Monday, December 31, 2007

Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts, MOCA


TEHRAN, Nov. 23 (Mehr News Agency): American artist and critic Robert C. Morgan, a member of the jury at the fifth Tehran Contemporary Sculpture Biennial, has said that he has been enthralled by the works on show. Morgan believes that Iranian artworks are worthy of review and analysis by critics at an international level so that they can be introduced world-wide. He mentioned that he first became familiar with Iranian art at the Venice biennial and expressed his pleasure at being in Iran to attend the sculpture event. Morgan also announced that he is planning to select a number of pieces from the fifth Tehran biennial to put on display in New York.




I didn't take pictures from the pieces (as it was prohibited), but the catalog will be published soon. I can only say, I had never seen such a sizeable collection of OUTSTANDING sculptures since I last visited Rodin's exhibition!!

This year’s biennial focused on the central theme of “Peace, Life, and the Future Horizon”. The international art critic Robert C. Morgan and Korean artist Chong Son were among the foreign jury members, and the Iranian jury members were Behruz Darash, Hamid Rezaii and Saeid Shahlapur. The Iranian Academy of Arts, the Art Department of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art cosponsored the event.

I mention the names of my favorite artists and hope to find pictures of their works, somehow.

Parastoo Ahovan
Mohammad-Reza Avishi
Safa Hosseini
Golnaz Behroozi-Nia
Elena Nabiollahi (special prize of under-35 yrs old sculptor)
Taha Behbahani
Behdad Lahooti
Behruz Amiri Raad
Malek Dadyar Garrossian
Kambiz Sabri
Iraj Karimkhan zand (permanent installation?)
Mohammad-Reza Zabihollah Zadeh
Azadeh Tayebi
Fariba Allameh
Amin Balaghi Inanlu
Behruz Darash (permanent installation?)
Mohsen Asrarian
Hamid-Reza Jadid & Mona Rostam Zadeh *** (First Prize) (a mass of clay women facing a mirror, very poignant!)
Farzaneh Abdoli
Mansoor Tayeb Zadeh
The second prize went to Mahsa Karimzadeh. Kurosh Golnari and Hassan Razqandi shared the third prize.

In total, 371 sculptors (age 17-85 years) had participated (163 women/208 men). A total of 112 pieces were accepted in competition.

3 comments:

bijan said...

Wow! What a place to be! Great post Naj, thank you.

Unknown said...

Happy New Year Naj!

neenee said...

It's one of my favorite contemporary museums. I love the design, which reminded me of Guggenheim NewYork's -circular layout. And at the bottom of the corridor, instead of a water fountain, there is this amazing sculpture by a Japanese artist-a basin full of shining crude oil.

The collections are always interesting, although the hidden collections far more so! That exhibit was very nice. (I sneaked a few photos...should upload them soon :)

Happy New Year!