Mohammad Eskandari

Opening at Aaran Projects on 29th January.

This exhibition is dedicated to ten of the leaders, activists and journalists who were brutally murdered during the Constitutional Revolution in Iran (1905-1907). Their names are engraved on conscience and history of this country:
Mirza Reza Jahangir Khan Sour Esrafil – Journalist
Sheikh Ahmad Rouh ol Ghodos – Journalist
Malek ol Motekalemin – Leader and Grand orator of Constitutionalists
Ghazi Ardaghi – Activist
Mirz Ebrahim Agha Tabrizi – Member of Parliament and Journalist
Seyed Jamal ol Din Vaez Esfahani – Leader of Constitutionalists
Sheikh Ahmad Rouhi – Activist and Journalist
Seyed Mohammad Tabatabaie – Leader and Activist
Saqat ol Eslam Tabrizi – Leader and activist and Author
Prince Yahya Miraz Eskandari – Member of Parliament and Journalist

The Persian Constitutional Revolution took place between 1905 and 1907. The revolution led to the establishment of a Parliament in Iran and opened the way for cataclysmic changes in Persia, heralding the modern era and the rule of law and promising freedom of speech.
The monarch Mozaffar ad-Din Shah signed the constitution in 1906, but he died shortly after and was replaced by his son, Mohammad Ali Shah. The latter abolished the constitution and in June of 1908, with support of British and Russians, bombarded the Parliament. Russian colonel Vladimir Liakhov who was the commander of the Persian Cossack forces, formed as a elite cavalry unit in 1879, lead the forces in shelling the Majles, killing hundreds of people and later on executing leaders and Journalists of the Constitutional Movement. The Shah kept himself confined to his residence at Bagh-e Shah fort in west of Tehran. A number of captured constitutionalists were imprisoned at Bagh e Shah and tortured and killed.
In retaliation and by July 1909, pro-Constitution forces marched from provinces of Azerbaijan and Gilan towards the capital and were joined with forces of tribes of Bakhtiari and Qasqai. They were able to capture Tehran and re-establish the constitution.
On 16th July 1909, the parliament voted to place Mohammad Ali Shah’s 11-year-old son, Ahmad Shah on the throne. Mohammad Ali Shah abdicated and fled to Russia, later to Turkey and died in San Remo Italy. Every Shah of Iran since Mohammad Ali Shah has died in Exile.

Presenting works by Malakeh Nayiny and:
Alireza Adambakan – Ala Ebtekar – Mohammad Eskandari – Asghar Aharipour – Mehrdad Jafari – Azam Hosseinabadi – Hamid Hemayatian – Nasim Davari – Maryam Sepiyani – Nastaran Safaei – Emitis Abbassioun – Shirin Fathi – Hadis Fakhr – Reihane Taravati – Farshid Larimian – Dehghan Mohammadi – Allahyar Najafi.

Opening at Aaran Projects on 20th November 2015.

In Arts, liberated from constraints of reason and logic, artists conceive and combine new forms that enrich our lives, in mythology too, we entertain a hypothesis, to perhaps find answers and solutions to our world which essentially is a puzzle. What if this world were not all that there is?

Humans beings are unique in retaining the capacity for play and amusement. More often than not we forget this gift. The power of imagination which forms our mental image of something that is not perceived through the five senses, should not be underestimated. It is essential to recognize the importance of this force that breaks down borders and teleports us beyond our circumstances, and abilities. A world of wondrous charm and endless stories, unrestrained fancy and extremes that challenge belief.

The artists working in the realm of fantasy, violate in a variety of ways, standard expectations by drastic experiments with subject matter, form and style. Constant fusion of every day with the fantastic, mythical and nightmarish. These trail blazers render a world that blurs traditional distinctions between what is serious, trivial, horrible, absurd or tragic.

Once upon a time, Lamassus and Griffins guarded the Capital city of Persian empire, they still do. An echo of a time where kings were transported to the sky by giant birds, and snakes growing from man’s shoulders feasted on human brain, and the white Div was defeated by the super hero and Simorgh was busy saving the albino child. A recurring magical abstractness that permits representation to take a timeless character; recalling the past, expressing hope for future and affirming continuity.

Solo show by Mohammad Eskandari

Eskandari’s Butterfly Stickers
By Talinn Grigor

There is a simultaneous sense of futurity and historicity in the five large canvas paintings, and one video work, by artist Mohammad Eskandari. His superb mastery over the brush comes from having been born into an artistic family as well as a successful artistic education and career. Yet, these images are not merely an outcome of skill and upbringing. Through that inheritance, these works convey a deep insight into Iranian history, Iranian symbolism, Iranian modernity, Iranian wealth, and Iranian pain.On these canvases, Eskandari embraces the Qajar and Pahlavi pardeh khani tradition. An old Iranian artistic method, that I would trace even further back to Sassanian rock-cuts, portable paintings on large canvases (pardeh) used to illustrate the Battle of Karbala, Koranic stories, and the epic of the Shahnameh. Reviving the large-scale technique, the artist invokes other forms of historical accounts that speak so clearly about a tentative future. Thus, Eskandari selects fragments of rich architectural and geographic past: a gate, an Eyvan, a summit, and a forest collide into a future shaped by human agency that remains unresolved. Historical monuments, national symbols, fragments of natural landscape, and separate figures all hover on the painterly surface – somehow in a state of constant flux, a state of abstraction and foolishness that makes total sense. The painter speaks to his audience. The painter invites his viewer to inhabit a space of ambivalence and absurdity… a place that goes somewhere but that is certainly irresolute…
Excerpt from text by Talinn Grigor for catalogue of exhibition

Talinn Grigor (Ph.D., MIT) author of the book “Contemporary Iranian Art: From The Street To Studio”, is an Associate Professor of modern and contemporary architecture in the Department of Fine Arts at Brandeis University, Boston. Her research concentrates on the cross-pollination of architecture and (post)colonial politics, focused on Iran and India.

Group show to commemorate 60th anniversary of Coup d’etat

Artists: A-Petgar (1914-1992), Bahman Jalali (1944-2010), Ahmad Aali, Rana Javadi, Mohamad Mehdi Tabatabaie, Farsad Labbauf, Behrang Samadzadeghan, Barbad Golshiri, and Mohammad Eskandari

And screening of Documentary film “Remembering A National Leader” by renowned director, Hossein Torabi.

Sixty years ago in august 1953 a coup d’etat orchestrated by British and American governments removed Dr.Mohammad Mosaddegh (1882 –1967), the democratically elected prime minister of Iran, from power and changed the fate of millions of people in this part of the world.
Dr. Mosaddegh was imprisoned and endured solitary confinement for three years, then he was put under house arrest until his death in 1967. Only a handful were allowed to attend his funeral, and he was buried in the living room of his house in Ahmadabad. He lies in his land deprived of a tombstone.
For decades there has been frequent attempts to obliterate his name from public life and even deny his image from the people of this ancient land. This exhibition while not attempting to, has in fact unearthed and discovered works of art that have been hidden in archives and store rooms. In a humble way this exhibition is a tribute to this extraordinary nobleman and a show of denial to those who still believe that the history is written by conquerors.

Solo show by Mohammad Eskandari

When a tuneless balance, weights up hope and despair in it’s two scales, a dynamic passivity is created.
To feed the hungry, the herd of gazelles is diminished. Some migrate and the worn outs are hunted out, yet if there are no gazelles left in the plains, tigers and hyenas will have the same fate.
This exhibition is the result of the same passivity that appears to be dynamic, for a three-year time stands between its inception and completion.
Mohammad Eskandari