Three exhibitions in Tehran are paying tribute to the late filmmaker and photographer Abbas Kiarostami (1940-2016) to mark his birth anniversary (June 22).
E1 Art Gallery opened a group photography exhibition on Friday to honor the celebrated auteur.
With Nader Davoudi as curator, the exhibit is hosting photos by 37 photographers, Mehr News Agency reported on its Persian website.
Titled “Single Tree,” the event borrows its name and subject from a recurrent theme in Kiarostami’s photos. Many of his films depict images of trees in beautiful long shots, beside his other favorite images: rain and roads.
Cinematographer Seifollah Samadian and renowned graphic designer and photographer Ebrahim Haqiqi as exhibit advisors have selected the works along with a selection of their own photos. Also on show are photos taken by celebrated filmmaker Jafar Panahi.
Afshin Shahroudi, Jassem Ghazbanpour, Saeed Nikzat, Jamshid Bayrami and Mohammad Farnoud are other known photographers whose works are on show.
The exhibit will end on July 4, marking the death anniversary of the renowned auteur. E1 Gallery is located at No. 1, Hamid Dead-end, Lesani Alley, Jebheh Street, Mahdieh Street, Elahieh Neighborhood.
Kiarostami’s photos including trees have been presented at national and international art auctions. A beautiful installation art, created in collaboration between Kiarostami and photographer Sasan Tavakoli 15 years ago based on an idea by Kiarostami, is homed at Iranian Artists’ Forum. The piece shows trunks of seven plane trees in real sizes created by 3D imaging of real trees and then sticking the large-sized photos around seven long cylinders (made of PVC).
Saless and Arte galleries are hosting separate exhibitions to honor Kiarostami.
The exhibition at Saless Gallery features a collection of 100 portrait photos taken by Gelareh Kiazand – one of the actresses in Kiarostami’s 2008 drama “Shirin”, a film that is considered a unique experience in the artistic career of Kiarostami.
In the film, 114 famous Iranian theater and film actresses are spectators of a theatrical performance of Khosrow and Shirin, a romantic Persian poem from the 12th century by Nizami Ganjavi. The performance remains invisible to the viewers of “Shirin” who just see the faces of the women watching the show and reacting to it.
Saless Gallery is located between Iranshahr and Mahshar streets on Karimkhan Avenue. Arte Gallery is presenting photos of lifestyle and landscape photographer Alireza Elahi from the abandoned village of Koker in Rudbar County, Gilan Province.
The exhibit relates to Kiarostami in that Koker village gained global fame for a trilogy that Kiarostami made there between 1987 and 1994. The three films are “Where Is the Friend’s Home”, “And Life Goes On” (aka Life and Nothing More) and “Through the Olive Trees”.
The gallery is located at No. 3, 2nd 12-meter Street, Golestan Avenue, Ali-Khani Boulevard, south of Hemmat Bridge.
Born in Tehran, Kiarostami was a respected filmmaker since 1970 for his 40 plus films, including shorts, documentaries and features.
He studied at the College of Fine Arts, University of Tehran, and later worked as a graphic designer, book illustrator and advertising filmmaker. For his cinematic works, he received more than 80 international awards.
Though the auteur was best known for his films, he was also a photographer, poet, painter, illustrator, installation artist and graphic designer.
Kiarostami once described his self-taught photography as a parallel activity to filmmaking in that the two interact and influence each other. He expressed his great love for the stillness of photography and believed that “photography is the mother of cinema”.
