The 11th Event of Persbook’s Annual Contemporary Art:

Title: Zero Waste

Iranshahr Gallery

7th-18th of January

2022

One of the modern world problems is environmental pollution. It seems that one of crucial pollution examples and of course one of the most worrying cases is plastic waste that is unrecyclable for centuries. Nevertheless, plastic production has been continuing. Of all non recyclable wastes annually being produced, only %9 are recycled. In other words, %91 of waste is piled up on Earth. Imagine what happens if you annually keep over %90 of your waste at your house.

In Iran, more than 177000 tons of plastic materials and about 3000000 millions of plastic bags are produced and even %1 of them are not recycled. And, of course they can not be recycled due to health standards. For this reason, use of plastic bags was prohibited by some countries. This amount of plastic is a part of 21000000 tons of wastes annually produced in Iran. Zero Waste movement attempts to ask people to change their attitude towards waste and encourages them to stop production of non recyclable waste being buried, being burned or released at sea. Indeed, the Zero-Waste Movement intends to encourage individuals to reduce, reuse, and recycle waste by responsibly participating in production and consumption and removing the burden on Earth’s shoulders.

The 11th event of Persbook titled Zero Waste attempts to inform the audience of the present condition of Earth and display the related impacts from the ecologist viewpoint. Also, reactions of audience and artists, their influence, and the related placement are the other features I am inclined to mention.

Artists of this exhibition are obliged to use recyclable materials.

Artists: Mahdieh Abolhasan, Maryam Ashkanian, Reza Babajani, Aidin Bagheri, Farideh Ebadi, Ismail Ghanbari, Toktam Hemati, Setareh Hosseini,  Behnam Kamrani, Sadegh Khalifeh, Narges Mohammadian, Masoumeh Mohtadi, Samaneh Motallebi-solout, Amir Nasiri, Kevin Pournasri-nezhad, Shaya Shahrestani, Shermin Shalbaf, Hedieh Toutounchian, Ghazal  Zare, Arezu Zargar

Curator/ Persbook11: Neda Darzi

Curator/Foreign’s  Part: Sanam Samanian

The Secondary Part: Setareh  Hosseini

Scholars: Azalia Shah Nazari, Parnian Toosi

Waste Expert: Sajad Hosseini

Graphic: Reza Babajani

Motion Graphic: Bita Amel

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The Trace of Life: A Curatorial Retrospective of Hoda Zarbaf’s Artistic Practice

Hoda Zarbaf (1982-2020) was an Iranian-Canadian artist who produced over 50 multimedia sculptures, compositions, and installations in the span of her short-yet-significant career. Through her artistic practice, Zarbaf raised the notion of memory; stitching found items that have individual human traces in them: used socks, youtube videos, worn T-shirts, home movies, restock monitors, dated audio, human hair, orphan dolls, and abandoned furniture. She brought together discarded, forgotten—and seemingly useless—domestic objects, fusing them with newly formed ceramics, lights, sounds, videos, or patchwork elements to confront nostalgia in a contemporary context.

For Presbook, in an Instagram Live, curator Sanam Samanian will offer a brief overview of the history of Recycled Art, citing Hoda Zarbaf’s practice as a precedent. Samanian, who worked closely with Zarbaf over the years, will unpack the trajectory of their collaboration together through the following four exhibited series:

2014-15: Soft Souls

2015-16: Floral Compositions, Travelers of Time

2017-18: we’re image-making machines.

2020: Honey, I am home!

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The Secondary Part: We Are Nature

We intend to hold an online exhibition including works of the leading young artists focusing  on environmental issues in the 11th Persbook.

This exhibition will help the young artists to present their works to the more extent. Therefore, these artists and their new ideas can be noticed by the artistic community.

These artworks will be displayed on the virtual page of Persbook on January 2021.

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www.persbookart.com

Jan 2022

Persbook