Parastou Forouhar

Parastou Forouhar
Born 1962 (age 53–54)
Tehran, Iran
Education University of Tehran,
College of Art Offenbach, Germany
Known for Political art
Website http://www.parastou-forouhar.de/

Parastou Forouhar (born 1962 in Tehran)[1] is an Iranian installation artist who lives and works out of Frankfurt, Germany. Forouhar’s art reflects her criticism of the Iranian government and often plays with the ideas of identity.[2] Her artwork expresses a critical response towards the politics in Iran and Islamic Fundamentalism. The loss of her parents fuels Forouhar’s work and challenges viewers to take a stand on war crimes against innocent citizens. Forouhar's work has been exhibited around the world including Iran, Germany, Russia, Turkey, England, United States and more.

Bibliography

Early life and education

The daughter of political activist Parvaneh Forouhar and politician Dariush Forouhar, Parastou was born in 1962 in Tehran, Iran.[3] Her father critiqued the Iranian government and he founded and led the Hezb-e-Mellat-e Iran (Nation Party of Iran), which was a pan-Iranist opposition party in Iran.[4] Her parents were murdered in the autumn of 1998,[5] and Parastou relocated to Germany, where she has continued her work.[3] She lives in exile because she is considered a political threat by the Iranian government.[6]

Parastou studied Art at the University of Tehran from 1984 until 1990, where she earned her B.A., and went on to earn her M.A. from College of Art Offenbach, Germany in 1994.[3]

Work

Forouhar's work is autobiographical in nature and responds to the politics that have shaped and defined contemporary Iranian citizenship both in Iran and abroad.[7] She works within a range of media including site specific installation, animation, digital drawing, photography, signs and products. Forouhar uses culturally specific motifs found within traditional Iranian arts such as Islamic calligraphy and Persian miniature painting to question the ways these forms can generate a lack of individual agency while adhering to a standardized understanding of beauty and cultural identity.[1]

In 2012 she received the Sophie Von La Roche Award in recognition for her work that confronts issues concerning displacement, gender and cultural identity.[8]

Solo exhibitions of Forouhar's work have been held at Stavanger Cultural Center, Norway; Golestan Art Gallery, Tehran; Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum fur Gegenwart, Berlin; City Museum, Crailsheim, Germany; and German Cathedral, Berlin.[9] She has participated in group exhibitions at Schim Kunsthalle, Frankfurt; Frauenmuseum Bonn; Museum of Modern Art, Frankfurt; Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum, Joanneum, Graz, Austria; House of World Cultures, Berlin; Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden; Jewish Museum of Australia, Melbourne; and Jewish Museum San Francisco.[9]

Her work can be found in the following permanent collections: The Queensland Art Museum, Queensland; Belvedere, Vienna; Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe; Museum of Modern Art, Frankfurt; and the Deutsche Bank Art Collection.[1]

In 2002, the Iranian Cultural Ministry censored Forouhar's photo exhibition, Blind Spot, a collection of images depicting a veiled, gender-neutral figure with a bulbous, featureless face. Forouhar chose to exhibit the empty frames on the wall on opening night instead of forgoing the show.[9]

Forouhar and her brother got involved in activism after their parents got brutally murdered and they weren't allowed to publicly mourn or speak out about their deaths. Her artwork critiques the Iranian government and focuses on examining her identity and culture.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Parastou, Foruhar (2010). Parastou Forouhar: Art, Life and Death in Iran. London,UK: Saqi Books. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-86356-448-2.
  2. ↑ "Parastou Forouhar | Feminist Art Archive". courses.washington.edu. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  3. 1 2 3 Forouhar, Parastou. "Vita". Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  4. 1 2 "Parastou Forouhar". Feminist Art Archive. Retrieved 5 March 2016. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
  5. ↑ Forouhar, Parastou. "Dokumente zur Aufklärung der politischen Morde an Parwaneh und Dariush Forouhar" (in German). Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  6. ↑ "Parastou Forouhar, Biography: Social & Historical Context". Feminist Art Archive. Retrieved December 28, 2014.
  7. ↑ Forouhar, Parastou (2010). Parastou Forouhar: Art,Life, and Death in Iran. lONDON, uk: SAQI. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-86356-448-2.
  8. ↑ "Artist from Iran wins Sophie von La Roche award - BBC News". BBC News. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  9. 1 2 3 Maura Reilly, Linda Nochlin, ed. (2007). Global Feminisms. London: Merrell Publishers Limited. p. 273. ISBN 978-1-8589-4390-9.
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