existence? How can a historic object be given a new identity? Even if arrogantly, I name its new existence an artwork. A work that begins its history from the day of its creation…As if it is possible to put a witness of the history in its place, draw a frame around it, cast a light on it, give it an identification number and hand it over to a buried museum archive?
All of these have been pounding in my head for several years until I decided to pull myself together, not to create a work but to be the sequel to the history; and this would not have been possible without the presence and support of the survivors of the massacres of the sixties. With the help and support of the survivors, I would like to call the production of this work, a document.
It started from my search for the ancient methods of producing paint from the soil, and I knew that one of those methods was to sift the soil and mix it with milk. For me, not because of the sanctity of this document, but because of its concept and historical narrative, the use of animal milk was an unlikely option. So again, looking for a historical sign, I resumed the search. I found someone from my generation who not only lost his father in the dark time of the sixties but was also born in prison; someone who is now a mother and has children.
After the necessary explanations about the project, she agreed to donate a small portion of her breast milk to the project. Finally, the first step was taken and the desired colour followed a painful process (a process that we do not have the opportunity to address here) was made by combining the soil of Khavaran and the breast milk of one of its survivors.
Other questions occurred to me: "What can be drawn about the sequel with this paint and sequel?!"How many tens of thousands of names? A view of the Khavarans using satellite maps? And many other similar and contradictory ideas. Out of all of these, however, I wanted to focus on the most recent matter which is the growth of historical truth and the false content produced by the regime.
Undoubtedly, those amongst you from my generation would testify that today, in everyday conversations and on social media, there remained a handful of memories of that generation called nostalgia of the sixties! A collection of cartoons and serials, all kinds of food, drink, pencil case, eraser, pencil sharpener, etc. It is, however, very clear that the sixties are a very different experience for us.
Instead of redefining the bitterness of the memories of that time, which many have spoken and will do in a more powerful and moving way, I set out to build a bridge, redefining what they call nostalgia; to show them the other side of it, write another story on it and emphasise on the concept of the alternative memory. Many comrades helped in this important matter and shared their memories and confirmed what was going on in the society of that day.
The result now is several documents, some of which are in front of you. Documents that owe their credibility to writing the memories of those loved ones from these images and their connection with prison or the massacres of the sixties with their own handwriting on these works. Memories that connected their world with the world on the other side of their cells by an object. Oshin (years away from home) which reminds us of Saturday nights’ sitting together and the solitude of the streets but for them was one of the few times that prison guards were away from carrying out their torture, repression and intimidation. The razor that reminds us of the first time shaving of facial hair, for them was the desire for mass suicide; the slippers that remind us of the toilet, hitting cockroaches and bakery queues, for them the mountain of slippers remind them of the executions and the swollen legs on the cables.
Here we are talking about memories that we remember only one side of them.
Autumn 2020
London
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*Khavaran is a mass grave in Tehran where the bodies of thousands of people who were killed in political executions were interred.
** It refers to the decade of the Gregorian calendar when political activists were ordered to be killed by the regime in the in prisons across Iran.
*** Oshin is a Japanese television drama, which originally aired from 1983 to 1984.
Khavaran
"In the scent of pine cones, in the touch, and in the whispers of the survivors of the sixties massacre
Hannover, Germany, 2017
Objects sometimes discover a purpose beyond themselves, and their identity takes precedence. In recent years at Khavaran*, we have witnessed an effort to create a memorial: arranging existing stones in an order that hints at human intervention, scattering colorful pebbles, adorning the earth, surrounding the soil with pine cones, and more. These are all applications that transcend the essence of objects, where an object assumes a duty beyond its existence, giving birth to a new identity with the assistance of delicate, capable, and resilient thoughts.
Indeed, these arrangements/memorials shouldn't take long to be shattered by an adversarial hand, only to be rebuilt days later in a new assembly. It's akin to a battle, a battle for marking and personalizing, a battle between the hands of choosers and the hands of destroyers.
The object before us has undertaken a long journey from Khavaran to be with us. I had wished to imprint it with a thousand images, bear a thousand wounds upon it, mold and cast it a thousand times, but I soon realized that these are insignificant compared to the touch of someone who lost their beloved in Khavaran.
I want to present it before you so that, with your touch, your whispers of pain and anger, your love, and your tearful gazes, it may overflow with the scent of your living breaths, and I may breathe life into it.
I, too, choose my role here as an artist: a path and a narrative, an execution and an outcome, devoid of any mark and overt change in the object's nature, which, if altered, would become a solitary object. But now, this work extends to encompass all the pines.
This work will return to Khavaran, perhaps to rest in a memorial filled with memories of a journey, hundreds of stories, and thousands of caresses. This work intends to journey to the East, filling its ears."
*Khavaran is a mass grave in Tehran where the bodies of thousands of people who were killed in political executions were interred.
Untitled-2013
(Permanent tattoo on human skin)
First exhibited in “the house of power” solo show-Fitzrovia gallery- London-2017
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Selection and modification of objects as a work of art has been around for decades, Duchamp’s ready-mades could be considered as the first ones (born from) this approach. Yet this incident has always had a one-way process, even when an actor or a performer collaborates with an artist, it is still the performance that becomes the work of art and not the performer himself/herself. I felt a collaborative, dynamic and durable choice to be missing from this approach; a choice that has a different nature to Erwin Wurm’s One-minute sculptures or to Santiago Sierra’s performances.
Through the process of creating this piece, followingvarious conversations and discussions with the chosen person (which in a way is the chooser himself/herself as well) we reached an agreement and made a decision for this piece, which will stay with the chosen individual for her whole life; Untitled-2013 and a signature just below the bra line on the left side of the body!
This piece is in fact the choice of an individual who has chosen to be called a work of art. Her whole life, as long as she hasn’t changed her mind, will be a work of art; her rage and her serenity, her pain and joy, her health and sickness are all and all a committed work of art. Committed to the modern man and his days and nights. It’s a minute-by-minute reflection of a contemporary human from a certain social background and with certain personal characteristics.
The audience here has the possibility to interact with this piece through social media although the work of artmight be at work or she might be resting. This piece isthe only one that might have no time for the audience.
Home
SPRAY MOUNT ADHESIVE ON CARDBOARD EXPOSED IN CALAIS'S DUST-2016
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First exhibited in “the house of power “ solo show curated by:Monica Colussi
The Fitzrovia Gallery-London
Special thanks to Faranak Amidi
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Emigration is a half line! a beginning with an endless permanence.
A phenomenon as old as need!
Today’s version of it is different because the country of destination sometimes has not been without its effects on the instability and insecurity in the country of origin. A crisis that its economical and social outcome - as well as the political abuse of it - have always been the starting point of significant changes in the countries of destination.
Calais in France was the only option for a home! A society that away from the usual arrangements by the countries of destination, turned into an impermanent country. With unwritten laws and created from the heterogeneous social instinct that took a similar path for different reasons.
In this piece the word Home and its transliteration followed by the option of reading the words in online dictionaries, which here of course is silent, was written in glue on a few sheets of cardboard. So that by absorption of the local dust, it will gain colour and become readable, dust that as it seems will be an exclusive and unique ID for each location and each incident.
The cardboard sheets were taken to Calais and were left there, exposed to the dramatic events happening in thatplace.
Only one of them was found and returned to London on the exact day of Calais’ evacuation. With a trace of dust and earth and memory.
“I shall rebuild you motherland”
Artist’s semen on black velvet
16x12cm
2013
First exhibited in “the house of power “ solo show
Curated by Monica Colussi
Fitzrovia gallery- London
Every work of art takes shape through a process; a sometimes short and sometimes long process, sometimes hard and sometimes pleasant. It’s a process that in my opinion is more of an approval on the individual as an artist rather than the artwork itself. It’s a process that sometimes the information on its form and the reason behind it, completely changes our interpretation of the final piece. Being aware of the importance of this fact, a part of my work has been created with a specific emphasis on it including “The routines” and “I shall rebuild you motherland”.
“I shall rebuild you motherland” is a criticism on the Internet revolutions and effusions! A common phrase used amongst different groups of revolutionaries, reformists, nationalists and… that has been written on a black sheet of velvet following an act of masturbation and using semen. The act of masturbation represents the lack of action in the real world, which is relying on the action of the virtual world. An act that except for the instant pleasure and stress relief, is sterile and there is no chance of it being productive.
m(o)ust-ache
Artist's facial hair on paper
2015
First exhibited at:
Moustache group exhibition
Dena gallery-Tehran-Iran
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Collecting my shaved facial hair through a certain amount of time I reached a suitable material for execution of this piece; miniscule pieces of hair, which after going through the blades of my shaver, have turned into a uniform, durable powder.
What could be better than using this material in a piece with a similar identity?
A lock of hair that the existence of it, the form of it, the lack of it and the reason behind it represent different ideologies and carry a symbolic identity. To achieve this I turned to the most direct form of expression that is word.
Ego
Artist’s sperm on black velvet
40x60 cm
2013
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In the slow pace of today's art, I have thought several times with myself about the social and historical role of the contemporary art and today's artist, sometimes I appreciate it and at other times the sorrow which accompanies a contemporary person, forces me to call the artist a vandal. Therefore an antithetical process has imposed itself on my works.
At times, optimistically I have used the material in the utmost possible way of consumption, and at other times due to an anger and disappointment, I have eliminated the material from my artwork.
The example for the consumption of material, can be seen in my work, CHAMAR installation in first conseptual art exhibition-Tehran's Museum of Contemporary Arts (2001)
The second approach, in which I practiced to eliminate the material, can be seen in my installation works named "Image 1-5" (Salzamt Gallery, Salzburg, Austria, 2012) and "Ego".
"Ego" is based on playing with the implications and meanings of the words.
The work has been created with unusual material.
In this work, the two words "Maniat" (Farsi for ego), and "Mani" (Farsi for semen) have been mixed.
The work consists of the minimum external material and in fact has been created only with a material from the atrist's body which is semen, a material produced by the artist's body and at the same time the source of reproduction and birth.
In both approaches (using the material and eliminating it), the aim was to directly transform the idea to an artistic statement.
Whichever approach I adapt, creation is the most inevitable characteristic of the artistic part of my personality.
In my mind and my works, black and white wont merge to create a third colour, but they create a line with no reconciliation.
In my world, classic or avant-garde art, old or modern, art for art's sake or art for society, postmodernism and modernism, or any other kind of antithetical idea has a separate existence and has its own place.
The essence of my personality is not based on a mixture of my givings and takings. It is in fact a blend, and the noise created by the grating for this blend, is the sound of my existence
"The Mountain (ar) Range"
Installation/sound installation
With Vooria Aria
Fitzrovia gallery
London-2019
(Destroyed)
An installation exploring themes of
production,consumption, appropriation, repercussion of war...
Exhibition statement:
This is neither a political statement, nor a philosophical text or a flowered delusion.
Here, we aim to describe these pieces’ raison d’etre in pure simple terms and away from a flatulent masquerade of verses; a new war and dictatorship has taken over our world while a perpetual numbness and passivity has some of us.
We are artists; a portrayal the frame of which is constructed in our own minds more than anywhere else. A portrayal that, at least in our minds, has the capability of becoming ideological; the capability of passing through the current concept of artist as the producer of luxury goods and leaning towards the concept of a contemporary activist of a man.
We are intellectuals! With an attitude that is at least moving towards a thorough explanation of word; with an attitude that describes the world as it is and envisions the world as it should be.
War for us is not death approaching us inside a bullet, nor is it a ruin stuck in a bomb’s throat. It is not a displacement that’s driven us towards another displacement. War for us is not a headline amongst the latest news. War for us is the presentation of a win-win situation for one side and a lose-lose situation for the other.
Our aim and duty is to come up with an analysis of the world's events, to pass through the terrifying phase of processing it and then following that, to go through the painful process of giving birth to the final piece based on this process. This is the least of which I’m certain of.
We don’t intend to reduce ‘us’ into the two artists of this exhibition that we are. The concept that we have in mind is the ‘us’ that we are meant to be.
The aim is to clarify the altered word ‘us’ into what we assume it to be. An ‘us’ that is a witness to and narrative of its time. The time when waves of refugees entering the West has fuelled extremist right-wing movements. The refugees who were made refugees by the wars that were created by the very same governments in the first place. The time when despite its fierce class distinctions, even the fake gesture of caring for humanity has been replaced, amongst politicians, by profitability, demagoguery and plain evident injustice.
The time that has been dominated by a virtual religion/ power/ capital/ hope/ goal/ need/ present…
The time that has given birth to fear and hope simultaneously; a hope that has grown in Lebanon, Chile, Hong Kong, Iraq and Iran to bring freedom, equality and social justice and a fear that has been born from war, ignorance, fundamentalism, and racial and religious extremism.
The time when the north of Syria brought us the promise of a modern society filled with equality and freedom. A sapling that was planted in the heart of the Middle East next to a growing racial and religious extremism and a blustering governmental capitalism, while shaking from thousands of winds and blizzards. A sapling that has come to life from the honesty of thousands of intellectual and enlightened minds of Kurd, Arab, Syrian, Assyrian, Turkman, Chechen, Armenian and Cherokee from one side, and global citizens from Europe, Latin America, Iran and Turkey etc. from the other and is now threatened by greed, fear and deceits of some. Yet a sapling that will come tomorrow and grow everywhere in the world.
We are Kurds! Yet, believing in freedom of people, we have consciously learnt to think, act and live as citizens of the world. Nonetheless, we cannot deny that we fell asleep listening to the sound of the Kurdish lullabies and we can surely understand with all our hearts today when the Kurdish children ears taking refuge from the howls of bullet and shrapnel in plaintive song of lullabies. We too have shaken our shoulders with the sound of Sorna and Dohol (horn and drum) and have held hands with our loved ones; with hands that will become a chain of unity with other people of Iran and the world until tomorrows.
For us though, it seems that - if not our only friend - the mountain is - our best friend.
[In the midst of preparation works for this exhibition, which stemmed from our grief and anger over the recent crisis in Syria, another even unfolded.
Iran once again roared and this time with thousands of new methods of protesting and yet again was supressed in the most brutal and inhumane way. A topic that was impossible to fully explore in this exhibition. We therefore decided to append another mountain to it and present this exhibition hoping to leave behind the bitterness of these days and believing in the brightness of tomorrow.]
From Mundane (mundeath) series
Artists urine on paper
2014
100x150 cm
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Every work of art takes shape through a process; a sometimes short and sometimes long process, sometimes hard and sometimes pleasant. It’s a process that in my opinion is more of an approval on the individual as an artist rather than the artwork itself. It’s a process that sometimes the information on its form and the reason behind it, completely changes our interpretation of the final piece. Being aware of the importance of this fact, a part of my work has been created with a specific emphasis on it including “The routines” and “I shall rebuild you motherland”.
The first piece from the Routines series began after Koubani’s fight against Isis attacks. At this stage to express my support for Koubani and my repulsion towards extremism, I went on a one-week food strike. Through this time using my urine that because of the food strike had now changed colour, I wrote Extremism both in English and Persian. The extremism that in all its forms brings nothing but narrow-mindedness, hatred and rage…
The next piece was created in the same way and using emigration as an excuse. After a weekly diet of Persian food and European food the word Border (in Persian) and its equivalents in English were written with urine. A border that becomes the basis for definition of emigration, being away from home, expatriate and…
Vincenzo Made Mona, Lisa!
Fingerprint on the glass
30x40
Group exhibition- The museum of stolen objects-Saye gallery- Tehran 2016
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On a Monday in winter of 1911, The Louvre museum was closed as usual and workers and photographers were working. Vincenzo who used to work there as a carpenter entered, took the Mona Lisa out of its frame and slowly left the building. It was the Louvre, an empty frame and a fingerprint of a thumb. Police and detectives’ search was in vain. Even when they suspected Vincenzo Peruggia, his fingerprints did not match the fingerprints on the frame’s glass!
Six thousands copy of Mona Lisa were distributed across France asking anyone with any related information or hint to report to the police. It was only after that incident that Mona Lisa gained hundred time more fame. Two years away from the suitable condition of maintenance, and in the Vincenzo’s house, it stayed intact.
it was discovered on way back to its country in a meeting in a hotel room in Florence and sent back to France. What the police concluded was that the fingerprint was of the left hand but they only had the right fingerprints of suspects at the time. Vincenzo spent few years in jail, and Mona Lisa stayed on the wall of the Louvre and earned a worldly fame; an incident in which the Vincenzo Peruggia’s role can not be dismissed!
This presented work consists of six thousand left fingerprints of the artist for a story to be told about the biggest art theft of the 20th century. In this work, like my other works in recent years, the minimum possible of material have been used. As if, the audience is in the position of a police or an investigator and looking for a halo of a much seen work and amidst fingerprints that are supposed to be removed from the frame’s glass.
Nasser Teymourpour- Winter 2016- London
A Message For Tomorrow
Artist's Book: Book As Book -_Mehr Gallery - Tehran - Iran 2013
In my opinion the phenomenon of (Art Objects) is one born of the new approaches in today’s art.
Something different from the flatulent products of classic art -which relies on skills- or the conceptual-philosophical, material-based and anti–naturalist products of modern times or even the Ready-mades.
Artist’s book in my opinion could be described as something beyond an artistic object; a concept that holds the capacity for mass production and can be text-driven or applied visually.
Any of these capabilities, on their own or merged with another, would bring it closer to one of the movements or a type of art media and using it to its full capacity will take it as far as transformation into media or at least an objective intermedia. This belief on its own is enough to make us consider the production of thousands of Pieces of art in this form and their focus on it as justifiable, experimental and at the same time objective.
The crystallisation of this media has been presented in my work in different ways. I have approached it consciously at times and subconsciously at others. On the one hand the subjectivity of this media requires concepts, descriptions and borders and on the other hand the universe of boundless media is an open door to the future of art.
I take boundless pleasure in using books, from the books in the brilliant scene from Parajanov’s The colour of pomegranates 1987 to Dennis Oppenheim’s Reading position for second degree burn 1970 and John Cage’s books and Kiarostami’s Hafez. There is no question that this is a personal interpretation of using a medium yet the diversity of this medium along with its subjectivity enlivens me. I love books from the word to history and from the history to video.
When we have carried with us an object from our childhood to the day, there is no question that as an artist, somewhere we will work on it, whether it fits within a single definition or whether we cannot find it a definition. It is really difficult for me to articulate in an abstract way or as a manifest what fits within the category of Artist’s book and what doesn’t, maybe seeing a piece I’d say that I rather call it a sculpture or say with excitement that this is the real crystallisation of theArtist’s book! And the reason behind all this is that animism still initiates a strong desire within our souls to name objects and creatures (phenomenon?), as long aswe don’t name it we wont understand and as long as we don’t understand we wont accept its existence!
In any case through The most transparent personal messages series, which started about three years ago, along with using the book as a form, the aim is to -intentionally and to the benefit of personal interpretation- make the sentences from within the book inaccessible and by embellishing the concept with visual decorations, keeping it out of sight.
For me the Artist’s book is from the change in the construction of sentence to the change in the concept of reading. From books to not read to ways for reading in a different way.
1/5
From Nothing series
Group exhibition - In between - Atelierhaus Salzamt- Linz- Austria 2012
(Destroyed)
The reason to create these series is an effort to purify the artwork from material.
The empty space above the stands and a written description of the characters combines with the imagination of the audience and creates a sculpture with a unique visual hermeneutics.
At the same time a white circle appears trying to connect both the objectivity and subjectivity, in order to create an overlap and concurrency among the two.
what has been shaped by our imagination, aims its weapon at us or at someone else at a certain moment, threatens us with a stone, pours urine on our feet, ignores our life and carries out the ritual for the forgiveness of the deceased over our bodies.
Here the "absence" multiples by the number of the thoughts and fluctuates in an indefinite time
The absence creates an intellectual and physical interaction. it becomes a religion with no sanctity. The nonexistence incarnates and creates a gap between us and itself. it finds an identity (objectiveness) and its identity (objectiveness) targets the contemporary concept of the material.
Text:
-A clay soldier, 20 something years old, in a good shape. With his shaky hands made of clay on the trigger of his clay Kalashnikov, and with a sparkle in his eyes, he awaits the first person who enters the white circle.
-A woman made from red fibreglass, with a shaved head and reckless laughter. Pulling up her private part with her hands, she relieves herself while standing over the white circle. Her golden urine rolls around her red feet.
-A young Muslim man, made from marble, with a sparse beard, chiseled cheekbones, hollowed eyes. He tucks a marble Qur'an under his arm and holds a grey piece of stone in the same hand. His breaths are full of rage and fear and he repeats a verse before pelting a stone towards the white circle.
-A fat, short priest made from pure gold, with closed eyes, and a Golden Holy Water pot and sprinkler in hands. Over a living body of a person who stands on the white circle, he prays for the forgiveness of the deceased.
You Can Not See The Whole Story
From the most transparent private messages
Preview of the past - contemporary iranian video artist and photographers (Ausstellungszentrum der Universitat fur angewandte Kunst Vienna- Austria 2010)
(Destroyed)
This collection includes messages which are not meant to be read! private messages which have been printed in big sizes and later cut in smaller sizes and placed on top of each other. These are in fact the most transparent forms of private messages which sometimes include a romantic sentence and sometimes a social pain...This approach towards transparency can be used in documentation of the societies as well, in which different pictures of a society will be printed on transparent papers, and based on their social importance they will be placed on top of each other, so that the less important layers will be visible and the important ones will be hidden. Therefore despite the transparency of the images, the viewer cannot see more than the first few layers due to the density of all the layers together
An impossible sculpture
From impossible series
Model for an impossible sculpture (gelatine sculpture )
Group conceptual exhibition -MANIFEST PANJSHANBEH (7SAMAR GALLERY,2009)
Funument for war!
Model for an impossible sculpture!
From the impossible series
(Gelatine sculpture)- 2009
(Destroyed)
The Idea is to “present the idea!
Group conceptual exhibition -MANIFEST PANJSHANBEHTARAHAN E AZAD GALLERY ,Iran 2009
The ideas are printed and exhibited on the walls. The represented artwork is in tear-off strips offered in limited edition pieces. Audience can take off 1 out of 150 pieces as a token remembering the artwork.
Taste Of Intellectualism And Terrorism
(Brain and bullet pickle)
According to “Bühnentod” (Stage Death) by
Lukas B.Suter
Readymade sculpture
2011-Vienna
(Destroyed)
Photos by:Saleh Rozati
Day's dream and night's mare
performance-instalation according to ''The Three Sisters'' (A play by Russian author and playwright Anton Chekhov. Written in 1900)
(Angewandte kunst-vienna-Austria 2009)
Music by:
Arun Aykut
Of motion sculpture series
Installation
2008
Mo‘allemān desert
Semnan-Iran
(Destroyed)
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This work is an installation in open space based on childhood plays this time at a larger scale envisages the wind in the middle of desert. A wind which recalls the scent of old memories through the depth of years
The Smell of Freshly-Baked Bread
Installation
2008
Mo‘allemān desert
Semnan Province-Iran
(Destroyed)
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The smell, the heat and the definition of bread held an image of life for me. Furnace is a mark of traditional way of cooking bread in Iran and repeating this symbol in desert's identity in my opinion moreover than aesthetics was an offering made by a soul to the corps of desert. The Result was at last ten muddy furnaces made with desert soil primped with fire of coppice's dryness of the desert.
Cypress's shadow
Model for an urban sculpture Copper and gypsum first biennale of urban sculptures (Barg gallery,Iran 2008)
(Destroyed)
Cypress is for martyring herbal gods in ancient Iran which lives on today in a new fashion on Alam and Kotal. This installation is another comprehension of cypress which its shadow is an allegory for Iranian miniature paintings.
The white delicateness of thorn
Land Art
Toutkabon-Iran-2007
(Destroyed)
The basis of this idea was formed by watching a vast thornland with purple blooms which invites you run in but coarseness of the thorns prevents. Then I was to add a white delicateness there. This gentleness was coming from the nature and was enhanced by me. The result was white flowers dancing over the plain with music of wind.
Mafega
Installation 2002
New Art exhibition
Tehran museum of contemporary art
(Destroyed)
Photos by: Azadeh Arab
Special thanks to Azadeh Nilchiani
Mafega is a monumental pillar which is constructed for the young dead people, martyrs and head of Bakhtiarian tribe, such as two Mafega, which has been built for two hunters who died in avalanche of Zard_ kuhm or the one for the Sarvebazaft , in Bakhtiari tribe.
The spiritual appearance of these pillars lead me to present the monuments with the most similarity in shapes and texture to the original native samples, the music has been selected from mourning modes of different regions of Iran.
This work is mostly an ethnological research in new statement than an artistic one.
In honor and memory of “Seyed Rahmatollah Kiayee and Azim Ranayee” this construction has been built up and dedicated to Yasaman Hashemian
Chamar
Installation - 2001
6x4m
Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art
(The first Iranian conceptual art exhibition)
(Destroyed)
CHAMAR installation consisted of thousands of burnt out fluorescent tubes which were washed and cleaned and later filled with hot bitumen and water, to imply the bitterness of the moment.
Behind some of the tubes a statue of a crying woman was placed. The refraction of the light made the image of the statue to appear repeatedly.
The work was based on the rituals of the funeral processions in some areas of western
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Nasser Teymourpour, 21, is a student of industrial design at Aazd University.
In defining conceptual art, he states: "I would have given an explanation if I had a new one and if I knew the already existing ones I would have tried to elaborate on the as well. Yet, conceptual art, is a method of expressing what is inside, the same is true about art in general and in all eras of human history." He holds that conceptual art has an intimacy with the beliefs and customs of Iran. He demands more facilities, however, to present this genuinely and with more understanding without following other blindfolded.
In this work the rich popular art is being reviewed. The traditions, customs, popular mythos and rituals are valuable and eternal sources of inspiration of artists. I became interested in the grieving cry heard in Chamar ceremony, common in Lorestan and Ilam provinces. Chamar has roots in Neolithic myths. In this ceremony, sounds, forms and even time are all in mourning.
* Published in: conceptual Art: Works Presented at the First Exhibition of Iranian Conceptual Art- Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art
Nothing Series
slide 1: A cube of nothing on a common background
slide 2: A sphere of nothing on a common background
slide3: A fat cylinder of nothing on a common background
slide4: A something of nothing on a common background
in the slow pace of today's art, I have thought several times with myself that what is the social and historical place of the contemporary art and today's artist, sometimes I'm proud of it and other times the sorrow which the contemporary human being carries takes over me to a point that I have called this factor a vandal or a rather destroying element (of art).
My current works are coming from the second (mentioned) concept.
In creating these works, in order to eliminate the material, I came up with a new concept which I call it "Hijm" (which is a combination of two words in Farsi; nothing and bulk or intensity) or pantomime sculpture.
The negative space between my movements and my idea integrates and ends into creating a sculpture.
These so called "Hijms" have turned every moment of our life into a sculpture from whatever we are not, from nothing. And it's the philosophic concept of nothing which takes a form. Not only it creates a distance between us and its self, but also it becomes objective and it's shape and form questions the concept of material.
In creating the first works of this collection, I used a rather reversed method in which I photographed very basic and original forms, and called them with terms which are more common for materials.
Creating this collection started from 2009 and it still continues.
Cities
Installation according to Brecht`s poem calls "cities"(1927)
Angewandte university of applied arts vienna 2010
(Destroyed)
Self protection, self limitation, self education...
Moments with Kafka's process
performance-vienna tube station and Angewandte (university of applied arts) -2010
Photos: Saleh Rozati
"1/6","2/6","3/6","4/6","5/6","6/6"
A play/Book Art 2008
Edition of 6
Translated to German By Nazli Mahjoub
Graphic By: Foad Farahani
Special Thanks to Sina Seifee
We need walls to destroy them!
Video Installation
Angewandte University- Vienna 2009
(Destroyed)
Mud and wheat
from Bakhtiary series
Sketch for an Installation
This work is one of the Bakhtiary series. This series is based on Bakhtiary's tribe culture, art and folklores. As the most concerns of Bakhtiaries are agriculture (specially wheat), famine and soil. All these interests conformed a performance called Mud and wheat: Centered circles levels made out of wheat with a mud spring in the middle which fills the empty spaces between levels until they are all full. When it is finished with time passing it cracks and with the strokes of shining gold wheats reforms a spreaded monument on soil. It can be performed in open area or inside a room.
Stone Lion
from Bakhtiary series
Sketch for an Installation
Stone Lion is the symbol for freedom of men and Martyrs and tribe liberties. Nowadays all of it is forgotten and ruined. In this installation with a small change of form it is transmuted to children's play toy, which itself teases with the kind of values mocked by postmodernists at the time.
In commemoration of Lorca
Model and Sketch for large scale sculpture, based on "Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias"
(Destroyed)
As your day succumbed to night their shadows melted into the ground and the dawn of our tomorrow shall last to eternity
Model for an Installation 2010
3D Model by Amin Hadjaran
Judgment disaster or holy relativity?!
3d Thoughts 2010- Vienna
(Destroyed)
Happening Birthday!
A happening according to "The Three Sisters" (a play by Russian author and playwright Anton Chekhov.
Written in 1900)
Performer: Stefanie Moshammer -2009- Vienna
Untitled x2!
self portrait according to "The Three Sisters"
(a play by Russian author and playwright Anton Chekhov. Written in 1900)
Vienna-Austria 2009
Room of mercury
Sketch for an Installation
Mirror's rain or drops of quicksilver reflect the red light on the ceiling and the whole thing reflect once more on the wall. Based on folk stories: Droping a piece of mirror creates an ocean which kills the antagonist and saves the hero.
Entry's shadow
Sketch for a performance
This piece is a performance based on the impression of entrance. Seven doors with a spot light placed on the back of each, leads to a room with observing holes on one of its sides. Visitors will first encounter three sides with doors and by opening them their shadow will cast on the floor.
The playing of light and shadow and the visitor's reactions will make a composition that is observed later by them. In fact every visitor in a certain duration is a player and a watcher
Hoviyat ( Identity )
Digital Print on Paper 50x70cm
Tehran Calling London
London 2013
Identity and immigration are two issues with deep ambiguity within them, sometimes one without the other is meaningless and sometimes together they represent no meaning. At times you'll come across one of them when following the other one and at times one shows itself through the other. Both issues grasp the society when one least expects it.
As soon as you learn a new word, you obtain a new identity and once you start liking a new image you have migrated.
Assessing the value of this topic or criticising it is not within the purpose of my artwork. I have simply put it in front of me and thought about it.
In this work, I have used the identity of a new method of writing which I think has carried out the most blunt attacks against the written Farsi, and with no difficulties has conceived within our young society's womb and will live for a while, and with no doubt it will become a part of our cultural identity.
Here the word "identity" has been represented with a new identity, an identity which is about to migrate from an ancient society to a post-ancient one.
Zourkhaneh Series
Pencil and colour pencil Drawing
200 x 150 Cm (Nearly Life size figures)
2013-2015
Zourkhaneh has a rich legacy dating back to seven hundred years ago. Seven hundred years of gallantry and heroism. A history filled with athletes with strong robust arms and broad shoulders. Their ideology, to raise their sharp sword against enemies alike and to defend the defenceless. An imagery of masculinity coupled with hierarchy and a lust for power.
Zourkhaneh is A source of magnificent imagery and unlimited concept for an Iranian artist. But it lacked something for me...the sound of a laughter echoing within its walls. A woman gracefully flaunting her slender figure across its floors as women were forbidden to set foot inside.
Long statement:
Zourkhaneh has a rich legacy dating back to seven hundred years ago. Seven hundred years of gallantry and heroism. A history filled with athletes with strong robust arms and broad shoulders. Their ideology, to raise their sharp sword against enemies alike and to defend the defenceless A gargantuan tree-like ideology that over the long decades of time its roots have blossomed beneath the earth so that the closer one got to its roots and core, the more beauty to bear witness to. An imagery of masculinity coupled with hierarchy and a lust for power.
At the entrance stands a lowered door frame, so one would have no choice but to bow down upon entering Zourkhaneh. A sign of respect for the mighty athletes and all that they stood for. A bell tolls and its peal resonates a sound of respect in the minds of the spectators and the athletes alike. An octagon pushed into the ground to be the centre stage for the eastern version of Roman Gladiators performance.*
All of this and much more is a source of magnificent imagery and unlimited concept for an Iranian artist. But it lacked something for me...the sound of a laughter echoing within its walls. A woman gracefully flaunting her slender figure across its floors as women were forbidden to set foot inside. There was only a mirror placed upon the wall to convey a reflection, a shadow of the athletes should a woman ever set her gaze upon the stage.
In my opinion the most beautiful image is of a semi naked woman with a 'lu-ng' (Zourkhaneh's traditional attire) wrapped around her waist, the athlete's medallion armband placed upon her arms and in her hands 'meels' and 'kabadeh' and on her lips a smile.
Not that she owes to the masculine values or equally intends to negate them altogether, but rather it could be seen as a mother who bravely picks up her son's wooden sword and indulges him in his childish fantasy of killing mythical beasts and dragons. This is to convey a sense of dismissal to thousand years of compulsory covering, by exhibiting her naked body in front of the camera's lenses.
The woman of my pictures are modern women of today who do not quarrel with their past yet they are not of that past. These women are the women of our tomorrows and as they gaze upon the future of that tomorrow they laugh with all that they are and their eyes sparkle, either from the flash on the camera or a ray of hope.
My pictures have endured a very lengthy and difficult process, quite alike of the journey taken by the women in my pictures.
My pictures are a combination of thousands upon thousands of small and large dots coming together to form a dream like idea belonging to the future.
My pictures are a digital representation of a seven hundred years old surrealism.
*Zourkhaneh's ranking was set in accordance to the members age and the time spent in practicing the sport. The ranking was from numbers one to nine, nine being the highest form of honour. The bell would only toll for rankings above seven, seven being an athlete of minimum thirty two years of age and having twenty four years experience in practising this sport and nine, being an athlete of minimum sixty five years of age and forty five years experience in the sport.
For grade seven, the bell would only toll when turning (a move from the Zourkhaneh's sport) and for grade nine, upon the arrival of the athlete decorated with rank nine into the Zourkhaneh.
The inside and outside architecture of Zourkhaneh is that of the Sasani dynasty. The entry to the Zourkhaneh is a small door of approximately 1.5 metre in length, sitting on two or a few steps descending from the road to the octagon centre of Zourkhaneh. The pit of zourkhaneh was an octagonal shaped floor which from the bottom to top reached a length of 70 centimetres and its diameter from every angle was thought to be of maximum 12 metres. This space accommodated twenty athletes at any one time.
Close your eyes and think about white.
10x12cmMaterials:Artist’s Blood on cardboard
"Word is the reduction of reality; art is the exaggeration of reality.
Statement is the exaggeration of the idea: art is the reduction of the idea.
The world is needless of art. Create!
The world is bursting with wealth. Spend!
The world is truthfully at war with you. Optimistically, don't believe it!
The world is a scream of pain. Ignore it!
The world is filled with darkness. Close your eyes and think about white.
I've added "the" before "reduction" and "exaggeration" for clarity, and I've inserted commas where needed to improve readability.
from the book : Kurdistan - In-Between Worlds
This collection is an expression of Kurdish art, in keeping with the global and democratic spirit of Imago Mundi, and with the conviction that if we tear a culture from the world, we annihilate a colour, a scent, a part of its wealth. This is the most far-reaching body of research completed to date on the creativity of the world's largest group of people without a state: 115 artists from the various Kurdish communities in Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria and the diaspora. A cataloguing of works that took more than two years to complete, involving both emerging young talents and established names, recipients of major international recognitions (Biennale, Documenta). A mosaic of identities brought together on the small Imago Mundi canvas, pieces of a cross-border dialogue that takes place in a land without borders or wars: that of contemporary art.
Born in 1980 in Eilam, Iran. He lives and works in London. After finishing his BA in Design in Tehran, he moved to Vienna to study Stage Design. He works in the field of design and conceptual art. His works have been exhibited in the first and second Iranian Exhibition of Conceptual Art at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in three solo exhibitions and more than 20 group shows. Teymourpour incorporates his own bodily substances including hair, skin and blood as mediums in his works. For one of his recent works, he went on hunger strike in the aftermath of the ISIS attack on Kobane, Syria. In the work presented for this project, the artist uses his own blood as the medium and the viewer’s eye is drawn to play with words that show the artist’s conflict with war; maintaining its own ghastly nature, war is sometimes praised or condemned.
"Blossoms of Remembrance"
Installation
4th International seminar on the killing of political prisoners in Iran-
Gothenburg-Sweden2011
"Blossoms of Remembrance" is a poignant art installation that invites reflection. Delicate rose flowers, suspended just above the floor, create an ethereal garden. These roses symbolize the thousands of political prisoners who lost their lives in that period. As visitors explore, the roses gently sway, and their fragrance enhances the experience, reminding us of life's fragility.
Over time, each flower withers, yet their skeletal forms stand as symbols of the ongoing struggle for liberty. This installation encourages contemplation of the human toll of political upheaval and the enduring power of memory. It pays tribute to those who sacrificed for their beliefs and reminds us of the need for empathy and understanding in our interconnected world.
Expired totem!
Wood
2022
25cm(H)x10cm(W)x8cm(D)
De-rising from the ashes!
My first NFT Artwork, owned by @alimaytv