Amirali Ghazemi
Parallel Paths of Contemporary Iranian Art
Multimedia lecture

Wednesday, May 13, 8 pm
Project Room SCCA, Metelkova 6, Ljubljana

A multimedia lecture and an artistic intervention, performed by Amirali Ghazemi will present Ghazemi's curatorial work, particularly his eleven years long collaboration with Teheran underground Parkingallery and his collaboration with International Roaming Biennial of Tehran.

The focus of the lecture will be on the characteristics of contemporary Iranian art which is determined by controlled production, the lack of freedom of speech, censorship and centralization. His presentation will acquaint us more closely with the alternative situation, the tactics of operation and the strategies of survival in Iran and its capital, relatively closed from the outside world. He will outline the parallel routes and the systems that operate in Iran as initiatives and as incentives of artists and organizations and are realized in the informal alternative production conditions. He will also talk about his recent projects, realized in the international arena, particularly in Germany (Coffeshop Ladies, Tehran Remixed ...).

Amirali Ghazemi is a freelance curator and new media artist from Tehran who leads the underground Parkingallery. He is the initiator and main organizer of International Roaming Biennial of Tehran, which can not take place in its home town because of a constant misunderstanding of local and state authorities as well as the restrictive censorship, but operates in the asylum instead (the first edition took place in Istanbul, later it was transferred to Berlin, London, and this year it just closed in Belgrade). Ghazemi belongs to the generation and the scene of Iranian artists and cultural workers who operate completely outside the official state art system, on the verge of national culture and he has received much more attention from the international arena. A very rigid Islamic law prevents the operation of the individual in the state-run, ideologically driven policy that requires the display of revolutionary propaganda and restricts the entry into the global world of art. The duality of operation of Iranian artists is also one of the main characteristics of the branched art scene in Iran and Tehran.
http://www.amiralionly.com

No Nails, No Pedestals is presenting authors, working in the field of contemporary artistic practices (installations, performances, video, interdisciplinary & web projects). The artists can present their works by using different media and program tools for presentation on computer screens, television sets and wall projections. The audience is encouraged to reflect the works and intervene in the discussion and thus add to the interpretational level of artistic practices with their feedback.

SCCA-Ljubljana program is supported by Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, Municipality of Ljubljana.