SHIRIN NESHAT’S THE HOME OF MY EYES SOLO EXHIBITION

Shirin Neshat The Home of My Eyes

Published in 2015 on the occasion of the exhibition Shirin Neshat: The Home of My Eyes 23 March – 23 June 2015 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any other information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the rights holder.

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Any errors or omissions will be corrected in subsequent Editions if notice is given in writing to the rights holder.

EXHIBITION Producer: YARAT Curator: Dina Nasser-Khadivi Exhibition Design: Exhibit A, London Graphic Design: A Plus B Studio, London CATALOGUE Editors: Dina Nasser-Khadivi and Farah Rahim Ismail Design: A Plus B Studio, London Print: Bilnet, Turkey Images © of the artist (except where indicated) Images courtesy of Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels (except where indicated) Text © of the authors (except where indicated) For the book in this form © YARAT ISBN 978-9952-8275-1-4

23 March – 23 June 2015 YARAT Contemporary Art Centre Baku, Azerbaijan

Produced by YARAT Curated by Dina Nasser-Khadivi

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Contents

9

Foreword

by Aida Mahmudova 13 – 14

Introduction

by Dina Nasser-Khadivi 15 – 18

Making Histories: The YARAT Collection

by Suad Garayeva 19 – 21

The Home of My Eyes: A Visual Narrative Celebrating a Nation's Amalgamation

by Dina Nasser-Khadivi 22 – 29

Home in the Eyes of the Beholder

by Mitra Abbaspour 30 – 41

Artist Statement

by Shirin Neshat 42 – 47

The Home of My Eyes 48 – 159

Soliloquy 160 – 167

Passage 168 – 177

Publications and Articles 178 – 195

Suggested Reading 196 – 198

Exhibition History 199 – 206

Institutions and Public Collections 207 – 209

Biographies 210 – 215

List of Works and Photographic Credits 216 – 221

Acknowledgements 222 – 225

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Foreword

13

Foreword

The opening of YARAT Contemporary Art Centre, our dedicated hub for contemporary art in Baku, is a milestone for us. As a not-for-profit organization which pioneers contemporary art, YARAT has been up and running for four years. Over that time we have added our own distinct mark to the cultural landscape of Azerbaijan and reached many people both at home and internationally. From the outset I have been encouraged and inspired by the remarkable diversity of the audiences who have visited our exhibitions, taken part in our workshops and attended our festivals. YARAT has collaborated with so many individuals beyond the community of artists who first came together to make our initial projects happen. Our audiences and participants include the families, children, parents, sisters and brothers who make up our community. It felt fitting, therefore, that such a myriad of individuals should be represented in the inaugural exhibition of YARAT Contemporary Art Centre through the new commission by Shirin Neshat entitled The Home of My Eyes (2015).

Shirin Neshat is an artist whom I have great admiration for and I was delighted when she accepted our invitation to come to Azerbaijan to create a new commission for YARAT. Upon visiting and traveling around the country, Shirin felt inspired by Azerbaijan’s wonderful diversity and vivid cultural past, something she felt was embodied within the personal and the domestic, as much as within the archaeological or the historical. Often the personal narratives of our home are superseded by those aspects of culture and history which outlast us. However our oral history, and the history of the individual, are as important to the celebration of a community—a city, a country, a culture—as its documents and artefacts. In The Home of My Eyes, Shirin has captured fleeting personal moments, memorializing and celebrating the intricacies of each individual Azerbaijani who took part in the project by sitting for their portrait. This interaction—be it with artists, educators, ambassadors, or just the enduringly curious—exemplifies one of YARAT’s core intentions: to encourage the exchange of ideas. Shirin’s deeply moving and personal works, therefore, are a sensitive and apt response to her experiences in Azerbaijan and the people she encountered.

Of course this opening could not have taken place without the generous support, hard work and brilliant creativity of those involved. I would like to take this moment to thank Shirin Neshat, her studio team and gallery, her wonderful sitters, the dedicated curator Dina Nasser-Khadivi, the team here at YARAT, the catalogue contributors, and the press team; it is everyone’s contributions over the past years that have made this launch possible. I look forward to seeing what collaborations the future will bring.

Aida Mahmudova Founder of YARAT

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Introduction

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Introduction

“Shirin Neshat has developed a unique perspective with the political dimensions of our lives...

She has the ability to translate experiences into art that communicates to the world at large.” I While reviewing an article in the New York Times two years ago, I came across this quote by Columbia University professor Hamid Dabashi and remember thinking it was such an accurate way of describing Shirin’s work. In fact, alongside the many years of friendship and respect I have had for her, it was exactly this distinct perspective and ability that brought me to approach her to create this project with YARAT, combined with my continued interest in her evolution over the years— whether it be with photography, video or film.

I first met Shirin at the New York Public Library in the spring of 2006 during a panel discussion she participated in about the misconceptions associated with Iran in the West.II I had come across her Women of Allah (1993–1997) almost ten years earlier when I was still an Art History student in Boston and like every person who has a passion for art and their homeland, I was immediately drawn to her work. It would actually be Shirin’s oeuvre that later inspired me to properly engage in the Iranian Contemporary Art arena and to look at ways of connecting it to an international audience at large.III As I remained in touch with her through various initiatives she later took on, including her award winning film Women without Men (2009), I witnessed how exquisite and distinct her vision was when executing a project. She had this incredible ability to combine concept with aesthetics, poetry with patriotism, translating them into these striking and powerful contemporary visual adaptations. No matter what discipline she chose to do this in, she managed to impact her audiences in one way or another.

Her relationship with the notion of exile and home was also very much a factor I was interested in exploring further. She had expressed in a few interviews how she “will never belong to anywhere completely, never really fit in anywhere completely.” IV This East West conflict which manifests itself frequently within the Iranian diaspora, and particularly among its artists, was a very relevant point for me to try and tackle with this commission, as I was eager to see how Shirin would react to Azerbaijan as a source of inspiration; a country which since my initial visit to Baku in 2008, had generated so much inspiration on my end, as I had tried to communicate through our exhibition with YARAT in Venice two years ago.V Shirin had been commissioned on a few occasions to do projects that included cultural and historical narratives, such as those recently seen with her powerful series of photographs Our House Is on Fire (2013) for the Rauschenberg Foundation in New YorkVI and another series she did for the

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ToledoContemporánea exhibition in Spain in 2014 inspired by El Greco.VII Additionally, poetry and patriotism were themes she had explored in depth, such as with her monumental series The Book of Kings (2012) inspired by Ferdowsi’s 60,000 verse epic poem Shahnameh and recent events in Iran and the Middle East.

It therefore almost seemed an obvious choice for YARAT and I to approach the artist for a project that aimed to represent the beautiful cultural diversity and historical heritage present in Azerbaijan.

Located at a crossroads between three major historical empires, it contained several interesting facets to explore for a commission, resulting both from the nation's amalgamation as well as its independence in 1991.

The outcome of this collaboration is The Home of My Eyes (2015). A selection of fifty-five individuals ranging from the ages of two to seventy eight years old, coming from different parts of Azerbaijan with various religious backgrounds, and who each respondedVIII to the same four questionsIX the artist had prepared for them, preceding or following the moment their photograph was taken.

Following the photo shoot in Baku last October, their answers were later translated into hand written calligraphy overlaying each character’s photograph with ink at the artist's studio in New York and combined with extracts of poetry by Nizami Ganjavi.X The result is a group of images not only timeless through the message and concept they convey—the majority of which revolve around ideas of harmony and pride—but also a magnificent and unique site specific installation for the newly built YARAT Contemporary Art Centre.

I found it particularly interesting to see the evolution in Shirin’s portraits from what she herself describes in this catalogue as “progressing from an initial interest to capture human emotions to visual narratives of a culture.” XI A journey that became very apparent in the way she handled this commission from its inception to its completion.

In addition to this new series of photographs I thought it also important to include the videos Soliloquy (1999) and Passage (2001). As this would be the first time Shirin’s work was being shown in Azerbaijan, I wanted to try and put The Home of My Eyes within a greater context of her oeuvre.

In addition, I believed they would represent interesting parables with the country they would be shown in.

Soliloquy is a double channel video often associated as a biographical work by Neshat showing her state of mind caught at the threshold of two worlds, somewhere between East and West, tradition and modernity, a concept I found very pertinent to modern day Azerbaijan, and Baku in particular, given she also used architecture as a core aspect to emphasize the symbolism between both worlds. Passage I thought was relevant for its beautiful execution, its collaboration with famed music composer Philip Glass and its symbolism and affiliation to Zoroastrianism.XII All of which were features I hoped the audience would connect with, as ultimately the goal with this project was to make it as interactive as possible while trying to preserve and respect strong institutional standards.

I have truly enjoyed being a part of this beautiful project and wish to thank YARAT and their founder Aida Mahmudova, for having given me the opportunity to work with such an incredible team of people in Azerbaijan: from the sitters of The Home of My Eyes, to the people who helped us with the shoot and the interviews. In New York: the Gladstone Gallery, Barbara Gladstone,

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Caroline Luce, Griffin Editions and Barry Frier have been incredible at helping us realize this exhibition under unbelievably tight deadlines. It has been an extraordinary and memorable journey.

I also wish to thank Shirin Neshat above all, for having trusted me with this collaboration and for delivering what I had envisioned (and more) when we initially commissioned her for this project.

And finally I wish to thank my team Dalia Bayazid, Farah Rahim Ismail, Benji Wiedemann, Natasha Fielding and David Bhalla from A Plus B Studio, Andrew Stramentov from Exhibit A, all of whom have been an instrumental part in delivering my vision as the curator of this exhibition.

It is an honor to be inaugurating YARAT’s Contemporary Art Centre with The Home of My Eyes on the very same day its curatorial director, Suad Garayeva, will be unveiling their permanent collection. I wish YARAT much success in their future ventures with this wonderful initiative and thank them for having hosted this project.

Dina Nasser-Khadivi Curator

I

A. Sert, “Taking Risks in Art and Politics”, The New York Times, November 27, 2012

II

Who’s afraid of Iran, Shirin Neshat, Roya Hakakian, Azadeh Moaveni, Lila Azam Zanganeh, New York Public Library, April 19, 2006

III

See references to symposium An Introduction to Modern and Contemporary Iranian Art, Mohammed Afkhami, Shirley Elghanyan, Dina Nasser-Khadivi, Leila Taghinia Heller, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, September 21-23, 2010

IV

A. Sert, “Taking Risks in Art and Politics”, The New York Times, November 27, 2012

V

Love Me , Love Me Not: Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan and its Neighbours, Collateral Event for the 55th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, June 1 – November 24, 2013

VI

Shirin Neshat: Our House Is on Fire, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Project Space, New York, January 31 – March 1, 2014

VII “ToledoContemporánea”, Centro Cultural San Marcos, Toledo, February 18 – June 14, 2014

VIII All the models responded with the exception of the youngest one, Nikas, who was too young to understand the questions IX

Refer to questions p.24

X

Nizami was a 12th-century poet originally from Ganja, Azerbaijan. He is considered one of the greatest romantic epic poets of his era. See also Shoja Azari, The King of Black, 2013, HD color video with sound, Length: 24 mins, for a more contemporary interpretation of his famous Haft Paykar (Seven Beauties)

XI

Refer to Artist Statement pp.45–47

XII Azerbaijan’s etymology is thought to derive from Zoroastrianism as it stands for “Guardians of Fire”

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Making Histories: The YARAT Collection

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Making Histories: The YARAT Collection Positioned at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, Azerbaijan has been home to cultural exchange and cross-cultivation throughout history. From ancient civilizations witnessed by the cave drawings of Qobustan, the Christian Albanian temples of the 1st century AD and the first Turkic settlements of Atilla's warriors, to rich Islamic tradition, Sufi poetry, oriental music, architecture and crafts, and finally to Russian industrialism and the Soviet modernity, Azerbaijani heritage is highly diverse. Maintaining close relations to its neighbors, Azerbaijani people have internalized the improvisations brought on by time and identify in equal measure with an array of seemingly distinct cultural constructs.

As a result, Baku provides a perfect common ground for the arts from the region commonly referred to as the Caucasus and Central Asia. Similarities in religion, language, and more recently the common Soviet past, between the various nationalities and country-states populating the region, have been further reinforced by the dramatic socio-economic change of the last twenty years. Opening up to global markets and influences for the first time in 70 years, artists were among the first to react and subsequently negotiate and reflect this transition in their works.

This vast geography at the heart of the Silk Route, having oft acted as a romanticized bedrock of international connectivity between the East and the West, has until recently been largely unchartered territory in contemporary art. Luckily, some voices have been gaining momentum since the 1990s and works by various individual artists, movements and organizations have been shown at leading international institutions. However, much more is needed before these artists and groups can gain the deserved recognition from the international art community.

As one of its objectives, YARAT Contemporary Art Centre, is focused on the acquisition and exhibition of works by artists from the Caucasus and Central Asia, as well as those from neighboring Turkey, Russia and Iran. Providing a platform for cultural discourse, debate, performances and screenings, as well as various educational programs, YARAT Contemporary Art Centre aims to bring together artists, curators, students, creative industry professionals, educators and intellectuals to exchange and realize ideas. The goal is to offer larger exposure to leading contemporary art and discourse, as well as to raise awareness and provide new perspectives onto the art practices from around the region itself.

YARAT's permanent collection opens its doors for the first time with the opening of its new space. The first exhibition of the collection will bring together seminal works across media that are connected to historicity and the volatile sense of identity caused by exposure to sudden, and often turbulent, socio-political changes. Some artists evoke symbolism of ancient traditions, some find nostalgia in transitory moments of the everyday, some question infallibility of existing narratives, while others project quasi-utopian optimism for a better future. Nevertheless, all of the works shown in this exhibition attempt to explore what it is to live today and construct, block by block, the new histories of tomorrow.

Suad Garayeva Curatorial director of YCAC

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“In The Home of My Eyes, Shirin has captured fleeting personal moments, memorializing and celebrating the intricacies of each individual Azerbaijani.�

Aida Mahmudova, Founder of YARAT

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The Home of My Eyes: A Visual Narrative Celebrating a Nation's Amalgamation Dina Nasser-Khadivi

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The Home of My Eyes: A Visual Narrative Celebrating a Nation's Amalgamation Dina Nasser-Khadivi

“What does home mean to you? If you had to define an image of Azerbaijan, what would it be? What makes you most proud of being Azerbaijani? What are you most proud of from your country's past and what would you like to pass on to your family and the next generation?”

These were the four questions Shirin Neshat asked all fifty-five individuals whose portraits fill the walls of the first floor of Yarat’s Contemporary Art Centre, together creating a beautiful tapestry of human faces which forms the series The Home of My Eyes (2015).

Shirin came to Baku for the first time in the spring of 2014 for the inauguration of Love Me, Love Me Not I and instantly felt a connection with Azerbaijan, the same way I did upon my first visit.

Shortly after, we returned with her partner Shoja Azari to visit several other cities with the idea of a commission in mind. Less than a year later, the outcome of this collaboration is what you will discover in this exhibition. A result, I think in the eyes of all those who were involved in making it happen, which exceeded everyone’s expectations.

Preserving aesthetics and social responsibility while creating historical and cultural narratives…

Neshat has often emphasized how beauty is an integral part of her work. In fact, she likes to challenge the notion that ideas and aesthetics do not essentially go together in conceptual art.II This does not necessarily mean that she uses subjects with perfect features, or whose appearance could be viewed as easily digestible to a general audience. On the contrary, she likes to play with metaphors, juxtapositions and parables. In addition, her vision of beauty has effectively revolved around social responsibility,III while evolving to create historical and cultural narratives, as attested by much of the work she has done in film, video and photography.

As the curator of this exhibition, I believe The Home of My Eyes (2015) preserves interesting characteristics from recent photographic series the artist has done, namely The Book of Kings (2012), Our House Is on Fire (2013) (Fig 1) and Toledo (2014).

It reveals an organic progression in how she handles her Fig. 1

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concept, theme and execution. Similarly to the aforementioned series, The Home of My Eyes transformed, by the time of its completion, into a contemporary visual adaptation of a historical and cultural subject, in this instance Azerbaijan’s, by conveying its ethnic and religious diversity among other aspects.IV As a group comprised of three different sized photographs and hung as one installation, it echoes themes of patriotism, pride and unity, quite reminiscent of The Book of Kings (Fig. 2). While the manner in which Neshat chose to use the models' hands at the photo shoot in Baku (Fig. 3), parallels her recent commission for ToledoContemporánea,V which reiterates how important hand gestures remain in some of her photographic compositions.

The models selected by the artist,VI along with their distinct visual expressions, and more specifically their gaze, were also instrumental to the concept in this new series.

Fig. 2

While the latter is an aspect Mitra Abbaspour covers in depth in her essay for this catalogue, it was also partly the reason that the artist and I thought the title for the series and the exhibition was so appropriate both conceptually and thematically. Shirin has never liked using titles that are too obvious, preferring to leave her work open to interpretation. Her titles, therefore, often include an element of poetry in order to preserve layers leading to metaphor and ambiguity.VII This use of poetry, which she often refers to as her signature as an artist, is also richly embedded within her works. In the instance of The Home of My Eyes, while each model’s responses to her four questions remain the main component used for the applied calligraphy on their respective photographs, Shirin ultimately combined them with verses by the poet Nizami Ganjavi once back in her studio in New York. Nevertheless, the new series keeps a strong element of reality over role-playing, as with Our House Is on Fire, the commission she did for the Rauschenberg Foundation,VIII which differed somewhat from her Ferdowsi-inspired The Book of Kings and Toledo (Fig. 4).

Working in binaries and the concept of loss…

Shirin Neshat’s works have often been described as manifesting binary attributes, both tonal and thematic, a visual strategy she has intentionally adopted in much of her photography and video works.IX As such, although the theme behind The Home of My Eyes (2015) is geared towards a direct interpretation of Azerbaijan’s cultural diversity, its chosen media remains relevant to the artist’s choice based on this approach. She consciously favored black and white over color photography, which she has mentioned in the past as being sometimes distractive.X This also gives her work a minimalist dimension, and together with the elements of calligraphy and poetry, she aims to communicate all the different layers of meaning in her work. This was a very relevant aspect to explore, from a curatorial standpoint, as binaries had also been a prevalent theme for me in Venice as a parable of Azerbaijan’s evolution, which one could observe through its architecture and cultural amalgamation. For this reason, the work Soliloquy (1999) (Fig. 5) was considered a key inclusion for this exhibition.

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Fig. 3

As a double channel video with a strong binary connotation that shows the artist’s state of mind caught between East and West, tradition and modernity, I thought it particularly relevant.

Her use of architecture as a fundamental tool to emphasize and convey the symbolism she felt between both worlds, makes it additionally appropriate in this context. According to Neshat: architecture and space defineXI a society. While this perception may be present in places aside from Azerbaijan, for example the distinctions she underlines between the United States and Turkey (the locations this video was filmed in)—one of the significant features that makes Baku stand out is its wonderful and unusual architecture coming together as a nexus: combining old and new, East and West. These are also prevalent themes in The Home of My Eyes (2015) which further convey her ideas of diversity, unity and harmony.

Passage (2001) I found pertinent for several reasons, including Neshat's collaboration with composer Philip Glass and the stunning visual execution—both of which provide a strong example of Neshat’s past work, but also because of the dichotomies and symbolism presented. The contrast between nature, fire and people are all elements the artist mentions as going back to Zoroastrianism,XII an aspect she developed instinctively while working on this video.XIII I find this interesting not only because of the country hosting us, but in as much as this video underlines another important aspect the artist has explored extensively in her oeuvre: the concept of loss.

Our House Is on Fire and The Book of Kings tackled this notion as photographic series. Both of these series, as well as Passage, were produced at times when Neshat and her studio were experiencing events relating to human loss. In each of these cases, the notion of passing greatly influenced her.

This in turn brought me back to an episode from our road trip, a detail the artist later confirmed as having had an impact on her when she was working on developing The Home of My Eyes. Along

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our way back from Sheki, and once back in Baku, we passed cemeteries that deeply moved Shirin.

The Alley of Martyr’sXIV in particular left a strong visual mark on the artist, possibly influencing the way she later treated her subject in this new series. I thought that this bore further testament to how some connotations in Neshat’s work remain universal and timeless.

Exploring new territories while resisting stereotypes…

Among the many aspects that always attracted me to Shirin’s vision is her will to try and resist generalizations, whether these concern our native Iran or the various projects she dealt with. On my end, I had tried to demonstrate at the Venice Biennale two years ago, how geopolitics may have affected the manner in which general audiences look at contemporary artists originally from Iran, the same way there often tends to be a lack of knowledge towards Azerbaijan’s background and history as a whole.

For this reason my involvement with this project was manifold. While this commission remains a continued attempt to support cultural exchange and show Azerbaijan’s beautiful diversity and background, I was also trying to tackle how international the scope of Neshat‘s work has remained through the years. Although she has undeniably become a worldwide icon, collected by some of the most prestigious institutions and collectors, and has received an endless list of awards from Davos to Hiroshima, I felt she is perhaps erroneously perceived by some as being more inclined towards Middle Eastern and North African subjects, when she has created several significant projects that go far beyond this compass, both geographically and thematically.

The Home of My Eyes I thought very much translates the ability of the artist to continuously master new ways of looking at her subject while evolving and preserving her artistic practice.

And although the videos I have selected for this exhibition are renowned works by the artist that have been widely exhibited, and acquired by some of the most significant institutions in the world including the Guggenheim and the TATE, they also emphasize how universal Neshat’s work is, in addition to being contemporary visual adaptations of historical and cultural narratives.

An angle I tried to focus on as much as possible as she is first and foremost an international artist.

In fact, a few of her other commissions caught my attention before we approached her for this project with Yarat, which made her an ideal choice to represent Azerbaijan’s diversity.

Toledo (2014) is a series I had found considerably significant: not only is it different to subject matter the artist is often affiliated with, but the Fig. 4

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exhibition it was a part of had, as its theme, a city which was once a cultural epicenter of Europe and a symbol of coexistence. This made me wonder how Shirin would react to Baku, as even though we were looking at a completely different continent, there were many evident parallels.

Before this, I had come across her project Don’t Ask Where the Love Is Gone (2012), a series of nine photographs using theatre actors who were portrayed individually with very dramatic and intense poses yet very touching features. I had found this series particularly moving as it conveys a strong narrative of human emotions, similar to past works, but shows a different approach to portraiture in terms of execution. Now a permanent installation in the city of Naples, it was also exhibited at the Multimedia Art Museum in 2014 for the Moscow photo biennale. This serves as another example of how versatile and fit Neshat is for a project that has as its primary mission, the role to convey Azerbaijan’s incredible diversity and history through portraiture, in addition to how her work always retains an international appeal. No matter the subject, country or theme Shirin Neshat is given, she always manages as per Dabashi’s quote, “...to translate experiences into art that communicates to the world at large.” XV “Home” for those who live in exile….

The artist and myself, like many others from the Iranian diaspora, have always shared a notion of complexity when it comes to the idea of “Home”. What remains certain however, is that while we float somewhere between East and West trying to grasp what the concept of home respectively holds in our own eyes, the team at YARAT and their founder Aida Mahmudova were incredibly kind in hosting us and supporting us with this project. They always made us feel at home which ultimately shows how we are all not just neighbors, but how tolerance, diversity and harmony are values that make Azerbaijan what it is today. Lastly, Shirin has made Aida's vision for YARAT not just a reality, she has created with this beautiful series a project and message that will hopefully leave a mark on the world we live in. Going beyond a tribute to the country the series is inspired by, its universal message, as well as its timeless attributes, are what I hope will stay in the mind and heart of all of the people who get to see this exhibition and catalogue. I hope that you enjoy The Home of My Eyes as much as I have enjoyed working on it.

Fig. 5

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I

Love Me, Love Me Not: Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan and its Neighbours, Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku, April 3 – May 25, 2014 [traveling exhibition from the Collateral Event for the 55th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, June 1 – November 24, 2013]

II

Saad, Shirin, “Exodus”, City Magazine, 2011

III

Enright, Robert &Walsh, Meeka “Every Frame a Photograph: Shirin Neshat in Conversation”, Border Crossings, February 2009, pp.24 – 39

IV

Refer to Artist Statement p.47

V

Neshat was one of twelve artists commissioned for this project. Curated by Elena Ochoa Foster—this exhibition celebrated the fourth centennial of El Greco and offered a contemporary view of the city of Toledo and took place in the old church of San Marcos

VI

The fifty-five individuals were for the most part selected at random based on specifications the artist gave the commissioners, including various social, cultural and religious backgrounds along with different genders and age groups

VII Ruth Tam, “Exiled Iranian artist Shirin Neshat looks at the Egyptian revolution”, The Washington Post, January 31, 2014 VIII Yasmine El Rashidy “Egypt: Face to Face”, The New York Review of Books, March 18, 2014 IX

Enright, Robert &Walsh, Meeka “Every Frame a Photograph: Shirin Neshat in Conversation”, Border Crossings, February 2009, pp.24 – 39

X

Ibid

XI

Enright, Robert & Walsh, Meeka “ Every Frame a Photograph: Shirin Neshat in Conversation”, Border Crossings, February 2009, pp.24 – 39

XII Azerbaijan’s etymology is thought to derive from Zoroastrianism as it stands for “Guardians of Fire” XIII Enright, Robert & Walsh, Meeka “ Every Frame a Photograph: Shirin Neshat in Conversation”, Border Crossings, February 2009, pp.24 – 39 XIV Memorial dedicated to honor those who died in the Nagorno-Karabakh war and Black January XV Reference opening quote by Hamid Dabashi in my introduction from A. Sert, “Taking Risks in Art and Politics”, The New York Times, November 27, 2012

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“It is impossible to describe home in one word, but, when I leave for even one week, I can hardly breathe without this land.�

Jafar Ahmadov from The Home of My Eyes, 2014

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Home in the Eyes of the Beholder Mitra Abbaspour

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Home in the Eyes of the Beholder Mitra Abbaspour

“It is impossible to describe home in one word, but, when I leave for even one week, I can hardly breathe without this land.”

Jafar Ahmadov from The Home of My Eyes, 2014 I

Home is among the most universal and compelling, yet elusive, concepts in human experience.

As an idea, home is larger and more layered than the facts that satisfy governmental classification systems: birthplace, nationality or residence. As an experience, it transcends literal description; attempts to define it require metaphor. Being home is an existential state that implies a feeling of belonging. Contemporary artist Shirin Neshat has explored the influential pull of home throughout her work, and this idea is the vital core of her latest series The Home of My Eyes (2015).

As one enters the bright, expansive space of the first floor gallery at YARAT Contemporary Art Centre, fifty-five faces of Azerbaijan return your gaze. The tall, facing walls that reach up to the mansard roof of this newly inaugurated home for contemporary art are filled with portraits of citizens from across the country. Each picture represents an individual whose thoughts on the meaning of home and of being Azerbaijani have been inscribed in Persian calligraphy across his or her face. For Jafar Ahmadov, home is the land that sustains his breath. Others define home as family. Many acknowledge home as their motherland, the place where they were born. At the core of these responses, however, is an emotional connection: “the feeling of having a mother,” or “where I feel good and comfortable.” II In The Home of My Eyes, Neshat utilizes the signature elements of her artistic practice—gesture, gaze, literary references and installation spaces that structure a dynamic between an individual and a community—to create experiences evocative of home.

The Home of My Eyes Photography has a long history of representing nations through series of ethnographic portraits. In its premise, The Home of My Eyes follows in this practice. These classical studio portraits were taken in Baku and feature residents of Azerbaijan, who were cast to represent the many diverse regions, professions, ethnicities, religions, and generations of the country. However, rather than emphasize their characteristic differences as the ethnographic tradition demands, Neshat employs a strong formal language to distance herself from any documentary genre and insists upon a metaphorical reading of the photographs.

Neshat’s portraits bring together the tropes of studio portraiture with the language of conceptual photography. Gesture and gaze are paramount in this portrait series, making clear that the ambition is to portray a cultural community by evoking an emotional and psychological space. Working in black and white photography, Neshat asked the people who gathered for this portrait session to dress in black and she photographed them standing against a grey studio background with their shoulders square to the camera and a direct gaze. Utilizing a monochrome palate and minimal studio setting focuses attention on the subject’s face and hands. In these pictures, the individuals clasp their

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hands in front of their bodies, often in front of their chests; yet, each pose is a subtle variation on the others. Neshat worked with each subject to carefully position their hands and set their pose.

Gestures have been used throughout art history to express the psychology of a figure, often as a stand in for their voice. From ancient Sumerian devotional statues forward, clasped hands communicate a gesture of agreement, friendship and devotion (Fig. 6). The relaxed gestures of the clasped and folded hands throughout The Home of My Eyes lend these figures a similar posture.

No less expressive, these hands are not engaged in activity; rather, they accentuate the central body of the individuals, transmitting a calm confidence and stability of being in the place where they belong. Combined with the direct, neutral expressions on their faces, these individuals present themselves as part of a community.

With language a barrier, gesture and expression take on heightened importance for their ability to speak universally. Reflecting the recent political history of Azerbaijan, most of the country’s residents speak Azerbaijani or Russian. During the portrait sessions for The Home of My Eyes, Neshat, who speaks Persian and English, worked with a translator to develop a picture in collaboration with its subject. The posture of each portrait, then, is the resulting meeting point connecting Neshat and her subjects. Pose, gesture and expression are the narrative foundation for The Home of My Eyes. Emphasizing the oratory role of the face and hands, Neshat has added a fine layer of hand-inscribed calligraphy over the skin of each figure. Written in Persian, the text is drawn from short interviews conducted with each participant, who were asked to respond to a list of questions.III Each individual’s answer to these questions is translated and written across his or her face, along with passages from the twelfth-century poet Nizami’s epic poem Khamseh (five), so named for its five-part structure. Nizami Ganjavi is regarded as one of the greatest poets in world literature. He was born and worked in the city of Ganja, the second-largest city in Azerbaijan.

Scenes from the stories of his epic poem are among the most popular subjects of illuminated manuscripts, making the poem one of the most influential works for the region’s visual arts as well as its literature.

Neshat often looks to historic sources and other media to develop her visual language of expression. In preparing the composition of her previous large-scale portrait series The Book of Kings (2012), she referenced early twentieth-century portraits of school groups, where all the boys had posed with their right fist held over their hearts in a salute of loyalty. In the mural-scaled photographs of her series Toledo (2014), she drew on the elongated, exaggerated gestures of that city’s most beloved artist El Greco. As if conducting screen tests to bring his paintings to life, the figures in these paintings contort their bodies into dramatic expressions of passion, grief, and inspiration. Seeking out such diverse cultural influences allows Neshat to hone and clarify her own visual language, finding those gestures that are so powerfully rooted in the physical expression of emotion that have carried across time and culture. Neshat’s insistence upon visual economy of gesture and expression is paralleled in her integral use of poetry.

Fig. 6

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Neshat asserts an artistic voice that is a play of visual and literary languages. Like a definition of home, Neshat’s art builds narratives through layers visual, and emotive metaphors. Her artistic practice was catalyzed by a return trip to Iran, her country of birth, and she has described the motivating spark behind her artistic language as, “my personal desire to create a link with my country.” IV Ali and Nino The influential pull of one’s homeland is the defining narrative of the 1937 romantic novel Ali and Nino that has become a national epic of Azerbaijan. On the surface, Muslim Azerbaijani Ali and Christian Georgian Nino are star-crossed lovers, like their literary antecedents Khosrow and Shirin from twelfth-century poet Nizami’s Khamseh or sixteenth-century playwright Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. They represent the dueling traditions of their respective families and strive to overcome their differences through mutual love. In Ali and Nino, however, their bond is not only a love for one another, but also a mutual love of their homeland of Baku. The drama of their partnership is a parable for the tensions and compromises that confront their beloved Azerbaijan at the onset of industrial modernism.

Ali and Nino is set during the years of the Democratic Republic, a heady period when this manylayered, ancient civilization had an opportunity to define an independent, modern national identity. In May 1918, at the close of World War I, the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan declared independence; the state lasted two years until it was incorporated into the Soviet Union in April 1920. The lasting impact of Ali and Nino lies in the parallel drama of the coming-of-age stories of the young republic and the titular young lovers. The narrative concerns the possibility of bridging the values and cultures within the relationship of the protagonists, as well as in their relationship to their homeland. These concerns offer a parable not only for Azerbaijan, but also for the motivating drive that fuels Neshat’s artistic oeuvre.

Much of the plot of Ali and Nino revolves around a negotiation of dualities: Muslim Azerbaijani and Christian Georgian familial expectations, before and after independence, or traditional ways of life and the conveniences of modern technologies. In one of the final scenes of Ali and Nino, its protagonists face the future and the young Ali Khan turns to his beloved wife Nino and implores, “Let’s stay in Baku, where Asia and Europe meet.” V Nino agrees, saying, “We’ll stay here … you keep your Asiatic town, and I’ll keep my European house.” And, Ali responds, noting that while they favor different culturally prescribed ways of life, their mutual belonging is to the land. “My home,” Ali declares, “I want to be in the country I belong to, because I’m the son of our desert, our sun, and our sand.”

Ali and Nino seek to bridge the dualities that confront and challenge their relationship through their connection to Azerbaijan, where they feel comfort and belonging, where they are at home.

When the pair agree that they will plan their future in Baku, it is because it is the place that represents them both in their commonalities and their differences. Through their shared sense of home, they reveal that their own identities are complex, layered, conflicted and can be resolved only through the constant evolution of their relationship to each other, and to the place they call home. Their story is an account of the impact of historical shifts on the personal scale.

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Returning Home Shirin Neshat’s career as an artist was inspired by her desire to understand the transformation of her place of birth. Born in Qazvin, Iran, a small city that was briefly capital of the Persian empire during the Safavid era and has retained an influence as a source of art, especially calligraphy, Neshat received a worldly education at the local Catholic parochial school. At the age of seventeen (during an era of strong, mutually supportive international relations between Iran and the United States), Neshat was sent to California to continue her studies under the supervision of her older sister. By 1984, she received her Master’s degree in fine arts from University of California, Berkeley and made her way to New York City. She started working at the project and exhibition space Storefront for Art and Architecture, where she would remain for the next ten years and become one of its leaders. During this time she stopped making art herself.

The Iranian Revolution of 1978-79 took place during her senior year of undergraduate studies at Berkeley and, with the almost immediate onset of war with Iraq that lasted until 1988, Neshat’s trip to Iran in 1991 was her first in more than a decade. That year, half the years of her life had been lived in Iran, half in the United States; and, that same division of years nearly corresponded with the seismic shift in the political and social structure of Iran following the revolution.

The impact of returning to Iran and finding the home of her childhood intimately familiar and, simultaneously, unrecognizable was profound. When she returned to New York, she transformed her life: leaving Storefront, forming the close-knit circle of Iranian artist-friends with whom she continues to collaborate, and, most significantly, beginning to make photographs and video art.

In interviews, Neshat has explained, “The discovery of the kind of transformation the country had undergone after the revolution, inspired me to create a group of works that somehow could convey my emotions, my responses, and my understanding of the profound changes that were taking place … this work was made for purely personal objectives.” VI As in the story of Ali and Nino, a desire to find a sense of home, of self-recognition, amidst great change and many differences has been a formative force in Neshat’s practice.

Neshat turned to art to explore the space between the home she remembered and the home she experienced upon her return visit. The series of photographs Women of Allah (1993-1997) was made in response to her feeling of dissonance. The psychological tension generated by the coexistence of conflicting elements—namely, the familiar and the foreign—is a common trope in surrealist art.

That tension has been productively utilized by diaspora artists, who are living outside the country and culture of their childhood, to express an uncomfortable distance from their home. Mona Hatoum, for example, makes sculptures of domestic objects (a bed, a chair, a kitchen colander) that at first appear ordinary, but whose functionality has been impaired and whose structure threatens bodily harm. The intention of such a practice is to create the conditions by which the viewer of these artworks shares the artist’s experience of dissonance at a personal level. These artworks are not about binary dialectics—the literal opposition of near and far, man and woman, east and west—they are, instead, expressions of the unsettling state of perceiving the coincidence of elements that contradict one another.

Confronted with her cultural distance from her homeland, Neshat gathered her community of fellow Iranian compatriots in New York to collaborate as subjects and as the production team for the series Women of Allah. In so doing, she was identifying the elements of her life in which she

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Fig. 7

recognized her home and, through them, exploring those subjects discovered during her return trip who were not familiar in her memory of her country, namely the population of women who fought for the Islamic Republic in the revolution, and the years that followed. Offered Eyes (1993; Fig. 7) has become an icon of the series. This picture frames a single eye, lined in kohl and confronting the viewer with a piercing gaze.

Hand-written across the white of the eye is a poem by the pioneering, modern poet Forugh Farrokhzad (1935-67) that celebrates feminine independence and pleasure. While it is Neshat who poses for this photograph, it is not a portrait of her; rather, it is the artist's examination of her experience encountering a community of her compatriots that had not previously existed. In Women of Allah, Neshat confronts the unfamiliar within herself; and the direct address of the gaze in these pictures demands acknowledgement of this internal dissonance from viewers as well. Thus, began Neshat’s practice of metaphorical portraits.

More than twenty years later, Neshat employs a sophisticated and signature practice of portraiture through the evolution and recombination of the elements first developed in Women of Allah. As in that first series, her portraits are rarely meant to represent the sitters in front of the camera, who are, more often, ciphers for examining a social or historical experience that has captivated the artist. Portraiture remains a strategy for Neshat to bridge the space between herself and her subject.

Azerbaijan as a Bridge Presented with an opportunity to create work in Azerbaijan, Neshat recognized in it a country and population where a great multiplicity of cultures find their home. Considered one of the most linguistically and culturally diverse countries on earth, Azerbaijan owes this reputation to its geographical position, natural resources, and political history. Situated on the Western edge of the Caspian Sea with the Caucasus Mountains in the north, Azerbaijan borders Russia, Georgia, Turkey, Armenia, and Iran. At the crossroads of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, this region has held strategic position politically and economically since ancient times.

It also exhibited signs of its wealth of natural resources. Historical accounts tell of the ancient Zoroastrians jumping over the fires that sprung up from underground, as gasses rose from the oil-rich sand to the earth’s surface and ignited. With the rise of industrialization at the turn of the nineteenth century, oil became the prize commodity of the modern era. Engineers, chemists and capital, arrived in Azerbaijan. Part of imperial civilizations since ancient times, the cultural history of Azerbaijan represents strong influences from Persian, Seljuqs and Safavids and for much of the twentieth century, the Soviet Union. The present Republic of Azerbaijan achieved its status as an independent nation state in 1991 with the official dissolution of the Soviet Union.

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This history, however, is so abbreviated that it threatens to mislead with its simplicity what is actually a cultural diversity woven into the very identity of what it means to be Azerbaijani.

The opening line of Ali and Nino gives a clearer sense of the cultural identity of the nation. Young schoolboy Ali introduces the novel with the observation, “We were a very mixed lot, we forty schoolboys who were having a geography lesson one hot afternoon in the Imperial Russian Humanistic High School of Baku, Transcaucasia: thirty Mohammedans, four Armenians, two Poles, three Sectarians, and one Russian.” The historical narrative of Azerbaijan is conveyed through the diversity and strata of its cultural heritage, keenly aware of its position as a bridge in the space between Europe and Asia.

The Space Between Describing her relationship to a feeling of home, Neshat has said, “Once you leave your place of birth, there’s never a complete sense of center: you’re always in the state of in between and nowhere completely feels like home.” VII In her search for that existential center, Neshat has developed a sophisticated use of installation spaces, where, by choreographing an exchange between two facing walls, she activates the room between them. Viewers are thus implicated in the composition of the piece and become active participants in the formation of its narrative.

Neshat developed this structure for her installations in the trilogy of films—Turbulent (1998), Rapture (1999) and Fervor (2000)—each presented as a two-channel video projected onto walls facing one another. Neshat, thus, expands the conceptual play of the literary and visual languages she explored in Women of Allah, into an installation environment.

In these films, differing, interrelated narratives play on facing walls and visitors must turn their bodies and gazes, choosing which screen to watch in order to capture the dynamic interplay.

Bi-lateral installations force the viewer to shift their gaze from side-to-side in order to integrate the action on either side of the room and thus create a unique sequence of drama with each viewing. In all three films, Neshat combined her keen eye and captivating choreography of black and white forms with a dramatic narrative told in gesture, expression and interplay of body and space. Among the themes addressed in the trilogy are the ways society defines communal identity through taboo (Turbulent), ritual (Rapture) and shared mythology (Fervor) and how that identity structures the physical, psychological and social space of individuals. The drama of these films unfurls through a careful choreography of gazes and gestures, as in the exchange between the protagonists of Fervor (Fig. 8). The meaning of these works relies equally on the internal narrative of the film and the visitors’ visceral experience of it.

In 2008, Neshat completed Games of Desire, a film and accompanying series of fourteen full-length portraits in Laos as a part of the residency program The Quiet in the Land. Neshat photographed pairs of ceremonial singers in front of the murals at a temple. She, then, translated the creative lyrics of their ritualistic songs of romance into Persian and inscribed them in calligraphy as a second layer on top of the painted walls. Describing the conceptual bridge in these pictures between the cultural significance of Persian manuscripts of romantic epic poetry, and ritual practice of singing romantic Laotian songs, the project’s director France Morine cites the Japanese concept of ma and defines it as, “The interval of space or time between phenomena, such as a room (the space between walls) or a pause in music (the time between notes).” This space, she explains, “is not just

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Fig. 8

a void, but a vessel to be filled.” VIII In religious contexts, designating a space between elements allows room for the spirit. In Neshat’s installations, it expands the visual metaphor into a physical experience, allowing the expression of her works to be felt by her audience. The Home of My Eyes is a return, and marks a coming full-circle for Neshat; she has harnessed the lessons and strategies of those early works that brought her acclaim on an international stage, and her more recent series of portraits that have taken her into new cultural territories.

Returning to the light-filled first floor gallery at YARAT, the effect is that of entering a sanctuary and encountering the drama of an artwork made to fill the architecture. While made up of many individual portraits, The Home of My Eyes exists here as a single installation piece and its effect depends upon the interactions between all the elements and each visitor’s experience of the work. The Home of My Eyes is portrait of a place, a body formed of many individuals that makes a statement about the contemporary moment in Azerbaijan.

The significance of Neshat’s installation is elucidated in contrast to its alternative counterpart in the plates of this book. Had Neshat hung each portrait in a level row around the circumference of the room, visitors would encounter each subject in a personal, one-to-one interaction, as presented on each page of the book. In this egalitarian and neutral approach, one might identify with (or recognize a family member in) the kind, maternal wisdom of Gizbasti Ibrahimova (p.69), the calm confidence of Javid Aydinov (p.81) or the bright, youthful promise of Amil Salahov (p.107). However, by scaling facing walls, each individual portrait is part of a social community, one where the different ages, cultures, classes, and ideas of those who call Azerbaijan home

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are expressively (and literally) written across their faces. The space in between the walls is transformed into an active topography, where visitors are dwarfed by the community that ascends the walls, and in between these facing groups the visitors must respond as participants in a communal space, as well as to individual faces.

Eldar Ulubekov describes home as a “feeling of being connected.” In the play of the literary and visual languages of Women of Allah, in the dynamic space between the narrative screens of Turbulent, Rapture, or Fervor and in the variations and voices of the people of The Home of Our Eyes, the emphasis is on finding that feeling of connection, recognizing oneself in relationship to a diverse and layered context, without necessarily having the opportunity to resolve the contradictions among the parts. Those who discuss Neshat’s art as a mediation of dualities tend to present lists of seemingly opposing pairs and consider on which side her identity, biography and art falls.

Similarly, Azerbaijan is often described as either European or Asian. What is needed is a shift in conjunctives—from or to and. The Home of My Eyes joins a conversation with other contemporary artworks, which explore the long list of identities that all together make up present day Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan, today Exploring the multifaceted character of the Caucasus has become a central force in contemporary art from the region.IX Contemporary Azerbaijani artist Rashad Alakbarov has focused on how the cultural and sectarian interests of his country’s varied political history express themselves in the transformation of the alphabet. Just within the last century, the written language of the nation has shifted from Arabic script to Latin, Cyrillic, and presently, back to Latin again. These four distinct scripts complicate the historical record and memory of the country’s citizens, adding particular resonance to the multiple-translated and layered languages traversed by Neshat and her subjects in The Home of My Eyes. In Alakbarov’s piece Lost in Translation … This Too Shall Pass (2013), words in each of the four scripts of the modern era are cut out of Plexiglas in the three colors of the Azerbaijani flag and cascade from the ceiling. In their beautiful jumble, these scripts succinctly point to the simultaneous continuity and constant transformation of language, this fundamental marker of identity of a place. Through light projected onto their forms, this installation casts a shadow on the wall from which the phrase “This too shall pass” emerges. This statement confidently asserts that the cultural identity of the region runs deeper and is more lasting than the symbolic expression of political authority in a linguistic facade.

A complementary statement is made in the work Love Me, Love Me Not (2010) by the artist collaborative Slavs and Tatars. Taking the form of a brainstorming map or instructional dance pattern, the piece consists of vinyl lettering beginning high on the wall and spilling across the floor as it casts a path through the historical names of cities in the Caucasus. For example, one graphic traces the names for the ancient Macedonian town Alexandria The Furthest as it becomes the Arabized city of Khodjend, the Soviet town of Leninabad and the present day Khujand, the second largest city in the Republic of Tajikistan. These seemingly simple didactics are wry lessons on the permanence of place and the relative ephemerality of language. Lost in Translation … and Love Me, Love Me Not also make a powerful case that cultural continuity does not imply cultural consistency.

Particularly in the Caucasus, identity is built upon civilizational strata; these contemporary artists make a case that one geographic place contains many signs, symbols and voices within its history.

That idea is embedded in Neshat’s work, from Women of Allah to The Home of My Eyes.

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Beginning with Women of Allah, Neshat pushed herself and her viewers to understand a visual language that was complex and layered, carrying the experience of history and change and uncertainty. Women of Allah was in many ways also a portrait series—not of the individuals in the pictures—rather a psychological portrait of Iran as seen from Neshat’s perspective, in search of understanding and recognition in the home of her eyes. In the series that preceded The Home of My Eyes, Neshat returned to the idea of creating a portrait of a place amidst a moment of great cultural and political transformation. The Book of Kings (2012) and Our House Is on Fire (2013) are ambitious, multipart portrait series that translate installation practices Neshat developed for film to still photography.

Coming Full Circle –Portraits of Places The year 2010 was the millennial anniversary of Shahnameh (The Book of Kings), the Persian epic poem that recounts the historical succession of leaders of Iran before the arrival of Islam. Written by Ferdowsi, the narrative is part history and part allegory of good and evil and the struggle for righteous rule. Inspired by the coincidence of the anniversary of this story and contemporary events in Iran, Neshat embarked upon the large-scale portrait series and photographic installation The Book of Kings.

Casting members of her community of artists and acquaintances, who also have roots in Iran, living in New York, she divided the population into three sections: the masses, the patriots, and the villains.

Whereas Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh focuses on the actions and tribulations of rulers, Neshat realigns the narrative to focus on the voices of the citizens, who are allotted forty-five of the sixty portraits in the series. Their strength emanates from the repetition and intensity of their gazes and from their numerical and emotional mass, which Neshat heightens through her installation of these portraits (Fig. 9). As before and as it is in The Home of My Eyes, the viewer's relationship to both individual pictures and the space created by this installation activates the narrative of the work.

The use of portraiture, allegory, and a collaborative appropriation of Persian literature has never left Neshat’s practice; yet, with this series she returned to still photography with a focus unlike that since Women of Allah. Again, it seemed her intention was to “create a link with [her] country” as she once explained her motivation in earlier series. In The Book of Kings, however, her perspective is resolved. The masses may not all agree, but Neshat has clearly thrown her weight behind the power of the voice of a community, and presents them speaking as one. As in Women of Allah, in The Book of Kings the numerous portraits (even though titled with the given name of the subject) are not intended as portraits of the individual; the first identity of each picture is as a character cast into an allegorical narrative. Thus, it is all the more moving to see the enormously powerful shift brought about in Neshat’s following portrait series, Our House Is on Fire.

In 2013, Neshat traveled to Egypt and made Our House Is on Fire, a series of intimate, emotional, highly expressive portraits that could be the first traditional portraits of individuals in her career.

In Our House Is on Fire, Neshat explores the inextricable link between the psyche of the individual and his or her homeland as she has done so many times before. However, the subjects of these portraits have not been cast into an allegorical narrative. They are presented as themselves, in color, and in a hyper-saturated resolution that has shed the cloak of conceptual photography and embraced the raw, expressionistic potential of documentary portraits.

Throughout, Neshat's series respond to place and history, pressing viewers to navigate the spaces they create to locate the moment of self-recognition among layers of cultural references. All of

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the two decades of work that spreads between Women of Allah and Our House Is on Fire comes to bear in The Home of My Eyes. Neshat engages with her subjects to create portraits of individuals, asking them to channel their feelings of home, their image of Azerbaijan and their feeling of national identity. She assembles these portraits into an installation that engages viewers in the construction of the narrative of the work, and she recalls the literary heritage she shares with her subjects. The Home of My Eyes weaves all of these strategies together to present a complex, layered, and, ultimately, determined and optimistic portrait of a country once again coming of age.

Fig. 9

I

Interviews conducted as part of Shirin Neshat’s photography sessions toward her commissioned work The Home of My Eyes in Baku, from 27 – 30 October 2014, n.p.

II

Ibid

III

Please refer to questions listed on p.24

IV

Francine Birbragher, “Shirin Neshat,” Art Nexus 2, no. 50 (September – November 2003), p.90

V

Kurban Said, Ali and Nino, trans. Jania Graman (Woodstock, New York: Overlook, 1999), p.223

VI

Birbragher, p.90

VII

Arthur Danto, “Shirin Neshat”, Bomb no. 73 (2000), p.67

VIII France Morin, “Foreward”, in Shirin Neshat: Games of Desire (Milan, Italy: Charta, 2009), p.9 IX

For more information on the contemporary artists, including views of the installations discussed in this section, see the Exhibition Catalogue, Love Me, Love Me Not: Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan and its Neighbours, Collateral Event for the 55th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, June 1 – November 24, 2013

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“The Home of My Eyes combines 55 portraits of men and women from different generations, to create a tapestry of human faces which pays tribute to the rich cultural history of Azerbaijan and its diversity.�

Shirin Neshat

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Artist Statement

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Artist Statement

Ever since the beginning of my artistic career, my fascination with photography has remained with human portraiture. My images have developed into a series of minimal, black and white photographs, inscribed with calligraphy. Through these photographs, my interest has been to attempt to capture human emotions with subtle body language and facial expressions. Often a small gesture, such as the placement of a hand over the mouth or the heart speaks loudly and clearly to me about the psychological states of my characters. A close look at my two main photographic series, Women of Allah (1993-1997) and The Book of Kings (2012), will demonstrate this point, both in respect to aesthetic and conceptual patterns. However, recently I have come to discover how my portraits tend to expand beyond simply conveying an individual’s emotional state, and often function as visual narratives of a culture.

The Home of My Eyes (2015) series developed as a commission by YARAT and in collaboration with the curator Dina Nasser-Khadivi in order to create a new body of work for the opening of YARAT’s newly built Contemporary Art Centre. I immediately welcomed

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the opportunity, as I considered it a challenge and an invitation to push myself beyond my usual artistic and cultural boundaries.

Mutually agreed upon by all of us, nothing appeared more appropriate for a grass-root organization that has devoted its mission to cultivating local and international art, than to dedicate its inauguration to what Azerbaijan ultimately symbolizes: a beautiful tapestry of human faces. This series pays tribute to a nation that has for so long been a cross road of such diverse ethnicities and religions.

On a personal note, on my first and consequent trips to Azerbaijan in 2014, I was struck by how much it resembled my own childhood country, Iran; and how our shared history is still evident in the faces of people, as well as in our traditional architecture, music, literature and most ceremonial rituals. My experience with Azerbaijan therefore became somewhat distinct from any of my recent commissions, which had mainly taken me to the Middle East, in particular to Egypt and to Qatar. Here in Baku I felt strangely at home, and connected to my past.

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Yet, my challenge remained in how to break certain barriers, such as my subjects’ lack of familiarity with contemporary art, and the language issue. Together with my American colleagues and collaborators, David Jimenez, Mike Vorassi, and YARAT’s staff, we made every effort to establish a humane and intimate relationship with our cast, and eradicate the obvious cultural gaps. Finally, we managed to gain our characters’ trust, and bonded to the degree that once finished, all our differences dissipated and were replaced by a wonderful sense of human exchange and friendship.

For me, the images from The Home of My Eyes resonate with humanity, love, pride and the immense sense of patriotism that each character felt toward their country.

Ultimately this series, which includes 55 portraits of men and women from different generations, celebrates the rich history of a country that has welcomed ‘diversity’ and continues to advocate ‘tolerance’ and ‘harmony’ amongst its people, something so rarely found in this world today.

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“I consider this new series of images a portrait of a country that has for so long been a crossroads for many different ethnicities, religions, and languages.�

Shirin Neshat

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The Home of My Eyes

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Adil, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Agayar, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Anastasia, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Akram, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Eldar, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Farid, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Gabil, from The Home of My Eyes series,2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Nikas, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Jafar, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Gizbasti, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Hagigat, from The Home of My Eyes series,2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Hasan, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Husniyya, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Ilgara, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Anna, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Javid, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Kanan, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Mahira, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Malaksima, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Nazim, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Nigar, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Soraya, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Novruz, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Rabil, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Rahim, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Sabina H., from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Sabina M., from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Sabir, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Amil, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Samima, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Shahmir, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Salima, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Suad, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Tamasha, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Humay, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Sara, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Vasif, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Vladimir, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Khadija, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Yolchu, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Zuleykha, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Vugar, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Farida, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

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Asgar, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 182.9 x 122 cm. (72 x 48 in.)

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Aydin G., from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 182.9 x 122 cm. (72 x 48 in.)

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Durdana, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 182.9 x 122 cm. (72 x 48 in.)

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Esmiralda, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 182.9 x 122 cm. (72 x 48 in.)

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Firuza, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 182.9 x 122 cm. (72 x 48 in.)

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Mudhad, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 182.9 x 122 cm. (72 x 48 in.)

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Ofeliya, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 182.9 x 122 cm. (72 x 48 in.)

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Vagif, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 182.9 x 122 cm. (72 x 48 in.)

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Aida, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 205.8 x 137.2 cm. (81 x 54 in.)

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Aydin A., from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 205.8 x 137.2 cm. (81 x 54 in.)

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Nazakat, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 205.8 x 137.2 cm. (81 x 54 in.)

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Tahir, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 205.8 x 137.2 cm. (81 x 54 in.)

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“Through the opposition of East and West, modern and traditional, displacement and memory, Islam and Christianity, biography and history, Soliloquy aims to offer a glimpse into the experience of a divided self in need of repair. The subject is shown standing at the threshold of two worlds, apparently tormented in one but excluded from the other.�

Shirin Neshat

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Soliloquy

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Soliloquy, 1999, 2 channel color video/sound installation, Duration: 17 minutes and 33 seconds Soliloquy (1999) is a haunting psychological portrait that explores the experience of traversing different cultures, landscapes, and societies. Conceived as a two-channel film installation projected onto the facing walls of a gallery, the story might be summed up as a study in introspection. The film follows a woman through a series of symbolic spaces—Islamic stone architecture, modernist concrete buildings, a garden courtyard, a chapel, a deserted desert landscape and a crowded urban terminal—where her role is that of observer rather than participant.

Shirin Neshat has called Soliloquy her “most personal work” inspired by her own experiences of identifying with and living in two very different cultures.I It is one of the only films in her oeuvre where she features on camera and in this instance she appears twice, as both the principle actor and viewer who contemplate each other from across the room. A drama emerges between the volley of her gaze, as the artist observes herself moving through these contrasting worlds. On one screen she passes the soaring pointed arches and narrow alleys of an old, Islamic city, and climbs to a window from which she looks out onto a horizon of densely stacked, flat-roofed buildings interrupted only by the tower of a mosque. Then, she turns, looking outwards, where another version of herself passes through the concrete plaza, dwarfed by the angular columns of the modern building.

Occasionally, she intersects a crowd of people, but in each case there is a visible distance between her and those she encounters. Her gaze directs the action of the film, searching the world she moves within, as well as the world that she has left, for a place where she belongs.

Viewers, positioned in between these two worlds and at the intersection of her searching gazes, are compelled to choose which side of the room to stand in and which side to watch. Neshat exists in two spaces at once, but her viewers cannot; for them the formal structure of this installation demands that they are physically, and thus psychologically, forced to move between the sides.

Many aspects of Soliloquy evoke a feeling of being between conflicting demands. Symbolically, this is conveyed in the locations of the film. Shot amidst the architecture of the old city of Mardin, Turkey and the governmental and financial plazas in New York, these spaces powerfully evoke the historical eras and cultures that built them. Sartorially, Neshat is dressed in a long, loose black coat and headscarf, an outfit that is itself a compromise between the demands of tradition and modernity; still modest, the coat and scarf free the arms and hands for independent movement.

Expressively, her movement vacillates between haste and contemplation. Finally, rest comes atop a flat roof alongside a pointed dome, where in a symbolic act she bathes her face in water that does not smudge the Persian text that covers her face.

M.A I

Artur C. Danto, “Shirin Neshat” (an interview), Bomb No. 73 (Fall 2000), p.67

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“In making Passage, a collaboration with American composer Philip Glass, I aspired to a command of form through a minimalist approach, simplifying my filmic language. The result is an allegorical work that opens itself to diverse interpretations while retaining as its primary theme the inevitability of certain cycles – new and old, death and rebirth, darkness and light.�

Shirin Neshat

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Passage

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Passage, 2001, Color video/sound installation, Duration: 11 minutes and 30 seconds Passage (2001) presents an evocative meditation on the power of rituals. A group of men dressed in black emerge over the horizon as the film opens. Moving together as a single body, they descend on a gentle diagonal across the warm brown of this barren landscape and, as they approach, the sheet-wrapped body that they carry on their shoulders comes into view. Cutting to a different view, a group of women wrapped in black chadors (traditional Persian veils made from a single cloth) have gathered in a tight circle. Together they dig fervently at the dusty soil with their bare hands, rocking their bodies forward and back as if keening. All of these elements evoke a narrative of mourning and the title corroborates this interpretation. The emphasis, however, lies not on death, but on the traditions that draw together communities and that define lives as being part of a larger cultural rites of passage.

Filmed in the desert of Morocco, the bright sun is palpable in the saturated colors of this landscape and the actors' black bodies stand in sharp contrast to the vast space around them. Neshat uses this to her advantage; channeling her training as a painter, she carefully composes each sequence of frames and the figures break apart and move back together in formations as brushstrokes against a color field. A collaboration with Philip Glass, who commissioned the piece, his soundscape penetrates the picture giving voice to the wordless story. Glass’ minimalist rhythms take root in the repetitive actions of the bodies on the screen, giving the sense that the music both emanates from and urges on these performers.

There is a uniquely balletic quality to the sound and choreography of Passage. As the men progress, they reach the shoreline of the sea, and walking along it the lapping waves add a third rhythm to that of the keening women and Glass’ sounds. In contrast to the groups of men and women, a young girl dressed in her play clothes methodically builds a circular wall of stones in the middle of the desert. Her small hands move with care in this act of creation. Eventually, our view widens and the men appear on the horizon of the plateau where the women dig in the distance and the young girl continues to build her nest of stones in the immediate foreground. Just before they reach the circle of women, the men stop and carefully lower the body to the ground; at the moment of contact a wide arc of bright orange fire ignites atop a mound of rocks just behind the girl and races out around the scene and to the farthest corner of the horizon. The girl turns, with a captivated gaze, to watch the fire's ascent.

Neshat emphasizes that she titles her works with metaphors to suggest myriad possible interpretations. So too, does she compose their visual stories. Passage captivates its viewers, pulling them into a ritual that is laden with symbolism, yet abstract in its meaning.

M.A

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Publications and Articles

179

Solo Exhibition Catalogues and Monographs 2013

Shirin Neshat. Rio de Janeiro: Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, 2002.

Shirin Neshat. Aarhus: Aarhus Kunstmuseum, 2002.

Karimi, Shahram. Shirin Neshat: Written on the Body. Madrid: Fundacion Telefonica, 2013.

Schwerfel, Heinz Peter. Shirin Neshat.

Istanbul: Dirimart, 2013.

Hart, Rebecca, Sussan Babaie, and Nancy Princenthal. Shirin Neshat. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 2013.

2012

Shirin Neshat. London: Ivorypress, 2012.

2011

Shirin Neshat: The Mask & The Mirror. New York: Leila Heller Gallery, 2011.

Shirin Neshat: Women Without Men. Milan: Edizioni Charta, 2011.

2010

Abramovic, Marina and Arthur C. Danto.

Shirin Neshat. New York: Rizzoli, 2010.

2009

Shirin Neshat: Women Without Men. Athens: Hellenic Ministry of Culture, National Museum of Contemporary Art, 2009.

Shirin Neshat: Games of Desire. Milan: Edizioni Charta, 2009.

2008

Jensen, Mona. Shirin Neshat: Women Without Men. Aarhus, Denmark: ARoS Kunstmuseum, 2008.

2005

Shirin Neshat: La última palabra/The Last Word. León, Spain: Charta/MUSAC, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Castilla y León, 2005. Akiba, Tadatoshi. Shirin Neshat: The 6th Hiroshima Art Prize. Hiroshima: Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, 2005.

Shirin Neshat: In Conversation. Berlin: Vice Versa Verlag, 2005.

2004

Brownson, Ron. Through the Eyes of Shirin Neshat. Auckland: Auckland Art Gallery, 2004.

2003

Shirin Neshat: Tooba. Mexico: Museo de Arte Moderno, 2003.

2002

Shirin Neshat. Turin: Castello di Rivoli, 2002.

2001

Gagnon, Paulette, Shoja Azari and Atom Egoyan. Shirin Neshat. Montreal: Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montreal, 2001.

Milani, Farzeneh. Shirin Neshat. Milan: Edizioni Charta, 2001.

Zaya, Octavio, Yuko Hasegawa and Fumihiko Sumitomo. Shirin Neshat.

Kanazawa: Office for Contemporary Art Museum Construction, 2001.

2000

Shirin Neshat. London: Serpentine Gallery, Kunsthalle Wien, 2000.

Horrigan, Bill. Shirin Neshat: Two Installations.

Columbus, OH: Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University.

1997

Shirin Neshat. Turin: Marco Noire Contemporary Art, 1997. Museum of Modern Art, solo exhibition catalogue, Ljubljana, Slovania, 1997.

Artspeak, solo exhibition catalogue, Vancouver, Canada, 1997.

Group Exhibition Catalogues and General Publications

180

2014

C Photo: Toledocontemporanea.

Madrid: Ivorypress, 2014.

2013

Pontbriand, Chantal. The Contemporary, The Common: Art in a Globalizing World. Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2013. Grovier, Kelly. 100 Works of Art That Will Define a Generation.

London: Thames & Hudson, 2013.

Voice of Images. Milan: Palazzo Grassi, 2013.

Hahne, Robert, ed. Kammerlohr Epochen der Kunst Von der Moderne zu aktuellen Tendenze, 3. Munich: Oldenbourg Schulbuchverlag GmbH, 2013.

Gresh, Kristen. She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World.

Boston: MFA Publications, 2013.

Au Bazar du Genre: Feminin/Masculin en Mediterranee. Paris: Les Editions Textuel, 2013.

Follent, Sarah, ed. Write About Art. Kelvin Grove Qld: Eyeline Publishing Limited, 2013.

All You Need Is LOVE. Tokyo: Mori Art Museum, 2013.

Perez, Nissan N. Displaced Visions. : Émigré Photographers of the 20th Century. Jerusalem: The Israel Museum, 2013.

2012

Perl, Jed. Magicians and Charlatans: Essays on Art and Culture. New York: Eakins Press Foundation, 2012.

Brodsky, Judith K. and Ferris Olin.

The Fertile Crescent: Gender, Art, and Society.

New Brunswick: Rutgers University Institute for Women and Art, 2012.

Kvaran, Gunnar. To Be With Art Is All We Ask. Oslo: Astrup Fearnley, 2012.

Portrayal/Betrayal. Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 2012.

Findlay, Michael. The Value of Art. Munich: Prestel, 2012.

Saehrendt, Christian. KASSEL: documentaGeschicten, Märchen, und Mythen: ist das Kunst oder kann das weg? Der Führer zur documentaStadt. Cologne: Dumont, 2012.

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts.

New York: Thames & Hudson, 2012.

2011

Vervoordt, Axel.TRA: The Edge of Becoming.

Wijnegem, Belgium and Venice: Axel Vervoordt Foundation and the Museum Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, 2011.

Defining Contemporary Art – 25 years in 200 pivotal artworks. London: Phaidon, 2011.

2010

2009

2008

2007

Eigner, Saeb. Art of the Middle East: Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World.

London: Merrell Publishers, 2010.

Fineberg, Jonathan, ed. Art since 1940, Strategies of Being. 3rd edition. New York: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2010.

181

Pallasmaa, Juhani. The Thinking Hand: Existential and Embodied Wisdome in Architecture.

Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2009.

Lowry, Glenn. Oil and Sugar: Contemporary Art and Islamic Culture. Eva Holby Lecture on Contemporary Culture, No. 3, Institute for Contemporary Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 2009.

Art Editions 6. New York: Edition Schellmann, 2008.

Prospect.1New Orleans. Brooklyn: Picturebox, 2008.

Stations: 100 Masterpieces of Contemporary Art. Köln: DuMont Buchverlag, 2008.

Sale, Teel and Claudia Betti. Drawing: A Contemporary Approach. Thomson Wadsworth, 2008.

Parts and the Whole. Barcelona: Fundación Foto Colectania, 2008.

Volume 2 of the MUSAC Collection. MUSAC, 2008.

Black and White. Oslo: Kaare Berntsen, 2008.

Erranti / Wanderers. Milan: Silvana Editoriale, 2008.

Rodemburg, Katja. IK, Ophelia. d’Jonge Hond, 2008.

Paixóns Privadas, Visións Públicas Collections D.O. Galicia. Vigo, Spain: Museo de Arte Contemporánea de Vigo, 2008.

Denken in Bildern. Berlin: Hatje Cantz and Staatliche Museen, 2008.

Stedelijk Museum CS: Prospect/Retrospect Amsterdam: Stedelijk Museum, 2008, p. 22.

Morrison, Toni et al. Art Works: The Progressive Collection. New York: D.A.P. Inc., 2007.

Muzzarelli, Federica. Il Corpo e L’azione.

Atlante, 2007.

Berlioz, Hector, les troyens. Grand Théåtre de Genève Opéra, Geneva, 2007, ills. p. 11, 26, 34, 35, 41, 45.

Bonami, Francesco et al. Passion for Art: 35th Anniversary of the Essl Collection. Edition Sammlung Essl, Wein, 2007.

Foto.Kunst. Edition Sammlung Essl, Wein, 2007.

Phillips, William H. Film an Introduction (Third Edition). USA: Bedford St. Martin, 2005.

Bonami, Francesco, ed. Bidibidobidiboo: Works from Collezione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo.

Milano: Skira Editore S.p.A., 2005.

New Prominent Image Art: The Practice of 32 Foreign Artists. Japan: Grand Vision, 2007.

Kunst Film Biennale Catalog 2007. Heinz Peter Schwerfel, 2007.

Time Present, Time Past: Highlights from 20 Years of the International Istanbul Biennial. Istanbul Modern, 2007.

Angier, Roswell. Train Your Gaze: A Practical and Theoretical Introduction to Portrait Photography. Lausanne: AVA Publishing, 2007.

Princenthal, Nancy, et al. After the Revolution: Women Who Transformed Contemporary Art. Prestel, 2007.

Eusterschulte, Birgit et al. 5 Days to the End of Art. Kunsthalle Fridericianum, 2007.

Getlein, Mark. Living with Art. McGraw-Hill, 2007.

2006

2005

2004

Translation. Athens: The Deste Foundation Centre for Contemporary Art, 2006.

Richer, Francesca and Matthew Rosenzweig.

No. 1: First Works by 362 Artists. New York: DAP, 2006.

Morandini, Giuliana. Notte a Samarcanda Marietti 1820, 2006 (bookcover illustration) Zeitgenossische Photography (Contemporary Photography), LempertzAuktion 893, Berlin, September 2006.

Dakhlia, Jocelyne. Creations Artistiques Contemporaines En Pays D’Islam. Paris: Editions Kime, 2006.

Daftari, Fereshteh, ed. Without Boundary: 17 ways of looking. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2006.

The Conscious Reader. New York: Pearson Education Inc., Tenth Edition, 2009.

2003

Paparoni, Demetrio. L’arte contemporanea e il suo metodo. Venice: Grafica Veneta S.p.A. di Trebaseleghe, 2005.

Marsh, Margaret, Michelle Watts and Craig Malyon, eds. Art 2: Practice. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Art Now Vol 2. New York: Taschen, 2005.

Parola Di Donna. Corpo Di Donnaby Valentina Columbo, Cover.

Elwes, Catherine. Video Art: A Guide Tour.

England: Published by IB Tauris, 2005.

182

MacDonald, Scott. Between Two Worlds: An Interview with Shirin Neshat, Feminist Studies.

Volume 30, November 3, 2004.

MacDonald, Scott. Interviews with Independent Filmmakers. Berkeley: University of California Press, A Critical Cinema, Volume 4. 2004.

Weintraub, Linda. In The Making: Creative Options for Contemporary Art. DAP, 2004.

Transculture. Athens Greece: EMET Museum of Contemporary Art, 2004.

Happy Birthday. Paris: Jerome de Noirmont, Exhibition Catalogue, 2004.

Hayden, Tom. Contemporary Photography and the Garden: Deceits and Fantasies. USA: AFA and N. Abrams, 2004.

Aghdashloo, Aydeen. Cultural Criticism: Conversations on Art. Tehran, Iran: Fanoos, 2003.

Butler, Alison. Women’s Cinema: The Contested Screen, Short Cuts. London and NY: Wallflower, 2003.

Protzman, Ferdinand. Landscape: Photographs of Times and Place. Washington D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2003.

Subjective Realities. New York and Chicago: The Refco Group, LTD. 2003.

Moving Pictures: Contemporary Photography and Video from the Guggenheim Museum Collections.

New York: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 2003.

Strangers: The First ICP Triennial of Photography and Video. New and Göttingen: International Center of Photography, 2003.

Levy, Allison, ed. Widowhood and Visual Culture in Early Modern Europe. Hampshire, England and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2003.

Pinto, Roberto, ed. La generazione delle immagini / The Generation of Images. Milan: Postmedia, 2003.

Naldi, Fa la. I’ ll be Your Mirror: Travestimenti

Erresistentziak/Resistencias. Donostia-San Sebastian: Koldo Mitxelena, 2000.

Continental Shift, A voyage between cultures.

Ludwig Forum Aachen, 2000.

Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht. Stadsgalerij Heerlen, Musée d’art moderne Liège, 2000.

Fotografici. Rome: Coope & Castelvecchi, 2003.

2002

2001

2000

Lucie-Smith, Edward. Art Tomorrow.

Paris, 2002.

Hostetler, Sue. Oceans. New York: Rizzoli, 2002.

Prochnik, George. Image. Seattle, WA: Center for Religious Humanism, Seattle Pacific University, 2002.

Ebrahimian, Babak. Paj. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, September 2002.

Matsu, Midori. Art: Art in a New World.

Tokyo: Asahi Press, 2002.

Kertess, Klaus. Photography Transformed: The Metropolitian Bank & Trust Collection.

New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc, 2002.

Michael, Archer. Art Since 1960, The New Edition. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2002.

Moving Pictures: Contemporary Photography and Video from the Guggenheim Museum Collections. New York: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 2002.

Walford, John. Great Themes in Art. Prentice Hall, 2001.

Galleri Faurschou. Copenhagen, Denmark.

1986–2001.

Die Samlung Olbricht Teil 2, Firtst View.

Wolfgand Schoppman and Neues Museum Weserburg Bremen, Samllung Olbrecht Essen, 2001.

Issa, Rose, Ruyin Pakbaz and Daryush Shayegan. Iranian Contemporary Art. Barbican, Booth-Clibborn Editions, 2001.

Brüderlin, Markus. Ornament and Abstraction.

Dumont: Fondation Beyeler, 2001.

Martinez, Rosa. Looking for a Place. Site Santa Fe, Third International Biennial, 2001.

Milovac, Tihomir. A Place I’ve Never Been To. Hrvatski Fotosavez, 2001.

Horrigan, Bill. Shirin Neshat: Two Installations. Columbus, OH: Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, 2000.

Warr, Tracey and Amelia Jones. The Artists Body. Phaidon Press, 2000.

Rubin, David S. Photography Now. New Orleans, LA: Contemporary Arts Center, 2000.

183

1999

Cream, Contemporary Art in Culture.

New York: Phaidon Press, 1999.

1997

Annina Nosei Gallery, solo exhibition catalogue, New York, 1997.

Istanbul Biennale, exhibition catalogue, Istanbul, Turkey, 1997.

Johannesburg Biennale, exhibition catalogue, Johannesburg, South Africa, 1997.

1996

Bonami, Francesco, ed. Echoes: Contemporary Art at the Age of Endless Conclusions.

New York: The Monacelli Press, 1996.

Lucio Amelio Gallery, essay by Diego Cortez, Naples, Italy, 1996.

Sydney Biennal. Sydney, 1996.

Le Masque et le Miroir. Graz, Austria, 1996.

Radical Images: Austrian triennal on Photography 1996.

Interzones. Copenhagen, Denmark.

Foto text/ text foto. Museum of Modern Art, Bolzano, Italy; Frankfurt Kunstverein, Germany, 1996.

Auf Den Leib. Vienna, Austria, 1996.

1995

Orientation: 4th International Istanbul Biennial, 1995.

Transculture. Biennial of Venice, Venice, Italy, 1995.

Campo 95. Biennial of Venice, Venice, Italy, 1995.

Feit & Fictie. (Cover Photo), Rotterdam, Holland, 1995.

Coffe House Paintings: Iranian’s Return to Islamic Art. ATLANTICA, Spain, 1995.

Doubling. issue of New Observation, guestedited by GODZILLA, New York, 1995.

Kyoto Journal. Tokyo, Japan, 1995.

1994

Beyond the Borders: Art by Recent Immigrants.

Bronx, NY: The Bronx Museum of the Arts, 1994.

2013

Selected Articles and Reviews 2014

Mee-yoo, Kwon. “Poignanat resistance,” Korea Times, April 4, 2014.

Rashidi, Yasmine El. “Egypt: Face to Face,” The New York Review of Books, March 28, 2014.

Subin, Anna Della. “Our House Is on Fire: Shirin Neshat,” Bomb, Spring 2014, p.18–19.

Neshat, Shirin. “The other Egyptian crisis,” Reuters, March 5, 2014.

Tome, Anna. “A Specific Imagination: Shirin Neshat ‘Our House Is on Fire,’” The Brooklyn Rail, March 4, 2014.

Lee, Christine. “Iranian artist Shirin Neshat on art, politics, and changing the worldinterview,” Art Radar Journal, March 1, 2014.

Kino, Carol. “Artist on Artist | Shirin Neshat on Kaveh Golestan’s Humanistic Portraiture,” The New York Times: T Magazine, February 26, 2014.

Weaver, Carolyn. “Iranian-Born Artist Explores Cost of Egypt’s Revolution,” Voice of America, February 24, 2014.

Russell, Heather. “Shirin Neshat Discusses Her Series ‘Our House Is on Fire,’” Artnet News, February 26, 2014.

“An Iranian photographer captures the toll Egypt’s revolution has taken on the poor,” Public Radio International, February 25, 2014.

Weaver, Carolyn. “Iranian-Born Artist Explores Cost of Egypt’s Revolution,” Creative Time, February 24, 2014.

Matthew, Jennie. “Crushed hope in Egypt as art in New York City,” The Daily Star, February 6, 2014.

“Shirin Neshat to President Rouhani: ‘Take Care of Your Artists,’” Creative Time Report, February 3, 2014.

Herriman, Kat. “Shirin Neshat: ‘Our House Is on Fire’ The Iranian artist exposes the cost of revolution with a poignant new series,” W Magazine, January 31, 2014.

Tam, Ruth. “Exiled Iranian artist Shirin Neshat looks at the Egyption revolution,” The Washington Post, January 31, 2014.

Kennedy, Randy. “What Lives on After Death,” The New York Times, January 31, 2014.

Judah, Hettie. “Points of View,” Art Review, January-February, 2014, p.38.

184

“Voice of Egypt: Shirin Neshat on Umm Kulthum,” Creative Time Reports, November 18, 2013.

Mason, Paul. “Shirin Neshat: telling Muslim women’s stories on film,” News 4, October 21, 2013.

Stryker, Mark. “Iranian-American artist welcomes public to share in her DIA exhibition,” Detroit Free Press, July 3, 2013.

Fabry, Lola. “PHotoEspana 2013 Shirin Neshat,” Le Journal de la Photographie, June 2013.

Douzi. “Shirin Neshat, Never a Follower,” Art Bank, June 2013.

Corso, John J. “The Complex Geographies of Shirin Neshat,” Art Papers, May/June 2013, p. 26-31.

Aziz, Eiman. “Shirin Neshat Retrospective at Detroit Institute of Arts,” Whitewall, May 8, 2013.

Wang, Sue. “Iranian-American Artist Shirin Neshat Invited to Lecture at CAFA Art Museum,” CAFA Art Info, April 17, 2013.

Li, Qian. “The Book of Kings,” Time Out, May 2013.

Wu, Lin. “Shirin Neshat,” The Blind, May 2013.

Jiang, Liuyue. “Shirin Neshat, I Grew up in Iran,” Art and Design, May 2013.

Wilson-Goldie, Kaelen. “She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World,” Artforum, May 2013, p. 155.

Dabashi, Hamid. “Being at home in exile: Shirin Neshat at work,” Aljazeera, April 13, 2013.

Bennett, Chuck. “DIA modern art auxiliary fetes artist Shirin Neshat,” The Detroit News, April 9, 2013.

“Iranian American artist Shirin Neshat mid-career retrospective opens at Detroit Institute of Arts,” artdaily.org, April 8, 2013.

Choi, Andy. “Iranian American artist featured in new exhibition at DIA,” ABC Action News wxyz.com, April 5, 2013.

“DIA presents work of Iranian-American artist Shirin Neshat,” The Oakland Press, April 5, 2013.

Green, Tyler. “The Modern Art Notes Podcast: Shirin Neshat,” Artinfo, April 4, 2013.

Neshat,” The Brooklyn Rail, October 2012.

Neshat, Shirin. “Mohsen Namjoo,” Bomb, Spring 2012, p. 8, 82–87.

Bondoc, Sarah. “SEE // Monochrome Picasso, American Politics, and Affordable Art,” Artlog, October 2012.

Kolesnikov-Jessop, Sonia. “Shirin Neshat Explores Disappearance of Laos Traditions,” Artinfo.com, October 29, 2012.

“Hot and Getting Hotter: Islamic Contemporary on the Block at Christie’s Dubai,” Artinfo.com, October 23, 2012.

Sutton, Benjamin. “Shirin Neshat at Aperture: On the Arab Spring and Her New Project With Natalie Portman,” Artinfo, May 2, 2012.

“Shirin Neshat: Games of Desire Opens at Art Plural Gallery in Singapore,” Artdaily.org, October 31, 2012.

Elkamel, Sara. “Shirin Neshat: A nomad between poetics and politics,” Ahram.org, November 18, 2012.

Russeth, Andrew, Michael H. Miller and Dan Duray. “8 Things to Do in New York’s Art World Before Jan.16,” observer.com, Tuesday, January 10, 2012.

Devine, Erin Courtney. “Shirin Neshat: The The Book of Kings and OverRuled,” newyorkarts.net, February 2012.

Green, Tyler. “The MAN Podcast: Shirin Neshat,” Modern Art Notes, January 19, 2012.

“From Math Teacher to Adult Film Extra, The Unexpected Early Jobs of 30 Art Stars,” Artinfo, April 8, 2013.

Stryker, Mark. “Iranian-American artist Shirin Neshat’s beautiful, visual language featured in DIA exhibition,” Detroit Free Press, April 4, 2013.

Slenske, Michael. “Homeland,” W, April 2013, p. 102.

“Art X Style: Shirin Neshat for StyleLikeU. com,” March 2013.

“DIA Presents Artist Shirin Neshat Exhibition,” D Business, February 14, 2013.

2012

Wyma, Chloe. “22 Questions for Shirin Neshat,” ArtInfo, February 6, 2012.

“Shirin Neshat: The Book of Kings,” artlog. com, January 2012.

Adler, Alexander. “The Weight of Neshat,” The Huffington Post, January 20, 2012.

Brooks, Courtney. “Iranian-American Artist Channels Arab Spring In New Exhibition,” rferl.org, January 17, 2012.

Aziz, Eiman. “Shirin Neshat,” Whitewall, Summer 2012, p. 68–73.

Carmichael, Elisa. “Snapshot: 12 Photographs to follow in 2012,” Tasj flash, 2012 photography issue, p. 14–20.

Mazzaschi, Andrew. “Visibility and Visuality: Reframing Gender in the Middle East, North Africa, and Their Diasporas,” Signs Journal, October 2012.

“Shirin Neshat,” Pen Plus with New Attitude, May 17, 2012, p. 28–29.

Kennedy, Randy. “Leaving Polarization at the Door,” The New York Times, September 26, 2012.

Sert, Aysegul. “Taking Risks in Art and Politics,” The New York Times, November 27, 2012.

Cotter, Holland. “Here’s Looking at You, Conceptualism,” The New York Times, September 6, 2012.

Finkel, Jori. “LACMA buys seven works, led by Raushenberg and Sullivan,” Los Angeles Times, April 23, 2012.

Quattrone, Raffaele. “Shirin Neshat: the poetry of revolutions,” Equipeco, 2012.

Gerber Klein, Michèle. “A Profile of Shirin

2011

185

“The Power 100,” Art Review, November 2011, p. 150.

Hassan, Sarah. “The Mask & The Mirror at Leila Heller,” ARTWRIT, December 2011.

Saad, Shirine. “Exodus,” City Magazine, 2011.

Bertolot, Lana. “Capturing the Imagination’s Uprising,” Wall Street Journal, November 12-13, 2011, 24.

McSherry, Siofra. “Women Without Men,” This is Tomorrow, 2011.

Rosenberg, Karen. “The Mask and the Mirror,” The New York Times, December 15, 2011.

Miller, Michael H. “Highlights from this Year’s Performance Art Biennial” The New York Observer, November 21, 2011, p 4.

Elena, Rossi. “Art and Incommunicability Between Cultures,” Cura, 2011.

2010

2009

In America, November 2009, p. 121–129.

Chang, Chris. “Hot Property/Women Without Men,” Film Comment, November/ December, 2009, p. 6.

Ex, Nicole. “Vroumen Zonder Mannen,” Hollands Diep, November/December 2009, p.108–114.

Papanika, Artemis. “Neshat Senza Shah,” October 2009, p. 3.

Steele, Francesca. “Women Without Men,” Times, UK, October 29, 2009.

Weissberg, Jay. “Women Without Men,” Variety, September 12, 2009.

Fainaru, Dan. “Women Without Men,” Screen Daily, September 12, 2009.

“In Conversation: Shirin Neshat with Carol Becker & Phong Bui,” The Brooklyn Rail, September 2009, p. 20–23.

Sheilds, Jody. “Shirin Neshat: Portrait of a visual poet,” Vogue Italia, January 2009.

Louie, Elaine. “A Minimalist Loft, Accessorized Like Its Owner,” New York Times, January 28, 2009.

Enright, Robert and Meeka Walsh. “Every Frame a Photograph,” Border Crossings, Vol. 28, No. 1, Issue No. 109, 2009, p. 24–30 (cover).

Heartney, Eleanor. “Shirin Nehat: an Interview by Eleanor Heartney,” Art in America, June/July 2009, p.152–159.

“Joutes poétiques du désir amoureux,” Arts Libre, Supplément a La Belgique, No. 28, Semaine du 18 au septembre 2009, p. 2–3.

Bertucci, Linda. “Shirin Neshat, Women Without Men,” Flash Art, October 2010, p. 96–98.

Belcove, Julie L. “Girl’s Club,” W, February 2010.

Dietrich, Joy. “Asked and Answered: Shirin Neshat,” New York Times Blog, May 14, 2010.

Collins, Lauren. “A Moving Picture,” The New Yorker Blog, April 29, 2010.

Ferren, Andrew. “Art Takes Root in Fertile Soil in Spain,” New York Times, February 28, 2010.

Holden, Stephen. “In 1953 Iran, Sisterhood Sought During a Coup,” New York Times, May 14, 2010.

Bloom, Livia. “Shirin Neshat, From Gallery to Garden,” Filmmaker, Winter 2010, p. 8–10.

Schwarzbaum, Lisa. “Women Without Men,” Entertainment Weekly, May 21, 2010.

Lafont, Isabel. “Una artista entre dos mundos,” El Pais.com, March 3, 2010.

“The Dreamlife of Angels,” The Economist, May 14, 2010.

Sand, Olivia. “Shirin Neshat,” Asian Art, March 2010.

“Shirin Neshat,” ArtSlope, May 5, 2010.

Miller, Iain. “For Iranian artists, being silent is like taking the side of demon,” The Art Newspaper/Art Basel Daily Edition, June 18–20, 2010, p. 4.

Esman, Abigail R. “Focusing on Iran,” Art + Auction, February 2010, p. 54–59.

Romney, Jonathan. “World Of Women”, Art Review, February, 2010, p. 46–47.

Aspden, Peter. “Artists have never been free,” Financial Times, May 22–23, p. 9.

Rothkopf, Joshua. “Women Without Men,” Time Out New York, p. 59.

2008

“Best of 2009 Film,” Artforum, Selected by Chrissie Iles, December 2009, p. 48.

Pollack, Barbara. “Neshat’s Coup,” ARTnews, December 2009, p. 30.

Duponchelle, Valerie. “Shirin Neshat, la voix de L’Iran en exil,” Le Figaro, October 8, 2009, pg. 32.

Orden, Erica. “Snap Shot of a Song,” Modern Painters, November 2009, p. 28–30.

Genocchio, Benjamin. “Import/Export,” Art 186

Wilkin, Karen. “At the Galleries,” The Hudson Review, Summer 2008, p. 359–365. “‘Munis’ & ‘Faezeh,’” Exposure, Spring 2008, p. 52–53.

“Work in Progress: Clean Slate,” V Magazine, Winter 2008/09, p. 54.

“Shirin Neshat: Haji,” Lettre International, 81, Summer 2008, p. 22.

“The Shadow of the Heaven: Shirin Neshat Feature Film Women Without Men,” Vision Magazine, May 2008, p. 215.

“Cathy Lebowitz interviews Josefina Ayerza,” lacanian ink, No. 31, p. 166.

Esman, Abigail. “Leaps of Faith,” Art + Auction, May 2008, p. 165.

Schwerfel, Heinz Peter. “35mm Kunst,” Monopol, February 2007, p. 42–46.

Smith, Terry. “Coda: Canans and Contemporaneity,” Partisan Canons, Duke University Press, 2007, p. 322.

Wu, Chin-Tao. “Worlds Apart: Problems of Interpreting Globalized Art,” Third Text, November 2007, p. 728.

Kontova, Helena. “Marina Abramovic, Vanessa Beecroft, Shirin Neshat: Modern Nomads,” Flash Art, July/September, 2007, p. 102–107.

Gielen, Denis. Atlas of Contemporary Art For Use By Everyone, Musée des Arts Contemporains au Grand-Hornu, Belgium, 2007.

Jays, David. “Edge of the Eye: Artist Shirin Neshat would suffocate without movement,” Dance Gazette, 2007 Issue 1, p. 17.

Ball-Lechgar, Lisa. “Shirin Neshat: Seizing the Moment,” Canvas, October 2007, p.

150–161.

El-Zein, Roula. “The auction Trilogy: Art Under the Hammer this October,” Canvas, 2007, p. 58–75.

Maerkle, Andrew. “Roundup: Exchange Place,” ArtAsiaPacific, Winter 2007, p. 58.

Clarke, Cath. “The Stranger: Shirin Neshat,” Art Review, January 2008, p. 22.

Dupuis, Isabelle. “Shirin Neshat,” Flash Art, March 2008, p. 132.

“Shirin Neshat,” 50 Woman Artists You Should Know, Prestel, London, p.152–155.

“Shirin Neshat,” Art Actuel, March 2008, p. 34–35.

“Shirin Neshat,” Arte Contemporanea: Cinque, Mondadori, 2008.

“Shirin Neshat,” Arte Contemporanea: Sei, Mondadori, 2008.

Wilk, Deborah. “Veil of Tears,” Time Out New York, Issue 642, p. 63.

Perloff, Stephen. “Who’s hot and who’s not,” American Photo, January/February 2008, p.47.

Young, Paul. “Black Box, White Cube,” Art + Auction, February 2008, p.125–130.

“The Auteur,” New York, January 21–28, p. 108.

Soares, Filomena. “Shirin Neshat,” Flash Art, January 2008, p. 156.

Im Dialog…, Paedagogical-Institut, 2008, p. 34.

“Shirin Neshat,” Eyemazing Dubai, Special Issue, 2008, p. 69.

Galligan, Gregory. “Architecture in Script: From Without Boundary to Archive Fever,” ArtAsiaPacific, May/June 2008, p. 122–129.

Yoruker, Seda. “Cultural Transition in Shirin Neshat’s Art,” RES Art World/World Art, No: 2, May 2008, p. 58–65.

Rounthwaite, Adair. “Veiled Subjects: Shirin Neshat and Non-liberatory Agency,” Journal of Visual Culture, Vol. 7, No. 2, August 2008.

Crow, Kelly. “Art’s New Oasis,” Wall Street Journal, November 14, 2008, (cover story) Weekend Journal, p. W1–W5.

Rasteger, Kamran. “Original Neshat,” Tank, Volume 5, Issue 5, 2008.

“Christiane Amanpour/Jehane Noujaim,” Tar Magazine, Fall 2008, Issue 1, p. 204–211.

2007

2006

Nouri, Tamara. “Shirin Neshat,” Skin: Fashion Art Design, 2007, p. 14–26.

Collins, Lauren. “Voice of the Veil,” New Yorker, October 22, 2007, p. 86–92.

187

Levintas, Andreas. “Home Truths,” Modern Painters, May 2006, p. 88–93.

Yablonsky, Linda. “Hollywood’s New Wave,” ARTnews, December 2006, p. 112–117.

Bayliss, Sarah H. “East Meets West Meets East,” ARTnews, November 2006, p. 162.

Nouri, Tamara. “Shirin Neshat,” Skin, Issue #00, p. 14–26 (cover).

“C is For Collaboration,” Vogue Girl (Korea).

Benson, Heidi. “Iranian-born artist Neshat wins Gish Prize,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 20, 2006, p. 1-2.

Sand, Olivia. “Shirin Neshat,” Asian Art, September 2006, p. 2.

“Lectores y Lecturas: Readers and Readings,” Exit No. 23, Fall 2006, p. 170, ill. p. 40.

Qusibaty, Olivia. “Interview with Shirin Neshat,” Art iT, Summer/Fall 2006.

ArtReview, September 2005, p. 96–99.

Diez, Renato. “Art Basel,” Arte, September 2005, p. 86–87.

“Shirin Neshat,” Tema Celeste, September/ October 2005, p. 109.

Schedlmayer, Nina. “Entschleierung,” Montag, April 11, 2005.

Grabher, Ariane. “Geschichten auf der Suche nach Identitat,” Observer, May 2005 (German).

“Some Stories,” Crossing Cultures, August 2005 (German).

“Shirin Neshat,” Art Actuel, May/June 2005, p. 108–9.

Valentini, Marina. “Shirin Neshat,” Drome, March 2005, p.20–21.

“Islam,” Wespennest, Nummer 138, 2005, Shirin Neshat cover. Dalal, Pradeep. “Thoughts in Exile: Shirin Neshat,” Ego, Winter 2005, p. 47–53.

Mendoza, Angel. “Opresion: mas alla de fundamentalismos,” El Universal (Mexico City). January 21, 2005, p. 1.

Neshat, Shirin. “Great Underrated Artists,” ARTnews (article written by Shirin Neshat on artist YZ Kami). January 2005, p. 109.

Lekay, John. “Shirin Neshat: Interview,” Heyoka Magazine, Vol. 4, Spring/Summer 2006, ills.

Peget, Lucille. “Shirin Neshat, Hybris,” Hors D’Oeuvre, No. 17, Feb/May 2006.

Visser, Hripsime. “Shirin Neshat,” Stedelijk Museum Bulletin, #1.

Hermansen, Tom. “Censureret,” Kultur Weekend, April 28, 2006, p. 4–6.

“Without Boundary: Seventeen Ways of Looking,” New Yorker, April 17, 2006, p. 13.

Green, Tyler. “MOMA Keeps the Walls Clean: Islamic Show Sans Politics,” New York Observer, April 3, 2006.

Conner, Nora Nolan. “Images of Islam: Pushing the Boundaries of Muslim Identity,” The L Magazine, March 15–28, 2006, p. 22–23.

“Shirin Neshat: Zarin,” Tema Celeste, March 2006, p.106.

Peget, Lucille. “Shirin Neshat, Hybris,” Hors D’Oeuvre, May 2006. p. 4.

Shattuck, Kathryn. “An Artistic Trek Across a Surreal Land of Sand and SelfDiscovery,” New York Times, March 9, 2006, E3.

“Core Collection,” Art Review, January/ February 2006, p. 17.

Gardellini, Lara. “Shirin Neshat,” Tema Celeste, January/February 2006, p. 86.

Guy-Nichols, Matthew. “Shirin Neshat at Barbara Gladstone,” Art in America, March 2006, p. 152, ill.

Yablonsky, Linda. “The Future of Art: Four Groundbreaking Artists Look Ahead,” Blackbook, March 2006, p. 92–95.

“Five Artists for 2005,” ArtAsiaPacific Almanac, 2005/2006, p. 20–21.

Avgikos, Jan. “Shirin Neshat,” Artforum, January 2006, p. 220–221.

2005

2004

“Shirin Neshat,” White Magazine, 2005.

Stevens, Mark. “Best Single Work: Shirin Neshat,” New York, December 19, 2005, p. 69.

“Shirin Neshat,” New Yorker, November 14, 2005, p. 23.

“Shirin Neshat,” Village Voice, November 9–15, 2005, p. 54.

Green, Tyler. “Trapped between two worlds,” Los Angeles Times, October 9, 2005.

Honigman, Ana Finel. “Against the Exotic,” 188

Thorson, Alice. “Women resisting repression,” The Kansas City Star, December 19, 2004.

McNamara, TJ. “Raw Power from the Shadows,” New Zealand Harold, September 1, 2004.

Byrt, Anthony. “Somewhere Between the West and Iran,” New Zealand Listener, September 11–17, 2004.

Reid, Graham. “Artist in Exile Lifts the Veil,” New Zealand Harold, August 25, 2004.

Halasa, Malu. “Faces of Change,” Time Magazine, May 2004.

Arditi, Fiamma. “Nel Giardino Incantato di Shirin Neshat,” La Stampa (Italy), November 27, p. 25.

Neshat, Shirin. “The female body has been carefully defined, controlled and concealed,” Guardian Unlimited, UK. April 22, 2004.

Wilkin, Karen. “The Search for Paradise on Dual Screens,” The Wall Street Journal, NY. February 4, 2004, p. 10.

Green, Tyler. “Shirin Neshat’s Tooba: The Garden and the Journey,” Modern Art Notes, June 6, 2003, p. 3–7.

“Shirin Neshat,” Paris Photo Magazine, No. 26/27, June – August 2003.

Tenaglia, Susan. “The power of the Veil: Shirin Neshat’s Iran,” World & I Magazine, December 2002, p. 96–103.

Satz, Aura. “Logic of the Birds – Artangel,” Tema Celeste 96, March/April 2003.

“Shirin Neshat, filmaakster,” www.vpro.nl, April 24, 2003.

Turner, Elisa. “Iranian artist’s work highlights fear and freedom,” Miami Herald, March 23, 2003.

“A Report of Shirin Neshat’s filim Mahdokht in Morocco,” Iran Newspaper, Tehran, August 2, 2004, p. 24.

“Shirin Neshat and a photo exhibition,” Iran Newspaper, Tehran, October 18, 2004, p. 23.

Safariford, Masoud. “Ebadi balanserer pa knivseggen,” Le Monde diplomatique, p. 1–24.

“Shirin Neshat,” Von Bonifatius bis Beuys.

September/October 2004, p. 72–73.

Slemmons, Rod. “Between Language and Perception,” Exit, No. 16, 2004, p. 48–49, 132.

Colon, Suzan. “Stellar Moms,” Working Mother, November 2004, New York, p. 52.

Barlow, Geraldine. “Turbulent,” Contemporary Visual Arts + Culture, December 2004 February 2004, p. 36–39, ill.

2003

2002

Riveroli, Julieta. “Atribuye Censura a Poder Expresivo,” Reforma, Mexico, June 5, 2003.

Vitali, Valentina. “Between Art and Cinema: A Conversation with Shirin Neshat,” N Paradoxa, Volume 12, 2003, p. 33–43.

Birbragher, Francine. “Shirin Neshat,” ARTNEXUS, No. 50 Vol. 2, p. 90–94.

Alhadeff, Gini. “Shirin Neshat,” Vogue Hommes International, Fall/Winter 2003 – 2004, p. 132–140.

Solís, Marisa. “Shirin Neshat’s Cinematic Pilgramage,” Juxtapoz Photo, Winter Special 2003, p. 30–35.

“Shirin Neshat,” Blind Spot Magazine, Issue 24, 2003.

“Tooba,” New York Times, November 28, 2003. p. E44.

Willis, Holly. “Crossing the Divide: The Cinema of Shirin Neshat,” Res Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 4.

“Shirin Neshat,” The Believer, August 2003. p.

95–105.

Fairbrother, Trevor. “Artist Families,” Family Ties: A Contemporary Perspective, Peabody Essex.

Sweitzer, Charlie. “Shirin Neshat: Trancending Disparate Cultures,” The Independent, July/August 2003, p. 19.

Vitali, Valentina. “Between Art and Cinema: A Conversation with Shirin Neshat,” N.Paradoxa, Vol. 12, 2003, p. 33–43.

189

Price, Stuart. “Don’t Miss,” The Independent, London, November 1, 2002.

Macdonald, Susan. “Artist in search of truth after the revolution,” The Times, October 26, 2002, p. 8 – 9 and section cover.

Bartz, Melanie. “Angels Do Exist,” Dimensions, Winter 2002–3.

Hasegawa, Yuko. Leonardo: Tenth Anniversary New York Digital Salon, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, Volume 35, Number 5, 2002.

Fleck, Robert. “Documenta 11. Citeva insemnari,” Balkon, Autumn 2002.

Time Out New York, October 17–24, 2002.

Valloire, Delphine. “Paradis Perdus,” Reperages, September 2002.

Heartney, Eleanor. “A 600-Hour Documenta,” Art in America, September 2002.

Thomas, Mary. “Passages,” Pittsburgh PostGazette, September 18, 2002.

Thomas, Mary. “Watson Festival,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 18, 2002.

Hoffman, Leslie. “Three Floors of Intruige,” September 5–12, 2002.

Shaw, Kurt. “Passages,” Pittsburgh PostGazette, September 8, 2002.

Shaw, Kurt. “Passages,” Pittsburgh TribuneReview, September 8, 2002.

Thomas, Mary. “Dangerous Ground,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 7, 2002.

Venkatasuban, Sharmila. “Moving Pictures,” Pittsburgh City Paper, September 4–11, 2002.

Hoover, Ted. Pittsburgh City Paper, August 28

Lyttelton, Celia. “Floating Worlds,” The Curator’s Egg, Volume 1.

Van Hoof, Marine. “A visages decouverts,” Vie des Arts, No. 185, p. 52–55.

Legrenzi, Suzanne. “Shirin Neshat, l’Arte nel Silenzio,” iO Donna.

Behnam, Susan. “De Osynliga Systrarna,” Bang, # 10.

Wizun, Maya. “Mekka informacji,” Gazeta Listopada, p. 23–29.

Rohleder, Anna. “Collecting Video Art,” Forbes.com.

Calvenzi, Giovanna. “Shirin Neshat,” Specchio, March 31.

Misfeldt, Af Mai, “Iransk inderlighed,” Berlingske Tidende, April 20.

Brodersen, Annette. “Bag sløret,” Kunst M.M., April 21.

Armand, Issabelle. “Shirin Neshat,” Connaissance des Arts, May. Nørlyng, Af Ole. “Sort og hvidt,” BerlingskeTidende, May 2.

Peers, Alexandra.“Art Journal,” The Wall Street Journal, May 21.

“The New York World,” The New York Observer, May 21.

Delgado, Jerome. “Les bassesses du monde, les gradeurs de l’art,” May 26, p.20.

Skarf, Shayna. “Shirin Neshat,” Time Out NY, May 31 – June 7.

Frimbois, Jean-Pierre. “A l’Ecoute face au Mur,” Art Actuel, May/June.

Nakamura, Marie-Pierre. “Shirin Neshat,” Art Actuel, May/June.

Trainor, James. “Shirin Neshat,” tema celeste, Summer.

Miller, Paul D. “bits and bytes,” Black Book, Summer.

Solomon, Deborah. “Romance of the Chador,” New York Times Sunday Magazine, March 25, 2001, p. 40–43.

Marefat, Mina. “Shirin Neshat,” Performance for the Planet, Summer.

Dannatt, Adrian. “Where madness is the greatest freedom,” The Art Newspaper, June.

Smith, Roberta. “As Chelsea Expands, a Host of Visions Rush In,” The New York Times, Friday, June 1.

“Shirin Neshat,” The New Yorker, June 11.

– September 4, 2002, Bickerton, Amy. “Passages, Works, Nothing isn’t nothing,” Pillbox, August 23, 2002.

Pinelli, Clotilde. “L’Identita di Shirin Neshat,” Titolo.

Blanchette, Manon. “Sound, Or The Inner Element In The Work Of Janet Cardiff, Shirin Neshat, and Bill Viola,” Espace, 58, Winter.

Sierra, Rafael. “La capacidad evocative de Irani Shirin Neshat,” Oaxaca de Juarez, Oaxaca, Mexico, March 2, 2002, p. 3.

Valencia, Paulina. “Shirin Neshat: Los Contrastes Del Mundo Musulman,” Oaxaca de Juarez, February 25, 2002, p. 3.

Bakel, Rogier an. “Chance Nach Dem Schock,” Vogue-Gesprach, January, p. 176–180.

“Shirin Neshat, from Pulse Series 2001,” NYArts, January, p. 33.

Lamarche, Bernard. “Success imprevu de Neshat au MAC,” Le Devoir, January 9, p. 8.

Delgado, Jerome. “Shirin Neshat, un vrai priviledge,” Le Presse, January 10, p. 2.

Wille, Von Simone. “Zuruckgehen, um zu verstehen,” International Ausgabe, January 14.

Arditi, Fiamma. “Poesie contro il chador,” La Stampa, January 27.

“Shirin Neshat, Musee d’ArtContemporain, Montreal,” Flash Art, January/February, p. 67.

Mazzoleni, Gian Emilio. “Shirin Neshat,” Artnet, February, p. 21–27.

“New Style Sacred Allegory,” Aperture, Spring, No. 166, p. 72–78.

Vincent, Stephen. “The Producers,” Art & Auction, June.

Grosenick, Uta and Burkhard Riemschneider. “Art Now: 137 Artists at the Rise of the New Millennium,” The Art Newspaper, June.

2001

Nejadmehr, Rasoul. “Den kvinnliga blickens hemlighet (“The Secret of the Female Gaze”),” Divan, 1–2.

Root, Deborah. “The Ambivalent Yearnings of Shirin Neshat,” Prefix Photo, Volume 2, Number 2, p. 48– 61.

Ross, Christine. “Shirin Neshat, Film, Video and Photo Works,” CV Photo, No. 55, p.23–30.

190

Milroy, Sarah. “An artist looks beyond the veil,” The Globe & Mail, October 4.

“Shirin Neshat leve le voile sur la realite des femmes,” Metro, October 5–8, p.16.

Lehmann, Henry. “A world apart,” The Gazette, October 6.

Delgado, Jerome. “Shirin Neshat - Un Islam poetique,” La Presse, October 6, p. D3.

Lamarche, Bernard. “Deregler les signes,” Le Devoir, October 6–7, p. D9.

Lamarche, Bernard. “Shirin Neshat,” Le Devoir, October 6–7, p. 5.

Mavirikakis, Nicolas. “Shirin Neshat, La voix humaine,” Voir, October 10, p. 60–61.

Blanchette, Josee. “Visite,” Le Devoir, October 12, p. B1.

Luscombe, Belinda. “Visions of an Orthodox Beauty,” Time, October 15.

Paiement, Genevieve. “Through the looking glass,” Mirror, October 18–24, 2001, p. 44.

Bourgault-Cote, Guillaume. “Images fortes,” Le Soleil, October 20, p. C13.

“Shirin Neshat,” Voir, October 24, p. 38.

Baillargeon, Stephane. “Poncer les poncifs,” Le Devoir, November 3–4, p. C1-2.

Nuevo, Frances. “Le voile de l’ignorance,” Le Journal de Montreal, November 17, p.

WE16.

Friede, Eva. “Behind the burqa,” The Gazette, November 20, p. D1–2.

Zabel, Igor. “Women in Black,” Art Journal, Winter, Volume 60, Number.4, p.16–25.

“Shirin Neshat,” Sculptors’ Society Ireland, November/December, p. 20.

Gioni, Massimiliano. “Speaking in Tongues,” Flash Art, November/December, p. 74–77.

Gagnon, Paulette. Le Journal du Musée d’Art Contemporain Montreal, October – December.

Marquis, Chantal. “La femme Islam,” Gazette des femmes, November/December, V. 23, No. 4, p. 42.

Pleau, Marcel. “Le femme qui devoile,” RG, December, No. 231, p. 30–31.

Liebmann, Lisa. “Shirin Nesshat,” ArtForum, December, p. 96.

Rimanelli, David. “Shirin Neshat, Possessed,” ArtForum, December, p. 110.

Baillargeon, Stephane. “Une belle saison,”

Armada, Alfonso. “Cîrculo de Fuego,” ABC, June 16.

Gioni, Massimiliano. “New York Cut Up,” Flash Art, June/July.

Streitfeld, L.P. “The Female Body is the Passage,” New York Arts, July/August.

Halara, Malu. “Shock of the New,” Hot Air Magazine, July/September.

Baillargeon, Stephane. “De Mies a Xi’an,” Le Devoir, August 25–26, p. C8-9.

Delgado, Jerome. “Photos puissantes,” La Presse, August 30, p. C4.

Mavirikakis, Nicolas. “Shirin Neshat,” Voir, September, p. 98.

Schwendener, Martha. “Shirin Neshat at Barbara Gladstone,” Artforum, September.

“Shirin Neshat at Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montreal,” Artforum, September.

Pollack, Barbara. “The New Look of Feminism,” ARTnews, September, cov. 3.

Swoboda, Victor. “Moliere’s props, van der Rohe’s vision,” September 1, p. S7.

Lachance, Dominique. “Cet automne dans nos musee,” Le Journal de Montreal, September 1, p. WE11.

Tousignant, Isa. “Clicking Tongues,” Hour, September 6–12, p. 50.

Lamarche, Bernard. “Quelqurs arrets strategiques sur l’image,” Le Devoir, September 9, p. D8.

Lamarche, Bernard. “L’artist est reapparue,” Le Devoir, September 19, p. B8.

Collard, Nathalie. “L’Islam de Shirin Neshat, New Yorkaise,” La Presse, September 25.

Conlogue, Ray. “Museum won’t show Arab art,” September 26, p. A5.

Gessell, Paul. “A tale of two museums,” The Ottawa Citizen, September 29, p. A3.

Lamarche, Bernard. “Femmes derriere le voile,” Le Devoir, September 29 – October 5, p. 3.

Derfel, Aaron. “Artist offers view of two worlds,” The Gazette, September 30.

Wallach, Amei. “Shirin Neshat: Islamic Counterpoints,” Art in America, October.

Tousignant, Zoe. “Veiled Emotions,” Hour, October 4–10, p. 33.

Crevier, Lyne. “Haute tension,” ICI, October 4–11, p. 36.

191

Ziegler, Philip. “Die Poesie der Revolution,” Frame, March/April.

Müller, Silke. “Aufbruch in die islamische Moderne,” ART, Das Kunstmagazin, April.

Schjeldahl, Peter. “Pragmatic Hedonism,” The New Yorker, April 3.

Hohmeyer, Jürgen. “Fluch der Teufelin Suleika,” Der Spiegel, April 4.

Solomon, Deborah. “A Roll Call of Fresh Names and Faces,” The New YorkTimes, April 16.

Christmann, Holger. “Manner kampfen, Frauen paddeln davon,” Die Welt, April 19.

Siegel, Katy. “Biennal 2000,” Artforum, May. Dagnini Brey, Ilaria. “Scritto sul corpo,” Elle, May. Lammerse, Andre. “Limburgse musea kijen over de grens,” De Volkskrant, May 19.

Driel, Annevan. “Ze horen er helemaal bij,” De Volkskrant, May 25.

“Shirin Neshat,” Flash Art, Summer.

Kaplan, Cheryl. “Shirin Neshat,” Smock, Summer.

Blanchette, Manon. “Shirin Neshat, Carnegie International,” etc. Montreal, Summer.

Sladen, Mark. “Framed, Shirin Neshat,” The Art Magazine, Summer.

Arditi, Fiamma. “Done di Allah,” ARS, June.

Jeffrey, Moira. “A nation’s Soul Song,” Sunday Herald, June 13. van de Velde, Paola. “Reizen tussen de culturen,” De Telegraaf, June 14.

Cork, Richard. “From Manon to Mirren: our critics select the summer’s arts highlights,” The New York Times, June 16.

Searle, Adrian. “Hot sounds, cool art,” The Guardian, June 23.

Heyting, Lien. “Voorzichtig oorcontact,” Cultureel Supplement, June 30.

Sorkin, Jenni, “A conversation with Shirin Neshat,” Make, June/August 2000.

Thon, Ute. “Interview with Shirin Neshat,” Marie Claire, July.

Jones, Jonathan, “Split screens, divided lines,” Sight and Sound, July.

Gooch, Brad. “A Brilliant Mosaic,” Harper’s Bazaar, July.

Gleadell, Colin. “It pays to stuff,”

Le Devoir, December 5, p. B10.

Mavirikakis, Nicolas. “A Signaler,” Voir, December 12, p. 51.

Tousignant, Isa. “Seeking Perspective,” Hour, December 20–26, p. 29.

Crevier, Lyne. “Tout cool,” ICI, December 20 – January 2.

Krishtalka, Sholem. “Big guns and small fries,” Mirror, December 20 – January 2, p. 76.

Lepage, Jocelyne. “Art extreme,” La Presse, December 22, p. D15.

Mavirikakis, Nicolas. “Arts Visuels,” Voir, December 26, p.18.

Delgado, Jerome. “RaphaelledeGroot,se nsibleetengagee,” LaPresse, December 29, p. D14.

Lamarche, Bernard. “Bilan buissonnier,” Le Devoir, December 29–30, p. D7.

2000

Danto, Arthur C. “Shirin Neshat,” Bomb Magazine, Issue 73, Fall 2000.

Malik, Amna. “The Poetics of the Veil,” Portfolio, issue #32.

Shafa, Saeed. Andisheh Monthly, issue #124.

Kaplan, Cheryl. “Opposition, Selection, Construction,” Smock.

Becker, Professor Dr. Wolfgang.

“Continental Shift at the Ludwig Forum for International Art in Aachen,” NY Arts, International Edition, Vol. 5, #6.

Enwezor, Okwui. “Shirin Neshat Soliloquy,” January.

Siegel, Katy. “1999 Carnegie International,” Artforum, January.

Kutner, Janet. “Between the past and the present,” The Dallas Morning News, January 3.

“Man and Space,” Flash Art, January/ February.

Cahmi, Leslie. “Lifting the Veil,” Art News, February.

Jodidio, Philip. “Shirin Neshat entre deux mondes,” Connaissance Des Arts, March.

Arditi, Farimmi. “Sotto il chador, un corpopoesia,” La Stampa, March 8.

Beausse, Pascal. “Shirin Neshat-Jérome De Noirmont,” Flash Art, March/April.

192

Birnbaum, Daniel. “Practice in theory,” Artforum, September.

“F: Female Trouble,” Esquire, September.

Zaya, Octavio. “Shirin Neshat,” Interview Magazine, September.

Alimanestianu, Irina. “Shirin Neshat,” Art Issues, September/October.

Gellatly, Andrew. “Just add water,” Frieze, September/October.

Jones, Ronald. “Sovereign Remedy,” Artforum, October.

Politi, Giancarlo. “The Venice Biennale,” Flash Art, October.

Wallach, Amei. “Striking a balance between Western and Islamic Values,” The New York Times, November 23.

Kastner, Jeffrey. “Shirin Neshat,” Art Text, November/January.

Blanchette, Manon. “Karlsruhe, Video cultures ou quelques exemples d’interrogation du regard,” Etc Montreal, December.

The Daily Telegraph, July 3.

MacCash, Doug. “New Developments,” The Times-Picayune, July 14.

“The week in two minutes, photography Shirin Neshat,” The Times, July 22.

“Shirin,” Scotland, September 4.

Bruce, Keith. “On the wings of our Angels,” The Herald, September 4.

Calas, Terrington. “Inside Photography,” The New Orleans Contemporary Art Review, September/October.

Payam – Ashena: a Persian Community Journal, October.

Casadio, Mariuccia. “Shirin Neshat,” Vogue Italia, October.

Leleu, Nathalie. “La Querelle des Images,” Parachute, October/December.

Tschumi, Bernard. “Best of 2000,” ArtForum, December.

1999

Miller, Paul. “Motion Picture: Shirin Neshat’s Turbulent,” Parkett, issue #54.

Neel, Alex. “Shirin Neshat: Turbulent,” Time Out New York, January 7.

Saltz, Jerry. “New Channels: Shirin Neshat & Doug Aitken,” Village Voice, January 12.

Smith, Valerie. “Reviews: Shirin Neshat,” New Art Examiner, April.

Glaser, Sheila. “Shirin Neshat’s Rapture at D’Amelio Terras,” Art & Auction, May. Schorr, Collier. “Turbulence and Rapture,” Harper’s Bazaar, May. Obejas, Achy. “Daughter of Iran,” Chicago Tribune, May 11.

Rowley, Alexandra. “Face Off,” Village Voice, June 8.

Pagel, David. “Opposites Attract Metaphors in Black-and-White Rapture,” Los Angeles Times, June 8.

Sirmans, Franklin. “Shirin Neshat, Rapture,” Time Out New York, June 17-20.

Danto, Arthur C. “Pas de Deux, en Mass: Shirin Neshat’s Rapture,” The Nation, June 28.

Camper, Fred. “Houses Divided,” Chicago Reader, July 9.

Rugoff, Ralph. “Global art reaches Santa Fe,” Financial Times, July 31-August 1.

Verzotti, Giorgio. “La Biennale delle culture emergenti,” Tema Celeste, July/September.

1998

193

Anderson, Geneva. “Fundamentale Gesichtspunkte: Ein Gesprach mit Shirin Neshat,” Neue Bildende Kunst, Intervista, Cover, Milan.

Goodman, Jonathan. “Poetic Justice: Shirin Neshat Defends the Faith,” World Art, issue#16.

“Identity,” Grand Street, New York, issue #62.

“Spin City: Christian Haye on the Istanbul, Johannesburg and Kwangju Biennale,” Frieze, issue #38.

Barragan, Paco. “Shirin Neshat: Women of Allah,” Metropolis, interview, Holland, No. 5.

Zabel, Igor. “Shirin Neshat,” Moscow Art Magazine, No. 19.

Martinez, Rosa. “Istanbul Biennale,” Flash Art, January.

“La Turbulencia Irani,” El Pais, Madrid, February 17.

Macri, Teresa. “Il Turbamento di Shirin Neshat,” Il Manifesto, Rome, February 22.

Piccoli, Cloe. “Le Ultime Donne,” La Repubblica delle Donne, March 31.

Kawachi, Taka. “Rising Arabic/Islamic female Artists in New York,” Composite,

inkt,” DeVolskrants, review of exhibition in Amsterdam, April.

De Vries, Marina. “Vrouwen van Allah zwijegen,” Het Parool, review of exhibition in Galerie Lumen Travo, Amsterdam, April.

Chaiklin, Amy. “Shirin Neshat: Recollection of a studio encounter,” NY Arts Magazine, April.

Ribalta, Jorge. “Diez fotografas muestran sus autorretratos falsos en el Macba,” La Vanguardia, review of exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Barcelona, April.

Kuhn, Nicola. “Sprung aus der Schublade,” Der Tagesspiegel, review of exhibiton at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany, May. Gray, Lori. “New Art Blows into the Windy City,” Art + Auction, May. “Berliner Ausstellungsstreit: Wem gehort die Moderne?” Die Welt, review of exhibition at Hausder Kulturen der Welt, May. Paldi, Livia. “Allah asszonyai,” Balkon, interview, budapest, Hungary, June.

The New Yorker, June.

Zado, Julia. “An Extreme Case of Faith,” View on Colour, Issue 11, October.

Hoholt, Stine. “Women in Iran,” Katalog: Journal of Photography & Video, Denmark, October.

Sirmans, Franklin. “Johannesburg Biennale,” Flash Art, October.

Suner, Maite. “Iran Miradas sin voz,” Marie Claire, Spain, October.

Bertucci, Lina. “Shirin Neshat,” Flash Art, interview, November/December.

April. Heartney, Eleanor. “Report from Istanbul: In the Realm of the Senses,” Art in America, April.

Falces, Manuel. “Nueve formas de uso radical de la camera,” El Pais, Madrid, April 2. Sierra, Rafael. “La mujer islamica ha sideo traicionada por la Revolucion,” El Mundo, interview, April 2.

“Three Decades Inside Art,” Flash Art, Summer.

Zaya, Octavio, Igor Zabel and Pilar Gonzalo.

“Shirin Neshat,” ARTEPARTE, Madrid, June/July.

Zimmer, William. “Two Ways to Tell a Story Very Carefully,” The New York Times, June 7.

Cork, Richard. “Diana-The never ending picture show,” Times Magazine, London, August 29.

Attias, Laurie. “Shirin Neshat,” Artnews, at La Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, November.

Turner, Jonathan. “Portraits of a Lady,” Artnews, November.

Cotter, Holland. “Shirin Neshat,” The New York Times, November 27.

Greenberg, Sarah. “Women’s Words,” The Art Newspaper, review of exhibition at Tate Gallery, December.

F. Sa. S. “Le turbolente preghiere di Shirin,” Domenica, Milan, December 6.

Kent, Sarah. “Shirin Neshat,” Time Out London, December 12.

1997

Kleinschmidt, Klaus. “Shirin Neshat,” Spiegel Das KulturMagazin EXTRA Border/Lines, Toronto, Canada, February.

“Lo Visible Y Lo Invisible,” ABC Cultural, Madrid, February.

“La Presencia Feminista,” Diario 16, February.

Intervista, Italy, February.

“Aufdecken oder verratseln,” Kulturgemeinschaft des DGB, review of Photo & Text exhibition, February.

Mania, Patrizia. “Dietro il Chador,” Opening, interview, Spring.

“Iranian Souls,” The Art Newspaper, March.

LTB. “Iraans oogwit beschilderd met

1996

194

Lemme, Maria Tiziana. “Femminismo e chador, le donne di Allah,” Il Mattino, Naples, Italy, February.

Baratta, Enzo. “Donne di Allah, vittime dell’Islam,” Il Giornale di Napoli, Naples, Italy, February.

Macri, Teresa. “Le Donne Svelate,” Il Manifesto Extra, February.

Zaya, Octavio. “Armed and Dangerous,” Arude, Spring.

Reid, Calvin. “Review,” Art In America, March.

1994

Messitte, Abby. “Shirin Neshat,” TART Magazine, New York, Summer.

Nowick, Shay. “Shirin Neshat,” Juxtapoz, Summer.

“Ein Medium Gewinnet Seine Freiheit,” Art das Kunstmagazin, Germany, June.

Kasam, Viviana. “L’Islam sulla pelle,” IO Donna, Italy, June.

“Take it to the bridge,” New York Magazine, July 15.

Smith, Roberta. “In Tomblike Vaults, the Future Flickers and Hums,” The New York Times, August 9.

Zaya, Octavio. “Q+A: Shirin Neshat,” Creative Camera, London, October/ November.

Kirker, Anne. “Politics of Spirituality,” Photofile, interview, Sydney, Australia, November.

1995

Zaya, Octavio. “Neshat: Quiero contarel complejo mundo de la mujer musulmana,” DIARIO 16, Spain.

Turner, Jonathan. “Biennial Blues,” Artnews, Summer.

Raynor, Vivien. “From Around the World, With Sparkle, on Human Scale,” The New York Times, September 17.

Budney, Jen and Shannon Pultz. “A Centenarian Biennal,” Flash Art, October.

Levin, Kim. “Choices,” Village Voice, exhibition at Annina Nosei, October 24.

Karmel, Pepe. The New York Times, October 28.

“Allah in Kadinlari,” Hurriyet, review of Istanbul Biennal, Istanbul, Turkey, November. Koynucuoglu, Emre. “Sterotip’ in Otesindeki Dogulu Kadin,” Cumhuriyet, review of Neshat’s work in Istanbul Biennal, November.

“Istanbul Biennal,” Cumhuriyet, Istanbul, Turkey, November 9.

Santing, Froukje. “Istanbul Biennal,” NRC Handersblad, Amsterdam, November 27.

Schwendener, Martha. New Art Examiner, December.

Schwabsky, Barry. Artforum, review, December.

1993

195

Zaya, Octavio. Flash Art, December.

Zaya, Octavio. “Shirin Neshat and the Women of Allah,” Purple Prose#7, interview, France.

Zaya, Octavio. “Shirin Neshat and the Women of Allah,” ATLANTICA, Spain.

Wilson, William. “Through the Lens of Iranian Culture,” Los Angeles Times.

Leddy, Pat. “Present and Past,” Art Week.

Gazanov, Mathis. “Beneath the Veil,” Los Angeles Times.

Tanaka, Rodney. “Artists explore identity in new Fowler exhibit,” Summer Bruin, UCLA publication.

Donohue, Marlena. “Picturing Sensitivity,” The Los Angeles Daily Breeze.

Mitchell, Emily. “People,” Time Magazine.

“Iranian Artist: Rethinking Veiling,” Iran Times.

Henneberger, Melinda. “Redefining Immigrant In The Bronx,” The New York Times.

Wallach, Amei. “Rejecting The Melting Pot: My Canvas, My Self, Shirin Neshat,” New York Newsday.

Sugarman, Raphael. “Art Across Cultures,” Daily News.

Bobby, Kate. “Exploring the Secrets of the Veil,” New Directions For Women, interview.

196

Suggested Reading

197

Books Slavs and Tatars, Molla Nasreddin: the magazine that would've, could've, should've, JRP |Ringier, Zürich, 2011

Collateral Event for the 55th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, 1 June - 24 November, 2013

M. Kemper, S. Conermann, The Heritage of Soviet Oriental Studies, London, Routledge, 2011

Slavs and Tatars Not Moscow Not Mecca at the Secession, Vienna, 3 May–17 June, 2012

M. Abramovic, A. C. Danto, Shirin Neshat, New York: Rizzoli, 2010

Selected Essays, Articles and Conferences A. Sert, Taking Risks in Art and Politics, The New York Times, 27 November, 2012

J. Sans, O. Wick, Farhad Moshiri, Turenne Editions, Paris, 2010

B. Blair, Who Wrote Azerbaijan's Most Famous Novel - Ali and Nino? Azerbaijan International, Baku, 2011

Slavs and Tatars, Love Me, Love Me Not: Changed Names, Onestar Press, Paris, 2010

C. Kino, Putting New Faces on Islamic History, New York Times, 23 May 2010

H. Amirsadeghi, Different Sames: New Perspectives in Contemporary Iranian Art, Thames & Hudson, London, 2009

C. Perrella, Kutluğ Ataman Mesopotamian Dramaturgies, Electa, Rome, 2010

Slavs and Tatars, Kidnapping Mountains, Book Works, London, 2009

F. Birbragher, Shirin Neshat, Art Nexus 2, no. 50, September – November 2003, p.90

K. Barkey, M. Von Hagen (eds.), After Empire: Multiethnic Societies and Nation-building: The Soviet Union And The Russian, Ottoman, and Habsburg Empires, Westview Press, Seattle, 1997

A. Midgette, An Epic Journey in Images and Sound, New York Times, 2002 A. Danto, Shirin Neshat, Bomb no. 73, 2000, p.67

S.J. Shaw, Between Old and New: The Ottoman Empire under Sultan Selim III, 1789-1807, Harvard University Press, Boston, 1971

E. Siegel, The Mullah and the Commissar: Mirza Jalil Muhammadquluzada in the Land of the Soviets, Middle East Studies Association, 2000

K. Said, Ali and Nino: A Love Story, Tal Verlag, Vienna, 1937

E. Siegel, Soviet Georgian Historiography of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution, Society for Iranian Studies Conference, 2000

Exhibition Catalogues R. Hart, S. Babaie, N. Princenthal, Shirin Neshat, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, 7 April – 7 July, 2013

A. Kasravi, The Turkish Language in Iran (translated from Arabic), Journal of Azerbaijani Studies, vol. 1, no. 2, 1998

Exhibition Catalogue, Love Me, Love Me Not: Contemporary Art from Azerbaijan and its Neighbours,

E. Siegel, Mulla Nasr od-Din and the Iranian Constitutionalist Revolution, 1906–1907, Baku, 1992

198

Exhibition History

199

Solo Exhibitions

2014

Shirin Neshat: Afterwards, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar Shirin Neshat, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul Shirin Neshat, Mücsarnok Kunsthalle, Budapest Shirin Neshat: Our House Is on Fire, Rauschenberg Foundation Project Space, New York

Shirin Neshat, National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik

2007

Shirin Neshat: Zarin, Galeria Filomena Soares, Lisbon

2006

Shirin Neshat: Written on the Body, Espacio Fundación Telefónica, Madrid Shirin Neshat, Dirimart, Istanbul The Book of Kings, Faurschou Foundation, Beijing Shirin Neshat, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan

Shirin Neshat: Secret of the Veil, Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo, Finland Shirin Neshat, Stedelijk Museum CS, Amsterdam Shirin Nehsat, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria Shirin Neshat, Lumen Travo Gallery, Amsterdam

2013

2012

2011

2009

Games of Desire, Gladstone Gallery, Brussels Games of Desire, Galerie Jerome de Noirmont, Paris Women Without Men, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens [traveled to: Kulturhuset, Stockholm] Shirin Neshat: Turbulent, Galleri Faurschou, Copenhagen

2008

2005

Shirin Neshat – Possessed, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich Zarin, Gladstone Gallery, New York Shirin Neshat, Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum Für Gegenwart, Berlin Shirin Neshat: La úlitma palabra/Last Word, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Leon, Spain [traveled to: Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain] Shirin Neshat: The 6th Hiroshima Art Prize, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan

Women Without Men, Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy Shirin Neshat: Soliloquy, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, England Shirin Neshat, La Fabrica Galeria, Madrid

Games of Desire, Art Plural Gallery, Singapore The Book of Kings, Gladstone Gallery, New York The Book of Kings, Galerie Jerome de Noirmont, Paris

2010

2004

Through the Eyes of Shirin Neshat, Auckland Art Gallery, Toi o Támaki, New Zealand

2003

Shirin Neshat, Gladstone Gallery, New York Shirin Neshat: Women Without Men, Newcomb Art Gallery, Tulane University, New Orleans Shirin Neshat: New Works, Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont, Paris Women Without Men, ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark [traveled to: Gallery Faurschou, Beijing]

2002

200

Tooba, Asia Society Museum, New York Shirin Neshat, Galeria Filomena Soares, Lisbon Shirin Neshat, Lumen Travo Gallery, Amsterdam Shirin Neshat, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City Shirin Neshat, Tensta Konstall, Spanga, Sweden Shirin Neshat: Rapture, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain Shirin Neshat, Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark Shirin Neshat, Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy Shirin Neshat, Centre for Contemporary Art,

2001

Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw Shirin Neshat: Entre Extremos, Centro Cultural Banco di Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Shirin Neshat, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota Passage, Regina Gouger Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

1998

Shirin Neshat, Tate Gallery, London Shirin Neshat: Turbulent, Whitney Museum of American Art, Philip Morris Branch, New York

Shirin Neshat: Women of Allah, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris

Shirin Neshat, Thomas Rehbein Gallery, Cologne, Germany

ARCO, Marco Noire Contemporary Arts, Madrid

Musei Bagatti Valescchi, Milan, Italy

1997 Shirin Neshat: Photographs/Video Stills, Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco, California

Shirin Neshat, Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Shirin Neshat, Galleria Arte Moderna, Bolgna, Italy

Shirin Neshat, Annina Nosei Gallery, New York

Shirin Neshat, Lumen Travo, Amsterdam

Shirin Neshat: Women of Allah, Artspeak Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia

1996 Shirin Neshat, Centre d’art de Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland

Shirin Neshat: Women of Allah, Marco Noire Contemporary Arts, Turin, Italy

Shirin Neshat, Lucio Amelio Gallery, Naples, Italy

Shirin Neshat, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, California

1995 Shirin Neshat: Photography, Annina Nosei Gallery, New York

Shirin Neshat, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montreal [traveled to: Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas; Miami Art Museum, Miami] Shirin Neshat, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin Shirin Neshat, Patrick Painter, Santa Monica, California Shirin Neshat, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York Shirin Neshat, Kanazawa Contemporary Art Museum, Kanazawa, Japan Shirin Neshat, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany

2000

Shirin Neshat, Serpentine Gallery, London Shirin Neshat – Matrix 187: Turbulent, Matrix Gallery, Berkley Art Museum, Berkley, California

Shirin Neshat: Recent Photographic Work, Pitti Discovery, Florence, Italy

Shirin Neshat, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna

Shirin Neshat, Galleria Lia Rumma, Milan, Italy

Concentrations 34: Shirin Neshat, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas

Shirin Neshat: Two Installations, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio 1999

de Noirmont, Paris Shirin Neshat, Henie Onstad Kuntstenter, Høvikodden, Norway Shirin Neshat, Tensta Konsthall, Spanga, Sweden

Shirin Neshat, Malmö Konsthall, Malmö, Sweden FOCUS: Shirin Neshat, Rapture, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Shirin Neshat: Rapture, Patrick Painter Gallery, Los Angeles Shirin Neshat: Rapture, D’Amelio Terras, New York Shirin Neshat: Rapture, Galerie Jerôme 201

1993

Unveiling, Franklin Furnace, New York

Group Exhibitions

2014

The future (looking forward), La Biennale de Montréal, Montreal, Canada

2013

2012

Manifest Intention. Drawing In All Its Forms, Castello di Rivoli, Turin Time Present. Photography from the Deutsche Bank Collection, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore Songs o f Loss and Songs of Love, Gwangju Museum of Art, South Korea Look at Me: Portraiture from Manet to the Present, Lelia Heller Gallery, New York I Look at Things… Work From the Collection, Faurschou Foundation, Copenhagen CONFLICT: Art and War, Contemporary Art Society, London Shirin Neshat: Don’t Ask Where the Love is Gone, Moscow Photobiennale 2014, Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow Pionniéres: Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Marlene Dumas, Tracey Emin, Roni Horn, Shirin Neshat, Cindy Sherman, Nancy Spero, Niki De Saint Phalle, CAB Art Center, Brussels ToledoContemporánea, Centro Cultural San Marcos, Toledo

2011

My Third Land, Frankendael Foundation, Amsterdam Collection Exhibition II, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa Come Together: Surviving Sandy, Year 1, Industry City, New York The Ghost of Architecture: Recent and Promised Gifts, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle SKIN, an artistic atlas, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Legacy: Photographs from the Emily Fisher Landau Collection, the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut Displaced Visions Emigré Photographers of the 20th Century, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem All You Need is Love, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo

Brazil Every Exit is an Entrance: 30 Years of Exit Art, Exit Art, New York We the People, Rauschenberg Foundation, New York The Fertile Crescent: Gender, Art, and Society, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ Half the Sky: Visualized, The University of Connecticut, Contemporary Art Galleries, Storrs, Connecticut Performing for the Camera, Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, Arizona Beyond Conventions: Reimagining Human Rights in a Time of Change, Ford Foundation, New York In The Name of the Artists, American Contemporary Art from the Astrup Fearnley Collection, Bienal Pavilion, São Paulo, Brazil TRA. Edge of Becoming, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, Italy You Are Not Alone, Fundacio Joan Miro, Barcelona, Spain Big Brother, L’artiste face aux tyrans, Palais des Arts, Dinard, France Morceaux exquis, EDF Foundation, Paris I Know Something About Love, Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London

2010

Calder to Warhol: Introducing the Fisher Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco

ARTE Y POLITICA: CONFLICTOS Y DISYUNTIVAS, Museo de Arte de Culiacán, Culiacán, Mexico

Exposure: Photos from the Vault, Denver Art Museum, Denver Disquieted, Portland Art Museum, Portland Diabolique, Galerie de Universite du Quebec A Montreal, Montreal 2009

Bad Habits, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York BAROCK, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina, Naples, Italy

Being in the World: Selections from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection, Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami Brune/Blonde, Cinémathèque françoise, Paris

OC Collects, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach Voice of Images, Palazzo Grassi-Françoise Pinault Foundation Pulso Iranioano. Oi Futuro, Belo Horizonte, 202

2006

Bad Habits, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York Shirin Neshat e Shoja Azari, Noire Contemporary Art, Turin, Italy The Female Gaze: Women Look at Women, Cheim & Read, New York Iran Inside Out, Chelsea Art Museum, New York Elles@centrepompidou, Centre Pompidou, Paris Photographic Power and Violence, Disease, and Death Photographed, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland

2008

2007

Shirin Neshat: Women Without Men, Prospect.1: New Orleans International Biennial, Newcomb Art Gallery, New Orleans Me Ophelia, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Typical: Cliches of Jews and Others, The Jewish Museum of Vienna, Vienna, Austria [traveled to: The Jewish Museum Berlin, Berlin Germany; Spertus Museum, Chicago (2009)] Erranti / Wanderers in Contemporary Video Art, Museo Civico, Commune di Siena, Siena, Italy Paixóns Privadas, Visións Públicas Collections D.O. Galicia, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Vigo, Vigo, Spain

2005

2004

Kapital, Kent Gallery, New York Body Face Soul – The Position of Women from the 16th to 21st Century, Leopold Museum, Vienna, Austria Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection, Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Helsinki A Selected State, Emily Tsingou Gallery, London Reverence, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, New York Figure it Out, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, New York Without Boundary: 17 Ways of Looking, Museum of Modern Art, New York Translation, Palais de Tokyo, Paris Remapped Realities, Eyebeam Art and Technology Center, New York Some Stories, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna About Beauty, House of World Culture, Berlin Important, Modern and Contemporary Art, Gary Nader, Miami Figure It Out, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, New York

Happy Birthday! Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont, Paris

D’une image qui ne serait pas semblant, la photographie écrite: 1950-2005, Passage de Retz, Paris

Non Toccare La Donna Bianca, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy

Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe

In Bed, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota, Japan

From Bonifatius to Beuys, Kunsthalle Erfurt, Erfurt, Germany

Monument to Now, Deste Foundation, Athens

New Art Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran

The Parallel World of Marrakech, Lille 2004, Lille, France Transculture, Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens

Far Near Distance, House of World Culture, Berlin

Masterpieces from the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago [traveled to: Villa Manin Center of Contemporary Art, Udine, Italy]

Foto.Kunst, Essl Museum, Klosterneuberg, Austria Passage du temps – Collection François Pinault, Le Tri Postal, Lille, France Kunst Film Biennale, Cologne, Germany Ten Years, Emily Tsingou Gallery, London So Close / So Far Away, BE-Part Platform voor actuele kunst, Waregem, Belgium Weltempfänger, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany After The Revolution: Women Who Transformed Contemporary Art, Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs, New York Border-Crossing Exercises, Galleri Nord Norge, Harstad, Norway Not for Sale, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York Lights Camera Action: Artist’s Film for the Cinema, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York 203

2001

Ornament and Abstraction: The Dialogue between Non-western, Modern and Contemporary Art, Beyeler Foundation, Basel, Switzerland

Galerie Faurschou, 1986 – 2001, Galerie Faurschou, Copenhagen Fervor, Tensta Konsthall, Spanga, Sweden

Black + White, Blains Fine Art, London

New Acquisitions from the Dakis Joannou Collection, Deste Foundation, Athens [traveled to: Centre for Biennial de Valencia, Spain]

Biennial de Valencia, Valencia, Spain

Mona Hatoum - Shirin Neshat, French Institut, Rabbat, Morocco

Croatian Photographic Union, Zagreb

Arte Contemporaneo Internacional, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City

The Beauty of the Evil, Armando Museum, Amsterdam

2003

Bill Viola and Shirin Neshat, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia Safavid, Asia Society, New York

Moving Pictures, Guggenheim Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain

Fantasies of the Harem and the New Sherezades, Centre de Cultura Contemporania,

Barcelona, Spain

Elsewhere, Fowler Museum, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles

The Natural Cosmos, Stadtische Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany

Imagining Prometheus, Palazzo della Ragione, Milan, Italy

Nouredine Amir, ModeMuseum, Antwerp, Belgium

Films of the Iranian Diaspora, Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago

Armour: The Fortification of Man, Fort Asperen Foundation, Acquoy, The Netherlands

ICP Triennial of Photography and Video, International Center of Photography, New York 2002

2000

Corpo Chimico, Cá di Fra, Milan, Italy Photography Now: An International Survey of Contemporary Photography, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans

State of the Art: Recent Gifts and Acquisitions, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Erresitentziak/Resistencias, Koldo Mitxelena, San Sebastian, Spain

Turbulent, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh Festival, Edinburgh

Sharing Exoticisms, Lyon Biennial,

Lyon, France

La Beauté en Avignon, Avignon, France

Continental Shift, Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Germany 12th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Man and Space: 3d, Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea

Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Outbound: Passages from the 90’s, Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, Texas

Greater New York: New Art in New York Now, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center,

New York

Contact: A 90’s Journal, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas

Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen,

Real Life, Tate St. Ives, Cornwall, UK Diversions, Contemporary Museum, Baltimore Synopsis II-Theologies, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens Alter Ego, Jean-Gabriel Mitterand Galerie, Paris Recent Acquisitions, Solomon R. Guggeheim Museum of Art, New York The Beauty of the Evil, Zonnehof, Amersfoort, The Netherlands Documenta 11, Kassel, Germany Picturing Ourselves, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts Moving Pictures, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of Art, New York Visions from America, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Iconos Metropolitanos, Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires New Art, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran Real Life, Tate St. Ives, Cornwall, England

204

Düsseldorf, Germany THE END: An Independent Vision of Contemporary Culture, 1982 – 2000, Exit Art, New York

1999

Heaven: An Exhibition That Will Break Your Heart, Tate Gallery Liverpool, Liverpool, England

Zeitwenden: Rückblick und Ausblick, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, Germany

Shirin Neshat: Rapture/Pipilotti Rist: Sip My Ocean, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia

Voiceovers, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

Project 70: Shirin Neshat, Simon Patterson, Xu Bing, Museum of Modern Art, New York 54th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

My Culture? My Self: Lee Friedlander, Gerhard Richter, Christian Boltanski, Shirin Neshat, Ydessa Hendeles Art Foundation, Toronto 48th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy

Exploding Cinema, Rotterdam Film Festival, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Unfinished History, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

Video Cultures, Zentrum fur Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, Germany

La Ville, Le Jardin, la Memoire, Villa Medici, Rome

Global Art Rheinland 2000, Museum Ludwig Köln, Cologne, Germany

SITE SANTA FE: Looking For A Place, Santa Fe

Zeitwenden: Ruckblick und Ausblick, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, Germany

Heavenly Figure, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Dusseldorf, Germany

1997

1998

Unfinished History, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

In The Detail, Barbara Gross Galerie,

Munich, Germany

Disidentico: maschile femminile e oltre, Palazzo Branciforte, Palermo, Italy 7th Summer of Photography, Museum van

205

Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgium Mar de Fondo, Sagunto Roman Theatre, Valencia, Spain Vanessa Beecroft & Shirin Neshat, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy Maschile Femminile e oltre, Palazzo Branciforte, Palermo, Italy Mostrato, Pescara, Italy ECHOLOT, Kunsthalle Fridericianum Kassel, Germany Transatlantico, Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Canary Islands A Noir, Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy Interference, Comunidad de Madrid, Madrid Genders and Nations: Reflections on Women in Revolution, Johnson Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 5th International Istanbul Biennale: On Life, Beauty, Translations and Other Difficulties, Istanbul 2nd Johannesburg Biennale 1997, Trade Routes: History and Geography, Johannesburg, South Africa Unbeschreiblich Weiblich, Fotomanifestatie Noorderlicht, Groningen, The Netherlands Trade Routes: History and Geography, 2nd Johannesburg Bienniale, Johannesburg, South Africa Unbeschreiblisch Weiblich, Fotomanifestatie Noorderlicht, Groningen, The Netherlands Fracturing the Gaze, Lawing Gallery, Houston, Texas On Life, Beauty, Translations and Other Difficultites, 5th International Istanbul Biennial Feminine Image, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, New York Triple X: Contemporary Investigating Arts, International Art Festival, Amsterdam Der Rest der Welt, Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt, Berlin International Art Festival City of Medellin, Medellin, Colombia Foto text/text foto, Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art Bolzano, Bolzano, Italy Frankfurt Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany Le Masque et le Miroir, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

1996

1995

1994

Jurassic Technologies Revenant, Sydney Biennial, Sydney, Australia Le Masque et le Miroir, Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie, Arles, France Inclusion/Exclusion, Kunstlerhaus Graz, Graz, Austria Radical Images: Austrian Triennal of Photography 1996, Neue Galerie, New York [traveled to: Kunstlerhaus Graz, Graz, Austria] Kunsthalle Szombathely, Szombathely, Hungary Interzones, Kunstforeningen GL Strand, Copenhagen Uppsala Konstmuseum, Uppsala, Sweden Ghostwriter, Mercer Union, Toronto Group Exhibition, Haines Gallery, San Francisco Auf Den Leib, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna Gallery Artists, Galerie Lumen Travo, Amsterdam Imaginary Beings, Exit Art, New York Anchorage, Video Installation commissioned

by Creative Time for Anchorage, Brooklyn Bridge, New York

Beyond the Borders: Art By Recent Immigrants, Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York

1993

The Office: History, Fantasy and Irregular Protocols, site-specific installations in an abandoned Wall Street office building, organized by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in New York

1992

Fever, Exit Art Gallery, New York [traveled to: Wexner Center for the Visual Arts, Columbus, Ohio; Alejandro Otero Museum of Visual Arts, Caracas]

Performances

Imaginary Beings, Exit Art, New York Orientation, 4th International Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul Transculture, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy Contemporary Art Museum, Okayama, Japan Campo ’95, Venice Biennial 95, Venice Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy It’s How You Play the Game, Exit Art, New York

2011

OverRuled, PERFORMA 11, 4th Edition of New Visual Art Performance Biennial, Cedar Lake Theater, November 11 – 12, 2011

2003

Logic of the Birds, Ortigia Festival, Syracuse, Sicily, July 25 – 27

2002

Logic of the Birds, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, June 20 – 23 Logic of the Birds, Lincoln Center, New York, July 12 – 13 Logic of the Birds, ArtAngel, London, November 7 – 17

2001

Three New Photographers, Haines Gallery, San Francisco Revolving Histories, SF Camerawork, San Francisco Selection from the Artists File, Artists Space, New York Labyrinth of Exile: Recent Works by Four Contemporary Iranian Artists, Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles Fever, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus

206

Logic of the Birds (Phase One), The Kitchen, New York

Institutions and Public Collections

207

21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa, Japan Albright Knox Art Gallery Buffalo, NY, United States Art Institute of Chicago Chicago, IL, United States Astrup Fearnley Museet fer Moderne Kunst Oslo, Norway The British Museum London, United Kingdom The Broad Art Foundation Santa Monica, United States Dallas Museum of Art Dallas, TX, United States Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Turin, Italy Los Angeles County Museum of Art Los Angeles, CA, United States The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, NY, United States Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean Luxembourg, Luxembourg Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León Léon, Spain

208

Musée d´art Contemporain de Montréal Montreal, QC, Canada Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago Chicago, IL, United States Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA, United States Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Houston, TX, United States Museum of Modern Art New York, NY, United States Queensland Art Gallery Gallery of Modern Art Brisbane, Australia Seattle Art Museum Seattle, WA, United States Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum New York, NY, United States Tate Modern London, United Kingdom Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Vienna, Austria Whitney Museum of American Art New York, NY, United States

209

210

Biographies

211

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Shirin Neshat Shirin Neshat was born in Qazvin in 1957, and moved to the United States in 1974.

Beginning with her early series of black and white photographs of women in various guises overlaid with painterly calligraphic text, titled Women of Allah (1993–1997), and continuing through her current practice, Neshat has consistently and fluently probed issues of gender, power, displacement, protest, identity, and the space between the personal and the political with a singular and powerful aesthetic. As artist Marina Abramović writes, Neshat’s work “acknowledges the full complexity of Muslim identity, specifically as perceived through female eyes, and the full richness of Persian culture.” I Following Women of Allah, Neshat began working in video, departing from overtly political content or critique in favor of poetic imagery and complex human narratives. Her trilogy of two-channel video installations in black-and-white—Turbulent (1998), Rapture (1999) and Fervor (2000)—explores the separate experiences of men and women with the energy of myth, while later projects, including Passage (2001), a collaboration with composer Phillip Glass, capture universal themes of ritual and loss. In 2009, Neshat directed her first featurelength film, Women Without Men, based on the novel of the same name by Shahrnush Parsipur.

The film received the Silver Lion Award for Best Director at the 66th Venice International Film Festival.

In 2012, Neshat returned to the practice of black and white photography and calligraphy with The Book of Kings, a series of images inspired by the events of the Arab Spring. Named from the Shahnameh, a 10th century epic poem by the Persian poet Ferdowsi, the dynamic series juxtaposes powerful portraits with inscribed text from the ancient tome alongside words of contemporary poets. As Nancy Princenthal writes, “Marked indelibly by the experiences of living in two adamantly opposed nations, Neshat has forged a body of work with the imperative force of a recurring dream and the supple grace of allegorical poetry— that is, her work has taken the shape of the most irrepressible forms of personal expression.” II Neshat has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions at galleries and museums worldwide, including the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Serpentine Gallery, London; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, among others. A major retrospective of her work was exhibited at the Detroit Institute of Arts in 2013. Neshat has been included in numerous major group exhibitions, including the 48th Venice Biennale of Art (1999), the Whitney Biennial (2000), Documenta XI (2002) and Prospect.1 New Orleans (2009). Neshat was the recipient of the Grand Prix at the Gwangju Biennial (2000), the Golden Lion Award - the First International Prize at the 48th Venice Biennial (1999), the Hiroshima Freedom Prize (2005), and the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize (2006). In 2010, The Huffington Post declared Neshat “Artist of the Decade.” Her work is included in the collections of museums and public institutions around the world.

Neshat serves on the board of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and Creative Time and is currently working on her second feature-length film, based on the life and art of the legendary Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum. Neshat lives and works in New York.

I Abramović, Marina, A Letter, Shirin Neshat, New York: Rizzoli, 2010, p.7 II Princenthal, Nancy, The Garden of Diaspora, Shirin Neshat, Detroit Institute of Arts, 2013, p.26.

213

Aida Mahmudova Aida Mahmudova is the Founder and Creative Director of YARAT, a not-for-profit art organization which she launched in October 2011 with a group of artists. YARAT has commissioned over 80 projects to date and is dedicated to nurturing an understanding of contemporary art in Azerbaijan and to creating a platform for Azerbaijani art, both nationally and internationally. In Baku, the organization has led a varied education program for multiple audiences, hosted film festivals, created two public art festivals, produced exhibitions, commissioned artists and forged collaborations with museums and international institutions. In 2015, YARAT opens a new centre for contemporary art in Baku: YARAT Contemporary Art Centre, a dedicated hub for contemporary art and art education in the Caucasus, Central Asia and neighboring countries. Aida is herself a practicing artist and her work has been shown at exhibitions both locally and internationally. She is a member of the Middle East and North Africa Acquisitions Committee at Tate Modern, in addition to being the Curatorial Director at the Baku Museum of Modern Art.

Dina Nasser-Khadivi Dina Nasser-Khadivi is an independent curator and consultant, specializing in contemporary art from the Middle East, Iran and selected areas of the Caucasus. Originally a 19th and 20th century Orientalist art specialist at Christie’s, Dina began to work with Middle Eastern and Iranian contemporary art in 2006, by helping the auction house launch their sales in Dubai. She later organized numerous awareness-raising initiatives, such as the landmark symposium An Introduction to the World of Iranian Modern and Contemporary Art held at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Solomon Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in 2010. In 2013, she curated Love Me, Love Me Not, YARAT’s first collateral pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale. The exhibition represented 17 artists from Azerbaijan, Iran, Georgia, Turkey and Russia and later traveled to Baku in 2014 at the Zaha Hadid-designed Heydar Aliyev Center. Dina also curated the retrospective Lalla Essaydi: Beyond Time and Beauty at the Museum of Modern Art, Baku in 2013 in addition to designing and editing the artist’s monograph coming out in 2015 with ACR. Dina is a member of the Middle East and North Africa Acquisitions Committee at Tate Modern, and is on the board of Art Dubai as well as the Caspian Arts Foundation.

Suad Garayeva Suad Garayeva is the Curatorial Director at YARAT Contemporary Art Centre. She will be in charge of Exhibitions and YARAT's growing permanent collection. She will also be curating their collateral event at the upcoming 56th Venice Biennale in 2015 - The Union of Fire and Water. Suad previously worked at Sotheby’s as a specialist in Contemporary Art from Russia and the CIS. She curated the pioneering At The Crossroads exhibition, which introduced contemporary art from the Caucasus and Central Asia in 2013, followed by At The Crossroads 2: Art from Istanbul to Kabul, in 2014. She also headed the Russian and Eastern European Contemporary Art sales including Contemporary East and Changing Focus

214

in 2013. Suad has been a long-time collaborator with YARAT, curating their pavilion at the GRID International Photography Biennale in 2012 and 2014. She has also worked on numerous international exhibitions, such as the National Pavilion of Azerbaijan at the 53rd and 54th Venice Biennales. She has an MSc in Philosophy and Public Policy from LSE, an MLitt in Modern and Contemporary Art from the University of Glasgow and is a member of the Russian and Eastern European Acquisitions Committee at Tate Modern.

Mitra Abbaspour Mitra Abbaspour is an independent curator and scholar based in New York. From 2010– 2014, she was Associate Curator in the Department of Photography at The Museum of Modern Art, where she led a research initiative that drew together an international team of conservators and historians to explore the formation of photographic modernism in the twentieth century. Object:Photo. Modern Photographs from the Thomas Walther Collection 1909 – 1949 and the digital humanities platform at www.MoMA.org/objectphoto are the results of that work. A doctoral candidate at The Graduate Center at the City University of New York, her research considers the history of photography in the Middle East and its role in defining the contemporary cultural landscape. She has authored numerous articles on contemporary photographers from Hassan Hajjaj to Shirana Shahbazi. She served as part of a curatorial team for the exhibition Re-Orientations: Islamic Art and the West in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, which was culled from the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Before arriving in New York, she was Assistant Curator and Museum Writer at UCR/California Museum of Photography. Abbaspour has also taught in the art history departments of The Cooper Union, Hunter College, Brooklyn College, and the University of California, Riverside.

Farah Rahim Ismail Farah Rahim Ismail is an independent consultant and editor specializing in Contemporary Art. Previous positions include Gallery Director/AVP at Aicon Gallery, London, and Exhibitions Manager at Hauser & Wirth, London. She is now based in Doha, Qatar, and works with international private and institutional collections. Recent editorial projects for exhibitions in Doha include Damien Hirst - Relics (editor, 2013; Al Riwaq) Yan Pei-Ming: Painting The History (2012; QM Gallery, Katara), Tea with Nefertiti: The Making of the Artwork by the Artist, the Museum and the Public (2012; Mathaf) and Ferozkoh: Tradition and Continuity in Afghan Art (2013, Museum of Islamic Art). She has co-edited with Dina Nasser-Khadivi, the publications Love Me, Love Me Not (2013; 55th Venice Biennale and 2014; Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku) and Lalla Essaydi: Beyond Time and Beauty (2013; Museum of Modern Art, Baku).

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216

List of Works and Photographic Credits

217

List of Works 51

Adil, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

75

Husniyya, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

53

Agayar, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

77

Ilgara, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

55

Anastasia, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

79

Anna, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

57

Akram, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

81

Javid, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

59

Eldar, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

83

Kanan, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

61

Farid, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

85

Mahira, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

63

Gabil, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

87

Malaksima, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

65

Nikas, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

89

Nazim, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

67

Jafar, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

91

Nigar, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

69

Gizbasti, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

93

Soraya, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

71

Hagigat, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

95

Novruz, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

73

Hasan, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

97

Rabil, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

218

99

Rahim, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

123

Vasif, from The Home My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

101

Sabina H., from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

125

Vladimir, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

103

Sabina M., from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

127

Khadija, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

105

Sabir, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

129

Yolchu, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

107

Amil, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

131

Zuleykha, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

109

Samima, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

133

Vugar, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

111

Shahmir, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

135

Farida, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

113

Salima, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

137

Asgar, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 182.9 x 122 cm. (72 x 48 in.)

115

Suad, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

139

Aydin G., from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 182.9 x 122 cm. (72 x 48 in.)

117

Tamasha, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

141

Durdana, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 182.9 x 122 cm. (72 x 48 in.)

119

Humay, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

143

Esmiralda, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 182.9 x 122 cm. (72 x 48 in.)

121

Sara, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

145

Firuza, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 182.9 x 122 cm. (72 x 48 in.)

219

147

Mudhad, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 182.9 x 122 cm. (72 x 48 in.)

149

Ofeliya, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 182.9 x 122 cm. (72 x 48 in.)

151

Vagif, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 182.9 x 122 cm. (72 x 48 in.)

153

Aida, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 205.8 x 137.2 cm. (81 x 54 in.)

155

Aydin A., from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 205.8 x 137.2 cm. (81 x 54 in.)

157

Nazakat, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 205.8 x 137.2 cm. (81 x 54 in.)

159

Tahir, from The Home of My Eyes series, 2015 Silver gelatin print and ink 205.8 x 137.2 cm. (81 x 54 in.)

163

Soliloquy Series, 2000 Gelatin silver print and ink Photograph by Larry Barns 20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.)

165

164

166

Soliloquy Series, 2000 Cibachrome print Photograph by Larry Barns 122 x 152. 4 cm. (48 x 60 in.)

Soliloquy Series, 2000 Gelatin silver print Photograph by Larry Barns 101.6 x 152. 4 cm. (40 x 60 in.)

Soliloquy Series, 2000 Cibachrome print Photograph by Larry Barns 151.1 x 110.5 cm. (591/2 x 431/2 in.)

178, 196

Soliloquy Series, 2000 (detail) Cibachrome print Photograph by Larry Barns 153 x 122.5 cm. (601/4 x 481/4 in.)

171

Passage Series, 2001 Cibachrome print Photograph by Larry Barns 110.5 x 245 cm. (423/2 x 961/4 in.)

172-174

Passage Series, 2001 Cibachrome print Photograph by Larry Barns 28 x 35.5 cm. (11 x 14 in.)

175, 177

Passage Series, 2001 Cibachrome print Photograph by Larry Barns 130 x 160 cm. (511/8 x 63 in.)

176

Passage Series, 2001 Cibachrome print Photograph by Larry Barns 106.7 x 160.3 cm. (42 x 631/8 in.)

Photographic Credits All images in this publication Š Shirin Neshat and Courtesy of Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels, unless stated otherwise.

8

Shirin Neshat working on the photograph Humay from The Home of My Eyes series at her studio in New York, January 2015 Photograph by David Regen

12

The YARAT Contemporary Art Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan Courtesy of Fakhriyya Mammadova

20

The YARAT Contemporary Art Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan, view of the top floor gallery Courtesy of Fakhriyya Mammadova

220

24

Fig. 1 Shirin Neshat Ahmed, from Our House Is on Fire series, 2013 Digital C-print and ink 157.8 x 102.2 cm. (621/8 x 401/4 in.)

25

Fig. 2 Shirin Neshat Kouross (Patriots), from The Book of Kings series, 2012 (top left) Ink on LE silver gelatin print 152.4 x 114.3 cm. (60 x 45 in.)

Shirin Neshat Roja (Patriots), from The Book of Kings series, 2012 (top right) Ink on LE silver gelatin print 152.4 x 114.3 cm. (60 x 45 in.)

Shirin Neshat Muhammed (Patriots), from The Book of Kings series, 2012 (bottom left) Ink on LE silver gelatin print 152.4 x 114.3 cm. (60 x 45 in.)

Shirin Neshat Nida (Patriots), from The Book of Kings series, 2012 (bottom right) Ink on LE silver gelatin print 152.4 x 114.3 cm. (60 x 45 in.)

26

27

28

33

Fig. 3 Shirin Neshat with Aydin G. and an assistant from YARAT, during the photo shoot of The Home of My Eyes in Baku, October 2014 Photograph by David Jimenez Fig. 4 Shirin Neshat Alison, from the Toledo series, 2013 Silver gelatin print 152.4 x 101.6 cm. (60 x 40 in.)

Fig. 5 Shirin Neshat Soliloquy, 2000 Video stills, color Courtesy Detroit Institute of Arts Fig. 6 Sumerian votive figure, c. 2700 BCE Gypsum, shell, black limestone Iraq Museum Collection, Baghdad, Iraq

36

Fig. 7 Shirin Neshat Offered Eyes, 1993 RC print and ink Photograph by Plauto 101.6 x 152.4 cm. (40 x 60 in.)

38

Fig. 8 Shirin Neshat Fervor Series, 2000 Gelatin Silver Print Photograph by Larry Barns 119.4 x 152.4 cm. (47 x 60 in.)

41

Fig. 9 Shirin Neshat Masses from The Book of Kings, 2012 Installation view at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, November 2014 Š Shirin Neshat Courtesy of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha

44

Shirin Neshat working on the photograph Anna from The Home of My Eyes series at her studio in New York, December 2014 Photograph by David Regen

210

Shirin Neshat with Hagigat Dadashova and an assistant from YARAT, during the photo shoot of The Home of My Eyes in Baku, October 2014 Photograph by David Jimenez

212

Shirin Neshat with Mudhad Aydinov during the photo shoot of The Home of My Eyes in Baku, October 2014 Photograph by David Jimenez

216

Shirin Neshat with Novruz Jafarov, during the photo shoot of The Home of My Eyes in Baku, October 2014 Photograph by David Jimenez

222

The YARAT Contemporary Art Centre, view of the exterior (detail) Courtesy of Fakhriyya Mammadova

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Shirin Neshat with Nazakat Ismayilova and a member from the casting agency of the Baku Media Center during the photo shoot for The Home of My Eyes in Baku, October 2014 Photograph by David Jimenez

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Acknowledgements

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Acknowledgements

This project could have never happened without the care, commitment, support and energy of the many individuals who helped us making it into a reality.

Support has come all over the world connecting us all from Baku to New York, Geneva to Kuala Lumpur, London to Istanbul‌ We wish to thank each and every one of the following people and organizations: Aida Mahmudova, Shirin Neshat, YARAT, Barbara Gladstone, Pelham Communications, Caroline Luce, Gladstone Gallery, Farid Abdullayev, Lana Sokolova, Dalia Bayazid, Benji Wiedemann, Natasha Fielding, David Bhalla, Andrew Stramentov, Maria Slavnova, Humay Mammadzada, David Jimenez, Michael Vorrasi, Giulia Theodoli, Junko Sakuno, Emily Korman, Griffin Editions, Barry Frier, Baobab, Michael Lantz, Fahimeh Gooran, Elham Asadi, Fereidoun Ghaffari, Shoja Azari, Suad Garayeva, Fakhriyya Mammadova, Leyla Aghayeva, Jamila Orujova, Baku Media Center, Orman Aliyev, Seymur Seyidbeyli, Seyidbeyli Films, Emin Azizbayli, Aychurek Sarikova, Gadir Gasimov, Dinara Izmayilova, Hikmat Aydinoglu, Rizvan Alasgar, Mitra Abbaspour, Farah Rahim Ismail, Alexandra Hays, Lauren Smith, Jasmine Pelham and Chloe Kinsman.

We would also like to thank the sitters for The Home of My Eyes who were an instrumental part of this project: Adil Damirov, Agayar Agayev, Amil Salahov, Anastasia Kononova, Anna Miltikh, Akram Gurbanov, Eldar Ulubekov, Farid Abdullayev, Farida Mammadova, Gabil Garayev, Jafar Ahmadov, Gizbasti Ibrahimova, Hagigat Dadashova, Hasan Seyidbeyli, Husniyya Ahmadova, Ilgara Tosova, Javid Aydinov, Kanan Ismayilov, Mahira Bashirova, Malaksima Mammadova, Nazim Mammadov, Nigar Gasimova, Nikas Miltikh, Novruz Jafarov, Rabil Salmanov, Rahim Rahimov, Sabina Hajiyeva, Sabina Mammadova, Sabir Telikov, Samima Salimova, Sara Mammadova, Shahmir Hasanov, Salima Mammadzada, Soraya Dadfar, Suad Garayeva, Tamasha Mammadova, Humay Mammadzada, Vasif Mammadov, Vladimir Gafarov, Vugar Aliyev, Khadija Kheyrullayeva, Yolchu Hasanov, Zuleykha Seyidbeyli, Asgar Seyidov, Aydin Gurbanov, Durdana Hasanova, Esmiralda Shahbazova, Firuza Gasimova, Mudhad Aydinov, Ofeliya Abdullayeva, Vagif Karimov, Aida Mahmudova, Aydin Agayev, Nazakat Ismayilova, Tahir Mammadov.

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