 Optimism, 2003 Film vidéo, 10'40" Courtesy of the artist Shahryar Nashat After a two year resendency at the Amsterdam Rijksakademie and a year spent at the Swiss Institute in Rome, Shahryar Nashat will show his work at the Yvon Lambert gallery in the Studio and the Project Room. From the outset of his career, Shahryar Nashat has focused on subjects such as freedom and repression on a human scale with a political, religious and psychological point of view. In "Les Négateurs" (video, 5'40", 2003), Swiss-based Nashat explores his relation with his Iranian origins. A man standing in front of the sea repeats to the point of exhaustion verses of the Koran dictated from a voice off-screen. The relation between indoctrination and freewill are scrupulously examined in "Les Négateurs". In "OPTIMISM", the connection between the architectural environment and the human behaviour constitute an important theme enabling a reflection upon social and political matters. The architecture of the Palazzo Della Civilità where the video was shot amplifies and underlines the extent of Fascist influence. The video seems to start in the middle of a story which has already begun. In an almost empty room, subjects are frozen in a fixed position waiting for something to happen. The formal language, the rigidity of the characters and the military music in the background sets a grotesque scene. The installation "If this is a man" (2004) presented in the Project Room refers to "The Drowned and the Saved", the last book written by Primo Levi. The author himself, a survivor of the Holocaust, submits the theory that the real witnesses of this historical tragedy are not the survivors but the ones that died. Levi's supposed 1987 suicide would, according to his theory, justify this historical testimonial. Shahryar Nashat uses the title of the book as the centre part of his installation. Its mirror image is projected onto the wall and is deciphered only through a reflection on the floor. Using a visual trick, the work is initially obscured from the viewer until his attention is drawn to the echo. Shahryar Nashat will represent Switzerland at Venice Biennale in June 2005. Exhibition: December 11, 2004 - January 29, 2005 Opening hours: Tue-Fri 10 am - 1 pm / 2.30 pm -7 pm Sat 10 am - 7pm Galerie Yvon Lambert 108, Rue Vieille du Temple F-75003 Paris Telefon +33 1 42 71 09 33 Fax +33 1 42 71 87 47 E-Mail christelle@yvon-lambert.com www.yvon-lambert.com |
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