Amsterdam-Budapest and the focus on Iranian art

Earlier this month I have visited Amsterdam-based FOAM photography museum to check Kaveh Golestan's The Citadel 1975-77 photo documentary project of Tehran's Shahr-e No red light district. Literally translated as a "New City" Shahr-e No was an old 1920 neighborhood that got surrounded by walls in 1953 exclusively inhabited by female and young male prostitutes. The entrance to the ghetto where prostitutes were walking on the streets semi-naked was through one gate and only men were allowed to enter the citadel. 

Few weeks before the victory of the 1979 Islamic revolution the activists burned and demolished the "sin city" with undisclosed number of residents trapped inside, the survived inhabitants were later executed as a part of post-revolutionary cultural cleaning. The area has been converted into a recreational zone with a park and a pond. Thus, Golestan's photo archive is one of the few remained documentations that trace back nowadays unspoken and shameful part of Tehran city's history. Women most of whom he befriended during almost two year-lasting project are humanized through the lens of Kaveh's camera that captures natural, non-staged moments of their daily lives. Vintage photographs together with a newspaper compilation, Golestan's diaries and other materials such as Iranian authorities documents as well as audio-taped interviews of the women living in the citadel immersed me in their ambience of misery and despear. 

Shahr-e No's citadel 1920 plan

Kaveh Golestan's The Prostitutes series, 1975-1977. Source: artist's website

This week theme of Shahr-e No unexpectedly reappeared during my Hungarian Easter getaway at Budapest's Mûcsarnok with New-York based Shirin Neshat's small, but very powerful video installation exhibition. This first Budapest solo show comprises from a surrealistic two-channel 1993 Rapture video shot in Marocco and a twenty-minute chapter Zarin where the leading role is played by a Hungarian actress Orsi Tóth. This 2005 piece is about Shahr-e No resident Zarin who decided to flee the ghetto and her humiliating present. A part of the artist's bigger reclaimed project based on 1989 Women Without Men novel by Shahrnush Parsipur, this video chapter is aesthetically and eloquently reveals an unpleasant and controversial topic of women in society and their sexual exploitation.

Stills from Shirin Neshat's 2005 Zarin video 

Shirin Neshat's 2009 Silver Lion awarded Women Without Men trailer with English subtitles

Shirin Neshat's 2009 Silver Lion awarded Women Without Men full movie in Farsi

Post-screening discussion with Shirin Neshat and Shoja Azari

Note: Kaveh Golestan's exhibition in FOAM lasts until May 4, 2014 and Shirin Neshat's - April 27, 2014.

When Lady Gaga was not even born...

...there was a Dutch duet whose creations she would definitely wear. 

Gijs Bakker and Emmy Van Leersum, "couple from the year 2000", as they were called by a journalist covering their revolutionary show opening at Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum Edelsmeden 3 (Silversmith 3) back on May 12, 1967, were also partners in real life. In the first five years of their marriage they signed a number of jewelry designs with GIJS+EMMY stamps, represented by two plus signs. 

The duet placed great emphasis on the relationship between jewelry and human body and was the first to use industrial materials such as lightweight aluminum or hard, unruly stainless steel. Space theme, massive and unusual forms, choice of cheap and affordable materials are the main characteristics of their bold creations. 

Decades later, the museum decided to get back to the legendary and provocative designers by creating a temporary show (on view until August 24, 2014) inspired by 1967 exhibition.  

photos of the entry video reconstructing the 1967 show ambience

full video

Probably, these items have been inspiration for Maison Martin Margiela jewelry department

 

 ...and these for Philip Treacy's creations

"basic garments" rejecting the fashion dictates of Parisian haute couture

In 1967 show the garments were worn by designers' friends who shocked the visitors by appearing among them in these futuristic garments and later walked out in the streets of Amsterdam. One witness has claimed to see the "spacemen" while others found them quite "absurd romper suits"

In the port of Amsterdam...

... there is a lot of pretty things around. 

Today I spent half of the day rambling and randomly discovering them around. Love those moments when you are left to yourself and not constrained in time rambling in an arty neighborhood. These are the moments of pure enjoyment and excitement for me. I am missing this year's famous Salone del Mobile in Milan and while my today's stroll cannot nearly compete with the grandness and all kind of entertainment of Milan's show, I still enjoyed it: Amsterdam keeps on positively surprising me and each time revealing a new facet. 

The Frozen Fountain     

Very ordinary entrance did not promise much, but the vitrine with quite unordinary chair (Steltman chair designed by Gerrit Rietveld) dragged my attention. I was happy to step in as the store turned to be one of those hidden city gems that are not covered in any tourist guide. 

Steltman chair designed by Gerrit Rietveld and reissued by Rietveld Originals company are priced in the range from €1748 to €3745 depending on the materials

Heaven for interior designers, artists or slackers as I was today, the place contains furniture, textiles and art objects such as decorative rather than usable porcelain and ceramics....

Hybrid porcelain from Seletti inspired by the different dinnerwear in vintage shops

...also depicting animals obsessed with cakes...

...and even a night lamp from my favorite Amelie movie! 

Amelie lamp designed by Michael Sowa

Belarus-born Vika Mitrichenko in a witty manner using hand-decorated porcelain revitalizes Soviet sport trophies and commonly found "Girl with a Paddle"-type sculptures. In total, she made 13 variations with sometimes not fully clear text-engravings. I love and want them all! 

For saying that it is not so easy to bury one's talent in the earth

 For saying that life is not a sport competition after he was push aside by his colleagues from his position as head coach 

 For putting reproductions of the works from the futurist movement between the pages of a TV-program read by his mother-in-law

For saying that it is not so easy to bury one's talent in the earth

 For practicing his future coach talent being a coach to himself in his childhood

  For giving lectures on the history of art to his bedside neighbours in the hospital during his rehabilitation after a heart attack

  For devoting himself to his children after his career ended

  For saying to his boss Mr. V.B. a head of a sports committee that he is a stupid idiot

  For starting to visit artist studios and becoming interested in their works after he lost his position as head coach

Lamps...

Glass Fantasy lamps by Roos Kalff are made of stacked old glasswear, thus each lamp is unique, can be also customized and maybe that's why so expensive (almost €1300). To me it reminds Mike Kelley's John Glenn Memorial Detroit River Reclamation Project in which he used fragments of glass gathered alongside Detroit river, some dated back to the 1920-30s

Glass...

Masks by Melvin Anderson are inspired by African and Caribbean culture

Black Mirror by Bernard Heesen is a product of an inspiration from a tradition of hanging mirrors in the meeting rooms of Dutch cabinet. The result - cheerful and playful, but at the same time sinister neo-baroque objects

Bernard Heesen's creativity is in charge for these Waffle vases

The sweets topic is also covered in the photo project Sweet Coincidence by Nina Kopp and Joyce van den Berg - a study of the beauty and promise throughout the candy making process

 Leftovers of candy-making process were documented over a period of one year and resulted in over 240 photos of freakish remains of wannabe lollipops, lozenges and other sweet treats

Chairs...

Design by Marcel Wanders

The Continuous Story chairs by sculptor Harald Schole

Libertine Gallery

 Walls  

Jaski Gallery   

Michel Vanderheijden van Tinteren (b. 1965) and Roel Moonen (b. 1966), together Dutch duet Les Deux Garçons, actively involve morbid humor into production of their absurd sculptures that mix taxidermied animal heads with porcelain pieces purchased at auctions or through antique dealers.