Exhibition Catalogue | English, Turkish | Category: Photography, Poetry, Conceptual Art
This catalogue was published for Shirin Neshat exhibition curated by Heinz Peter Schwerfel held at the Dirimart Nişantaşı between 10 May and 15 June 2013. It features 14 photographs of ‘mourners’ from The Book of Kings series of the artist together with a text by Heinz Peter Schwerfel and a piece by poet Jalal ad-din Muhammad Rumi.
Neshat’s ‘Mourners’ from her The Book of Kings series, inspired by the epic Shahnameh by Ferdowsi (940–1020), are based on portraits of individuals residing in the slums of Cairo, where the promise of freedom and democracy following the uprising against the Mubarak regime failed to materialise. Inscribed with Persian handwriting, the artist’s black and white portraits confront the viewer with human bodies that face a struggle against hegemony in this overly politicised region marked by covert violence and suppression. Schwerfel said, ‘This art, beyond the political engagement of Iran’s Green Movement and the mystique of the Arab Spring, is shaped by two opposing rhetorical systems that currently feud with each other on a global scale.’
