Shirin Neshat

"Dreams are universal." An air of confidence and vibrancy, but also vulnerability and fragility surround the works of the Iranian artist, photographer, and filmmaker Shirin Neshat (b. Qazvin, 1957; lives and works in New York). Central themes in Neshat's art are identity, origin, and power structures. Her works are defined by a melding and broadening of the rich visual traditions of Persian and Western art. The US-based artist's work is now the subject of the museum's first presentation in association with the Written Art Collection. Neshat's most recent work, Land of Dreams (2019), revolves around Persian calligraphy and Western canon of portraiture and combines for the fist time the media of photography and video in a single work. Combining documentary and fictional elements, it scrutinizes the American dream and its flipsides. The artist conducted interviews with the portrayed, asking them about their dreams, and then integrated summaries in Persian into the photographs together with traditional visual motifs. Interweaving writing, gestural expression, and formal variety achieves a rhythmical poetic density as it gathers individual narratives that reflect universal human experiences. The catalogue accompanying the exhibition puts the focus on the conjunction of writing and image with a special focus on the series Roja (2016), The Home of My Eyes (2015), The Book of Kings (2012), and Possessed (2001). With a preface by Bernhard Maaz, essays by Sussan Babaie, Christian Boehringer, Judith Csiki and Thomas Kellein, and an interview with the artist by Judith Csiki.

A vivid and compelling collection of quotations from the influential contemporary artist and filmmaker Shirin NeshatNeshat-isms is an exciting collection of quotations from award-winning Iranian-American visual artist and filmmaker Shirin Neshat. Her experiences of loss and grief as an Iranian woman living in exile are central themes of her work in photography, video, and film. She is known for her outspoken advocacy for Iranian women and human rights, and for poetic and politically charged images and narratives that raise questions about power, religion, race, and gender. Gathered from interviews, talks, and writings, these powerful and thought-provoking quotations showcase the voice of one of the most important artists of our time.“Through my work I have continued to defy and resist the Western clichéd image of Iranian women as passive victims. While acknowledging the repressive situation in Iran, I have continued to represent Iranian women as empowered, courageous, defiant, and rebellious.”“Every Iranian artist, in one form or another, is political. Politics has defined our lives.”“I’ve done a lot of work about women in a state of madness, where ultimately they find a kind of freedom.”“You can’t demystify a myth.”