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DESCRIPTION:B21 will now be known as GALLERY ISABELLE VAN DEN EYNDE\, and t
 o inaugurate this new name\, we present the third solo show by Iranian art
 ist Ramin Haerizadeh.\n\nAn exhibition supported by Ruinart\nIranian artis
 t Ramin Haerizadeh tears apart the symbols around us and rearranges them t
 o draw out darker\, submerged and subtly humorous truths. Since his solo s
 how in 2008 at GALLERY ISABELLE VAN DEN EYNDE (prev. B21)\, and his appear
 ance in Charles Saatchi’s Unveiled: New Art from the Middle East and Gal
 erie Thaddeaus Ropac\, Ramin has created a raft of new work that delves de
 eper into the skewed psyche of his country. He emerges sensitive to the th
 eatricality of Iran’s modern history and how to subvert that with a cine
 matographer’s eye.\n\nFor the artist’s latest collages he has gathered
  imagery from a TV production created for children in Iran\, Shahr-e-Ghess
 eh (Farsi for ‘City of Tales’)\, to form a cast of characters that ill
 ustrate his ideas about the continuing process of remaking identities in I
 ran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.\n\nShehr-e-Ghesseh was staged by an
  avant-garde theatre troupe in papier-mâché masks a decade before the Re
 volution. At the heart of the story is an elephant that arrives into a tow
 n of animals only to fall and break his tusk. The townsfolk\, such as the 
 mullah with the head of a fox\, the bear who is a fortuneteller\, and the 
 parrot who is a poet\, decide to ‘fix’ the broken elephant by placing 
 the tusk on his head and snipping off his trunk. Without the features of a
 n elephant\, they decide he is no longer so and take him to register for a
 n ID card – he is remade\, given a human name\, ‘Manouchehr’\, and a
 s the play continues his personality is lost.\n\nRamin makes Manouchehr hi
 s protagonist to illustrate the parallels he finds between this tale and t
 he revolutionary identity-evolving force that deposed Shah Mohammed Reza P
 ahlavi and created the Islamic Republic. The artist takes cutouts from pre
 -Revolution society magazines of the Shah in his gleaming medals\, or the 
 Shah’s wife Farah Pahlavi\, laughing in a park. He then inserts\, among 
 these\, the imagery of the Shahr-e-Ghesseh. Grainy cutouts of the animal-h
 eaded characters begin to appear in strange and unnerving relationships wi
 th the other characters\, until the Manouchehr-elephant’s head\, with it
 s misplaced tusk and docked trunk\, sits atop the Shah’s coronation unif
 orm.\n\nWhile some of the collages\, draped in columns of black and dayglo
  pink\, retain the glossy orderliness of the magazines that he has scoured
  for his material\; the hostile force of Ramin’s bearded\, screaming fac
 e tears through these images. Ramin becomes as an actor in these works\, w
 rapping himself in a chador to represent Iran’s fickle masses that\, in 
 their turmoil\, look nostalgically back to the time of the Shah. Even the 
 blackness of the chador calls to mind the thick black marker of the conser
 vative censor. At times these characters blow kisses to the Shah and Farah
  Pahlavi\, at others they look longingly to the exiled monarchy. His enrag
 ed face also raises questions about the assumed modesty-inducing effect of
  wrapping an entire nation in a black veil. This doesn’t quell the inner
  frustrations of the people\, he suggests\, nor does it stop their perhaps
  inherent ‘witchness’ (hence the brooms). \n\nWith this idea of Manouc
 hehr\, Ramin explores his own situation as an exile. In an affecting piece
 \, we see a veiled figure holding the severed head of the elephant in a sl
 ash of red paint and standing atop the map of Iran\, which has been made o
 f cutouts of the cast of the Shahr-e-Ghesseh. We are all Manouchehr\, Rami
 n says\, all those who are no longer able to fit into the ever-changing id
 entity that is Iran. Is it Islamic\, is it Persian\; what do these ideas m
 ean\, and how can we fit to that? Ramin points to the sacrifice of being r
 emade at home or remade as an exile in this work. \n\nAbout GALLERY ISABEL
 LE VAN DEN EYNDE (prev. B21)\nLocated in an industrial area near the centr
 e of Dubai\, GALLERY ISABELLE VAN DEN EYNDE (prev. B21) opened its doors i
 n 2005 with the founding objective to discover young promising contemporar
 y artists from the Middle-eastern region. Under Isabelle van den Eynde’s
  tutelage\, a new generation of artists began to attract the attention of 
 adventurous collectors and curators\, as well as prestigious institutions.
  Providing a platform for Middle-Eastern contemporary art\, GALLERY ISABEL
 LE VAN DEN EYNDE has showcased an intense and innovative program of exhibi
 tions\, publishing of a catalogue for each. Represented artists include: S
 hahriar Ahmadi\, Ahmad Amin Nazar\,  Reza Aramesh\, Fereydoun Ave\, Lara B
 aladi\, Bita Fayyazi\, Shadi Ghadirian\, Ramin Haerizadeh\, Rokni Haerizad
 eh\, Nargess Hashemi\, Khosrow Hassanzadeh\, Nadine Kanso\, Afshan Ketabch
 i\, Jeffar Khaldi\, Farshid Maleki\, Sabah Naim\, Leila Pazooki\, Hani Ras
 hed\, Arnaud Rivieren\, Jinoos Taghizadeh\, Shantia Zaker Ameli.\n\nPrivat
 e preview: March 14 from 7:30 PM\nExhibition dates: March 15 – April 16\
 , 2010\n\nMore info: http://www.ivde.net
DTEND:20100416T000000
DTSTART:20100314T000000
LOCATION:Dubai
SUMMARY:I’ll Huff and I’ll Puff
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