Iran sets sights on cultural projection through vibrant contemporary art
Iran has set sights on reaching out to the international community through a major cultural initiative that draws on the remarkable rise of its modern and contemporary art globally, both in its aesthetic appreciation and the marketplace. Although ostensibly an independent private sector initiative, the Contemporary and Modern Art (CAMA) project’s ambitious cultural outreach has the hallmarks of a finely nuanced diplomatic...
Music from the Silk Road event
Five artists, including known musical figures on London’s creative scene, perform a lunchtime concert in a capsule presentation of music from the Middle East and its eastward extensions along the Silk Road ancient and modern, writes The Middle East in Europe. ‘Summertime in Distant Lands,’ part of an ongoing and well regarded Music@One series, is a collaboration between SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies),...
Homage to Abbas Kiarostami, mystic moviemaker
Abbas Kiarostami, artist, poet, philosopher and moviemaker, has died after a battle with gastrointestinal cancer. In 2005 he featured in a special Eastern Art Report tribute, Abbas Kiarostami in Eastern Art Report. One of Kiarostami’s most celebrated works, the 1997 film Taste of Cherry, was awarded the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival. “Abbas Kiarostami, who had travelled to France for treatment, has died,” the...
Nour Festival 2014 offers an enriching mix of art, food and music
The annual Nour Festival in London’s cosmopolitan Chelsea and Kensington neighbourhoods launches its fifth cycle this week with an expanded cultural programme focused on contemporary Middle Easter and North Africa (MENA) and its varied British and European connections. Spread across numerous venues in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, home to citizens and residents of great cultural diversity, the six-week festival...
Auction Room offers online sale of MENA contemporary art
The Auction Room, London, is holding a second online sale of contemporary art from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The catalogue for the sale is on view here and bidding is open, said the Auction Room, which conducted a similar online sale in 2013. The final and ‘live’ online bidding will take place at www.theauctionroom.com on 1 October 2014 at 7pm London time. Last-year’s 40-lot auction realised a total of GBP 235,348, a...
Recalling the Future: Iranian art since the '79 revolution
The work of 29 Iranian artists produced before or after the 1979 revolution that toppled the Shah and installed the Islamic Republic is on view 16 January-22 March 2014 at the University of London Brunei Gallery. Many of the works on display are being shown in the UK for the first time. Recalling The Future challenges assumptions about ‘Iranian’art. As Iranian artists in the 1960s and 1970s increasingly combined signifiers...