The Romantic Self-Exiles II
via highlike submit

source: vimeo

-I ask you to show me the view of Tehran from your Balcony. You look back into the monitor: “ But remember? It’s hard to breath here. Darkness hides it all.” You still showed me the lights, the beautiful lights of Tehran which I only started to dream of after I left.
(This video is a documentation of my installation displayed at Oliver Francis Gallery/Dallas Bienalle in April 2012. It’s an extension of my 3D animation (The Romantic Self-Exiles I), and a physical representation of imagined, dreamed, romanticized, beautiful Tehran. Two of the videos were taken by myself from the streets of Tehran with my iphone during my visit in 2010, and the video of Lights of Tehran at night was taken by Mona Allahyari and Amir Shahryar Tavallali in 2012. The videos were projected through one projector on 20 cubes made from plexiglas, covering 4 walls of the gallery).
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source: blogsdallasobserver

“Purgatory” is perhaps too strong a word, but it is the only term that adequately captures the sense of suspension. Drifting, in-between, among and about but not within, Morehshin Allahyari lives stranded between cultures and countries as an intercontinental wanderer. Since determining not to return to Iran for “awhile,” she is a woman apart, fractured from her national identity, but longing for the sweet embrace of home. She abides outside the arbitrary concept of the nation-state. And, yet she exists. She builds. She creates.
Allahyari arrived in the United States in 2007 after graduating from Tehran University. She received an MA in Digital Studies from the University of Denver and is now an MFA candidate at the University of North Texas, focusing on New Media Art. Intercultural dialogue through art has been a passionate project for Allahyari during her tenure in America, and she has worked tirelessly to open lines of communication between the two countries through efforts like the Your Night/My Day Project, which she co-curated.

This weekend, her solo exhibition The Romantic Self-Exiles helps kick off the much-anticipated Dallas Biennale at Oliver Francis Gallery. Heavy on theory, Allahyari’s mixed media exhibition features 3-D animation, installation, narrative, text and 16-mm film to examine the emotional process of romanticizing one’s homeland, specifically in the context of “those who choose self-exile over a homeland in which they are not tolerated or welcome.” Through Allahyari’s eyes, we might just find that it is the unique perspective of a cultural interloper that best illuminates the bounds of man-drawn boundaries.

Allahyari was kind enough to exchange emails with us while preparing for this weekend’s exhibition.
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source: takepart

“Living in Iran, you learn what to say and what not to say based on the environment you’re in,” says artist Morehshin Allahyari.

It’s this type of self-censorship that led Morehshin to seek a life of self-exile in the U.S.

Since 2007, the art activist has explored the social, cultural and political landscape of Iran. She has also cofounded IRUS Art, a creative exchange designed to build bridges between Iran and the U.S. Through this project, she hopes to “show another side of Iranian culture.”