ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Biography

Abbas Kiarostami is considered one of the greatest contemporary filmmakers, an author who has changed the way we see movies. However, the Iranian director is not only this. Like the great Renaissance artist figures, he is an “all-round artist” capable of expressing himself through different media and languages; not only cinema of course, but also photography, video, poetry and theater.
Photography has become increasingly important in the activity of Kiarostami, becoming a means of self- expression.
His interest in photography begins in the late seventies when in Iran, due to the Ayatollahs revolution, all film activities were banned. The multi-talented director turns his attention to this art as if to fix in one's mind the "moments of silence" and the desire for peace seen many times in his films. Abbas Kiarostami's photographs are a thoughtful account of his travels and his visions, a profound statement that reveals life in the countries he has seen; photographs from the blinding light that cuts the outlines of mountains and gets lost in the colors of sand. A motionless gaze on the landscape, but also a thoughtful study that results in long shots of metaphysical resonance.
The exhibition "The Wall" presents a series of images of walls and partitions of houses in Iran, structures that Kiarostami seems to treat as paintings that have just been found. These walls, photographed from a distance of a few meters, where the depth of field becomes virtually non-existent, are celebrated for their flaws. Once we overlook the curiosity factor, we find other, more resonant interpretations, and we begin to share with Kiarostami his lively appreciation for the surfaces and material textures that without his suggestion, we would not have seen. These surfaces are parched, baked by the sun; full of cracks and every wall evokes the passage of time. The effects of the changing nature of these walls, suggest how fragile and fleeting life is, thus becoming a reason to reflect on the subtle changes in our lives, and on the transient nature of human existence
The details found in each image - rusty pipes, gutters, cracks, and graffiti - are evidence of the human presence, highlighted here as absence. These photographs are infused with the essence of meditation, a constant concern in all Kiarostami’s work. Through the delicate interplay between the foreground and background, these works become the link between the artificial environment created by man and nature.