© Myriam Schahabian, Real Time Spaces, exposition at Azad Gallery, Teheran, 2008

Salome Ghazanfari
(born in 1982 in Speyer, lives and works in Karlsruhe)
Simin Keramati
(born in 1970 in Tehran, lives and works in Tehran)
Neda Razavipour
(born in 1969 in Tehran, lives and works in Tehran)
Myriam Schahabian
(born in 1965 in Karlsruhe, lived and grew up in Tehran till 1981, lives and works in Karlsruhe)
Jinoos Taghizadeh
(born in 1971 in Tehran, lives and works in Tehran)

This exhibition shows artists, who broach the issues and circumstances of everyday life in both Iran and in the diaspora, notably the contradictory aspects of their own origins. The questions of individual identity are linked inevitably with Iranian politics, religion and gender roles, but serious thought is also given to the globalised system of art and the mechanisms of the marketplace. The awareness of the everyday life of the artists actively involved in Iran alternates between the extremes of anticipation and endeavor, between inertia and conviction. They apparently move easily between the parallel environments of the private environment on the one hand and the public environment on the other, between the unobserved and the controlled and monitored. They develop themselves and their artistic work in the field of conflict between adaption and autonomy. Thus they create a collectively free space and scope for development in the face of the cultural repression of a fundamentalist regime. The Iranian artists living in the diaspora, however, raise the issues of their complex socialisation, a mixture of Western, European and Oriental philosophies/ideologies and experiences. They approach the country of their parents from a distance, examining the meanings of having and not having roots, between familiarity and unfamiliarity. What is inbetween, provides for a way of life, which consciously or unconsciously, leaves traces in their artistic work. Common to all the artists involved in the exhibition is the evident, sometimes melancholic sense of the fragility of their identities.

Opening
Saturday 14th March 2009 at 15:30
Introduction: Bettina Schönfelder, Exhibition Curator

Guided tour through the exhibition
Guided Tour with the Exhibition Curator, Bettina Schönfelder on Saturday, 28th March at 16:00 and further by appointment on both Thursday, 02nd April and Thursday, 09th April at 17:00 (Registration/reservation is necessary - GEDOK Office: Tel. +49 (0) 721 374137)

Opening Times:
Tue, Fri, Sun, 10:00 - 18:00; Thur, 10:00 - 19:00; Sat, 14:00 - 18:00
(the exhibition is closed on Mon and Wed - also Easter Monday)
Admission: Free

Venue
Prinz Max Palais, 2nd Floor, Karlstr. 10, D-76133 Karlsruhe