Four artist decode identity through visual art
Stal Gallery
Who are we? In this series of artistic projects, four different artists based in Austria, Iran, and Oman, present their personal aesthetic perspectives about their interpretation of identity in different cultures with the artistic techniques of painting and photography which will be displayed at the “Project Identity” exhibition featuring works by Javid Ramezani, Marjan Habibian, Joachim Hainzl, Maryam Mohammadi.
The construction of our identities in a global world always is a multiple one. Especially in the case of these four artists, who are moving between the cultural codes and geo-graphical areas of the so called “Orient” and “Occident.” While on one hand their identities rely on their personal experiences, on the other hand they reflect about the global constructions and influences of specific social, cultural, political, and religious conventions.
So, behind the huge diversity of the presented artistic projects – there is a common question – who are we all?
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Javid Ramezani statement:
In this series search of identities is tied to time and memory.
We strive to create hope. All of our existence is product of hope. Hope to be able to withstand the burden of life anxiety.
In the honest dialogues that occur in these works, I try to express the truth of my emotions. The truth of human emotions in relation to their past, future and their relatives, those who feel their absence and have no way to escape their absence.
To understand the passage of time, you look at the sun and planets, and sometimes look at photo albums, but throughout daily life there are moments you feel as a 20 years old person or a 10 years old or a 50 years old. Memorabilia photos are the same ones that remind us that we are controlling the time. But when we face the truth of absence, no photos will help us. This is a mild, flowing and progressive truth. In the process of creating these pictures, I try to forget about that absence and create my own inner time; sometimes I think all the things people do is to stop the outer time, a time that has no mercy for us. When you stand in front of these picture remember all those who are no longer in your life. Remember the history that made outer time. These pictures are both in small and large size, in small ones they have beauty and dailiness sense, and in large ones they have beauty and referring to an eternal truth, without both inner and outer time, what can we do, except to take photo, a photo as a memorial on the wall or in our mobile phones.
This is my identity, flowing and dominated by time.
Javid Ramezani was born in 1965 . PhD in art philosophy_ Azad university science and research department , Artist, curator, conservator, professor and author
Position:
Ceo and editor in chief at Tandis visual art website
Editor in chief at Honarnameh program at national television channel 4
Founder and art director of annual festival of portraiture
Founder of c8art group
Permanent member of Iran visual art society
Professional Activities:
More than 130 participations in group and solo exhibitions around the world.
Art consultant and board and jury member of world’s habitat day internatio nal competition, UNESCO,
۲۰۰۹
Curating of „sound of vision „group exhibition in Spouse gallery, Paris, France,2010
Teaching Experience:
Teaching at art universities in the field of photography, graphic design and art conservation from 2001 to now.
Publications:
Why? How? Graphic design with Gestalt approach Ashja publication,2012
Visual creativity, Osaneh publishing, 2005
Marjan Habibian:
Marjan was born in 1970 in Tehran. She obtained her Graphic Diploma from the Art High school in Tehran. Then Marjan was a student at Azad University of Fine Arts and Architecture in Tehran, where she gained a Master’s degree in painting. Her experience developed from using abstract expressionism to include figurative elements in her work. Marjan has participated in mor e than 43 exhibitions in Iran, Austria and Oman. Eight of them were solo exhibitions. She has won several awards, including one at the Windsor & Newton Worldwide Millennium in 2000.
In 2011 she married an Austrian and moved to the sultanate of Oman. Since 2014 she has lived and worked intermittently near Graz Austria. Her professional work experience includes several years working in animation at Iran TV, teaching art at university and school and leading workshops in Oman and Austria. Several articles abou t her and her work can be found in newspapers of Iran, Oman and Austria. For Marjan, art is an expression of feelings. “Through my paintings, I try to express my personal highs and lows – and those of the society I’m living in”, she says.
Maryam Mohammadi
Born in Tehran, Iran, Maryam is a documentary and stage photographer with a Ph.D. in Photography and Philosophy.
She taught at the Tehran University of Arts for many years, and has exhibited widely in Iran and in Europe. She has lived in Graz since 2009, where she received the city Art Funds Prize. Her work focuses on how social, cultural and religious conditions at both local and global levels affect women migrants and “newcomers.” Also, how these effects are inscribed into their biographies and identities. Occasionally she is also an illustrative object to reflect her process of socialization in different societal systems. For the last few years she has worked in intercultural youth canters, feminist adult education, women and migrants counselling.
Since 2015 she has been part of the Graz Women’s Council.
Joachim Hainzl:
Joachim has been active as a social pedagogue and social historian for over 20 years.
During this time, he has been involved in different projects including major transnational initiatives with a focus on migration, anti-racism and socio-cultural diversity with diverse outputs such as exhibitions, workshops and city tours. In 2006, he founded the NGO XENOS in Graz. Over the last 10 years he has increasingly devoted himself to multidisciplinary projects. In doing so, he discusses sociopolitical themes within artistic forms, especially as public art actions and installations linking them with a discursive approach mostly in the form of performances, city tours and speeches. His major projects include “Pecunia non olet”, “Winter im Herbst,” “Riverways and Tobacco Roads,” “Recycled History,” “Vom Diwan in den Sattel”and “Unter fremdem Himmel”, which he presented in Austria, the Czech Republic, Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
