06/03/17
Interview: Mahmoud Bakhshi
Mahmoud Bakhshi: The Unity of Time and Place
narrative projects
26 January – 11 March 2017
The date 19 August is a significant
one in Iranian history. In 1953, it saw the coup d’état, which gave the shah
increased power to rule more firmly as a monarch, and, in 1978, it was the date
of the tragic Cinema Rex fire, in which estimates of between 400 and 800
citizens lost their lives, when the building in Abadan, southern Iran, was set
on fire by Islamic militants during the screening of the controversial film,
The Deers (Gavaznha in Persian), directed by Masoud Kimiai. As two camps of
opinion laid blame for the fire either with Islamic fundamentalists, who
opposed all forms of entertainment (and were later found responsible), or the
shah’s secret police, who some thought started the fire with the aim of pointing
the finger at the fundamentalists, this latter event is widely considered to
have triggered the 1979 revolution.
For The Unity of Time and Place, his
second exhibition at narrative projects,
Mahmoud Bakhshi (b1977, Tehran) has created an immersive installation,
recreating the interior of a 1970s cinema, and showing incisively collaged film
footage from The Deers and an interview with Kimiai, on two screens, either
side of the central dividing wall.
The project reflects a wider focus
of artistic enquiry in Bakhshi’s practice into the role and responsibility of
an artist and his work, particularly when dealing with, or responding to, sociopolitical
currents.
Bakhshi studied for a BA in sculpture
at the faculty of fine arts at the University of Tehran, and has since held
residencies at the Delfina Foundation in London and the Rijksakademie van
beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam. His work was included in the National Pavilion
of Iran at the 56th Venice Biennale and is held in collections worldwide,
including Tate Modern, London; Doron Sebbag Art Collection, Tel Aviv; Devi Art
Foundation, New Delhi; and the Thaddaeus Ropac Collection.
After his visa was denied at the
last minute, and Bakhshi was unable to come to London to install his exhibition
and attend the opening night, Studio International spoke to him in Tehran via
Skype.
Read this interview here