TEHRAN – Works by Iranian artists Reza Lavasani, Samira Alikhanzadeh and Ali Mirazimi will be put on display at the Venice Biennale this year.

The 58th edition of the international art exhibition, which has chosen the slogan “May You Live in Interesting Times”, will take place from May 11 to November 24. Ralph Rugoff, the current director of the Hayward Gallery in London, is the curator of the event.

Ali Bakhtiari is the curator of the exhibition, which will be organized at Iran’s pavilion under the title of “Of Being and Singing”, a verse from a poem by contemporary Iranian writer Mohammadreza Shafiei Kadkani.

“Works by these three artists are much closer to the world contemporary art,” Visual Arts Office director Hadi Mozaffari said in a press release published on Sunday.

“The exhibitors will help represent the art of Iran praising the glory of ‘being and singing’, the identities and memories as well as reality and dreams through their works,” he added.

“They actually try to showcase the global aspects of Iranian art through their specific works, different from what the world has seen and perceived about Iranian art,” noted Mozaffari, who is also Iran’s commissioner at the Biennale.

The artists have been selected by an expert team composed of painter Farah Osuli, art critic Amir Soqrati, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art director Ehsan Aqai, dean of the Art University Hassan Soltani and art scholar Mohsen Soleimani. 

Lavasani works in various media and will be taking a set of installation works named “Life” to the biennial.

Alikhanzadeh is scheduled to showcase a collection of digital prints created based on a series of old family photos.

Mirazimi also put on display a set of installation works on the perception of dreams. 

The Iranian pavilion is located at Fondaco Marcello, San Marco 3415.

Photo: “Life”, a papier-mache by Reza Lavasani. 

RM/MMS/YAW