Examining the relationship between revolutions and repression of art and artists, London-based curator Vali Mahlouji traces the socio-political situations that led to the Iranian Revolution and Islamic Revolution that saw artists of Farmanfarmaian’s generation seek political exile elsewhere.
After twenty-six years of exile following the Iranian revolution, the artist returned in Tehran in 2004 with her work receiving broad recognition and eventually institutional support. To better understand Farmanfarmaian’s work, Mahlouji will examine her cosmopolitan, modernizing impulses and undisciplined return to tradition against the background of the cross-cultural, and emphatically transnational histories of art in the 1960s and 1970s. Her practice will be juxtaposed with and contrasted against a set of prevalent discourses focused on the rediscovery, deconstruction and appropriation of native traditions in the immediate postcolonial period.
This Critical Response and Lecture is free of charge, but must be booked in advance.