I don't know what else to do with myself!*

9. December. 2006
Saturday / AK28
Krukmakargatan 28, Stockholm

Program
Video Screening 20:00
Artist Talk: 21:00
After Party: 22:00

artists: david blandy (uk), selim birsel (Belgium), amirali ghasemi
(tehran), unni gjertsen (norway), tsui kuang-yu (taiwan), adnan yildiz
(turkey)

curated by esther lu and adnan yildiz

Esther Lu and Adnan Yildiz invite us to a discussion around the
role-position of artist today in reference to the changing structures
of contemporary art. Today, artists are traveling a lot due to
residencies, biennials, grandiose exhibitions and etc. And they do not
like to be involved into these processes as "tourists" but they are
also somehow tourists in this game… In relation to their research in
Stockholm, Yildiz and Lu select inspirational videos in order to
trigger a discussion around how artist
deconstruct-fictionalize-establish-reproduce him/herself in/through
their works in this given traveling context. The curators introduce
the concept of 'universal traveler' and contextualize the issue around
the hot topics like ''new-internationalism", "mobile identities", "art
market-ing" and "globalization-alism".

AK28 is the venue of this show for its identity as being an artist-run space.
Supported by Cultural Division, Taipei Mission in Sweden

• a title of a song by white stripes is transformed.
• video screening is also the premiere of S.G.F.S. (survival guide for
stockholm), a research based curatorial project by Adnan Yildiz

Deeper Depression - call for entry

Parkingallery Presents:
Deeper Depression
A Group Contemporary Art Practice
Regulations:

Categories of submission are
A - New Media (Video / Audio / Interactive / Web)
In this category we accept demos for review (on CD/DVD/VHS), videos less than 6 min will have the opportunity to be played on our large screen, otherwise if you are about to submit a video artwork which is longer than 6 min we recommend you to set up your own TV plus VCD/DVD player in the gallery. We also accept Audio Artworks if they are less than 2 MB can be sent by e-mail & the one which are bigger must be send via post.
Interactive artworks should be mailed to us on a CD or if they are web based they can be uploaded in a website & the link can be submitted by e-mail.
B - Performance
Performance Projects can be submitted on paper including synopsis / concept, plus any kind of documentation like Photo, film & any other visual material is recommended.
C - Photography
We accept photos as individual or series less than 4 as Digital files for review, the area which is reserved for each photographer is 1.5 meters of wall in width.
D - Typography
Typographers are asked to send their artwork via e-mail or by post A4 (72 DPI for Email or An A4 Print for Post) the final size for the artworks will be 70x100 or 50x70 (Width X Height).
E - Flash Fiction
Flash Fiction, texts less than 500 words are accepted, the submissions should be typed & Emailed to us. A booklet of selected stories will be published within the period of exhibition.
F - Illustration/Painting
Digital photos are accepted for the review & should be mailed or e-mailed to us. The area which is reserved for each artist is 1.5 meters of wall in width.


Note 1: We also accept documentation videos of performances, installations & happenings…
Note 2: Photographers, illustrators, typographers and writers can work as a team & submit the result to the deeper depression project for example by illustrating a flash fiction or by using typography for a short story.
Note 3: We ask the international participants to send us a high resolution files as well to help us to produce a high quality large format print for the exhibition. National participants are also able to use discount from our sponsors.

Deadline:
15 May 2006

Address: No. 11, 4th Milad alley, Milad street, Dadman (Poonak Bakhtari) Blvd. Shahrak-e-Gharb Tehran 1468644371 Iran

Please send your Digital submissions to info[at]parkingallery[dot]com If you have any questions, please feel free to let us know: amiralionly[at]gmail[dot]com or Parkingallery Studio: +98 21 8 8077343

A Random Post for guardian talk found on pc today

"Routines can cause me massive sadness... I often try to take a different routs coming home...."

Wow! This is just like the way I lived my life since 9 years now just after I finished the high school! Every day I'm trying to do something new some thing that I've never done before! Or other wise I feel I'm trapped inside a useless circle … by living this way it was always hard for me to remain in a position/job for any period of time longer that 3 months! I only can accept short term projects & that's why I can't make sure to earn a fixed income in a month. It's like an adventure to be able to stay unstable but reliable!

Oh, My bad English again , of course the show did happened in Feb. 2004 in 2 galleries in 2 different locations one for the typography & photos (Atbin gallery) The other one Azad gallery was for the video & audio installation plus 5 performances ...
I was not satisfied with the result totally because I didn't let myself to select the people's submission, they are were accepted but a few pieces that the gallery owners deicide not to show for their own reasons, It was my first big curatorial project & my idea was to present an slice of what we -a new generation of Iranian contemporary artist, (what an ambitious title & what an ambitious goal!!!) - have to show to our audience!

But about "How do we represent pain killers?"
I think it not nessesrily meant to be a kind of pain killer
But some time the creation just make us feel better (for a weak example! don't you think it's pretty hard to tell if your neighbor didn't give birth to his sons, the life was much harder for her?) I know that its not fair to cause problems for others for the sake of solving one self's problem (here problem of being or living in this miserable world) , but when we are trying to change/create something to get rid of our current situation, (here some may create artworks or at least some artwork like stuff) I think It's an act for survival & in this hard attempt, it makes sense to me to have some thing like pain killer "that calms you down and/or let you continue" I believe we are surrounded by many type of Pain killer ranging from your favorite TV channel to cherry Ice cream & a from your newspaper to drugs! You add any sport, holidays, hobbies & etc to the list! They all work well; you only need to find the ones that really fit! They meant to set our mind on something else instead what is really going on (at least for short period of time!)
I might have sound a bit crazy in the previous paragraph but I've been thinking of this for a long time what do you think?

By any chance are you online? Reza!
It's depressing Friday evening in Tehran! I don't remember that it was sunny or cloudy...
I remembered to refer a short story about that clown who went to a psychologist, because he couldn't laugh any more, The psychologist offer him a ticket & said: There is a big circus in town take this ticket & I'm sure that you be laughing on the floor only if you see their clown!
He answered: I can't accept this sir! I can't watch the show while I'm performing it!

I don't mean that we are in entertainment business! but sometimes the sweetness of creating something may last very shortly ...

About my new collection Coffee shop Ladies

Follow the link & you can see the whole collection here!
Here is my statment for the
Coffee shop Ladies

Documentary photos taken by the artist from Tehran’s most popular cafes (or coffee shops as we call them here in Iran). Coffee shops in Iran are the symbol of social freedom to some degrees due to the absence of a proper public space. It’s a place where both splendidly motivated youngsters & intellectual brains gather, it’s also a meeting place for the journalists as well. The faces of young ladies in these photos are hidden by blank spaces (stickers). By reducing the level of information that each photo can offer to the visitors, the artist has tried to prevent the Media from easily misusing, manipulating or interrupting the image in a mass global scale.
But the connection isn’t lost completely as visitors (users) are let to explore an interactive program based on the photos to know more about these ladies by clicking & listening …

BIDOUN -- Current Issue

BIDOUN -- Current Issue
Recieved today from Antonia Carver
In its sixth issue, BIDOUN – the arts and culture magazine from the
Middle
East – turns its attention to the thorny subject of envy. Taking on
everything from the evil eye in Cairo to class structures in the
international art world, via American universities in the Gulf and fast
food
in Tehran, the issue is in turns witty, light, serious and polemical,
and
always highly original.

Artists commissioned for this issue of the magazine include Shirana
Shahbazi, a winner of the Citibank Photography Prize, and Istanbul
hotshots
Ahmet ?güt and Sener ?zmen, who have designed an unusual colouring book
for
readers. Our regular travel column peruses the international hotel
scene in
Baghdad; the architecture section looks at the legacy of XL Modernism
in the
Middle East; while the art, film, design, products, fashion and books
sections take in the latest developments in the diverse cultural life
of the
Middle East.

See http://www.bidoun.com/current/ for a contents list and some
articles

Iranian Poster Exhibition in Ogaki, Japan

From Posterpage:
Iranian Poster Exhibition in Ogaki
October 29 – November 26, 2005; Kanazawa University
Ogaki Poster Museum, Japan
Noboru Matsuura, Professor of Kanazawa University and the director of Ogaki Poster Museum invited Iranian poster designers to Ogaki Poster Museum for the Iranian Poster Exhibition in Japan. The exhibition is scheduled to open on October 29, 2005 through November 26, 2005.

Five international invitational poster exhibitions were held in this museum since now, that the well-known poster designers will take part in it from all around the world. Prof. Matsuura organized three periodical exhibitions: Polish Posters, 1999; Chinese Contemporary Posters, 2001 and 65 years Cuban Posters in 2003. He is also organizing Iranian Poster Exhibition now. This exhibition was organized by cooperation of the 5th Color.

He says: "Iranian posters have been drawing international attention in these years. This is mainly because people are taking a great interest in the Persian and Islamic culture. In other words the posters symbolize the fantastic culture of a specific country. I always think "Posters are art and message" and have introduced the masterpieces of posters from such countries as Poland, the United States, ex Soviet Union, Germany, Finland, Czech & Slovakia, Switzerland, France, China and Cuba. For this time of particular occasion I am thinking to introduce the posters of your country, Iran."

The list of Iranian designers are (click on the names to see the posters):
Majid Abbasi, Reza Abedini, Farzad Adibi, Morteza Akoochekian, Tahamtan Aminian, Majid Azadmanesh, Edik Boghosian, Maryam Enayati, Vahid Erfanian, Siamak Felizadeh, Farhad Fozouni, Amirali Ghasemi, Ebrahim Haghighi,Pedram Harby, Abdullah Kaviani, Ali Khorshidpour, Behrad Javanbakht, Saed Meshki, Morteza Momeyez, Davood Morgan, Alireza Mostafazadeh Ebrahimi, Iman M. Raad, Mehdi Saeedi, Bijan Sayfouri, Firouz Shafei, Ghobad Shiva, Farid Yahaghi.

The catalogue of exhibition was published by organizer. Please see the web site of the Ogaki Poster Museum for more information, and The 5th Color for pictures from the opening.
See the link in Perisan weblog in kargah.com

Q&A with Typo magazine Issue 15 2005

Present Iranian typography is different from western design. What do you think is the main difference between western and Iranian typography?

I believe one of the main differences is that the smallest typographic unit in Iranian typography is “word” as opposed to the “letter” in the western typography. Therefore the Iranian designer not only considers the relationships between the words but the different possibilities and relationships among the letters within a word as well.

In some countries, graphic design has very positive feedback from the general public. In others, it doesn’t draw much attention, at all. How does the Iranian society value the work of graphic designers?
The Iranian society has historically been and still is very much a literature based society visual are in the second or ever the third position in term of communication. I would say although the designers in the past couple of decades have been making an effort in spreading the visual culture; however the lack of emphasis on this field in education has raised a generation neutral towards visuals.


The development of western graphic design is strongly influenced by technology. Today, this mainly means computers. What is your approach to the computer as a tool?
For me its like a big helping hand, as my I receive my inspirations from the contemporary life of our society & my sources are mainly my digital photos from urban surfaces & found type objects that they need to be touched & edited to be ready for work, my generation stood up & started its career in the age of computer but I used to mix the hand & the new tool together to create my design atmosphere more personal & unique.


What are the roots of your work? To what extend are you influenced by contemporary western design? Do you adjust your work to the taste of western audience?
Contemporary Iranian cultural & social life which includes all sorts of opposition, high and low, popular and elite and western and eastern ethics and global.

I am and am not. I use western design to learn from but the western design doesn’t set my aesthetic taste.

No! To be honest I don’t care if they like it or not. But I have to mention that after nine /eleven as the political aspects & the western medias grabbed world’s attention to middle east & I think it had positive & negative sides for our design in one hand every design/culture product from these part of the world praised & celebrated by western audience, in other hand as these are waves that are coming & going, the proficiency in choosing good design from poor design is getting harder & harder… this specially can be marked out while we are talking about typography (here Persian typography).

What is the role of women in contemporary Iranian design?

What is the like in the rest of professional fields; women are becoming more active in the field of design as well. However unfortunately their voices are not as much heard because of the male oriented society in which we live in. I have to mention as women have powerful participation in illustration field that most of the design studios are directed by men.


Thanks to Nazgol Ansarinia for Editing my answers!
Follow the link & you see (or download) the PDF vesrion of the 15th issue of typo magazine including Reza Abedini's lecture on persian type & typography...

2 Posters by Rana & bahador shojapour;EEM exhibition

I took this picture at the opening of eem exhibition in arya gallery...2 Posters by Rana & Bahador Shojapour

Newsblog on parkingallery.com

I added a newsblog to parkingallery ...
I mean I replaced the old hand made plain html version with a blog!! You still can reach it via this linkThere some coming events That I will write about... just as a warm up, there will be a poster exhibition in parkigallery soon!!!...
Stay tuned!!
PS: I could never made the revolution in side parkingallery without my old friend Shervin Afshar !Thanks Shervin!

Parkingallery.com's 4th anniversary

Its Parkingallery.com's 4th anniversary... So silent, so alone, after a 1 month fight to renew the Domain name & find a porper web hosting, the site is still on the old server, I hate Iranian service providers, I spent 60$ to renew the domain this year but after passing 2 middle hand companies i just could register it for one year...
Any way parkingallery will be updated soon as soon as I can transfer it to the new server , we will have new artists plus new projects which I will let you know but I know that no one read my blog...
these are some letters that will be lost in huge dark networks ahead
be tuned!!!

Chargoosh group poster exhibition in Isfahan

click on the link to see the review....

Parkingallery: Exhibition & Event Reviews

Group Portrait exhibition by Shahab Fotouhi, Neda Razavipour, Jinoos Tagizadeh, Barbad Golshiri Behrang Samadzadegan June 24- July 6 Khak Art Gallery, TehranAssemblage; It wasn't an outstanding exhibition at all! I can easily call it an assemblage; by knowing this fact which some of the participating artists owe a big debt to circle of tehranavenue.com e-magazine for their support promotion & some other contribute frequently for the magazine.

While Jinoos tagizadeh & Behrang Samadzadegan are repeating their semi successful careers in previous exhibitions, Heavy influence of literature on Barbad Golshiri's artworks never left him alone; Fascinated by himself to death standing with his funny award to pose all that he has in his hands, plus quoting is an almost old-fashion trick these days (any one can read philosophy books!), that it seems that he can't can't avoid because of his celebrity-like success during past two years; Yes they are self portraits but although the message is lost & they can't go any further than large format printed show offs ... but to be honest we have to wait & see the artist's collection "odyssey - I ".

Census by Shahab Fotouhi & Neda Razavipour was made to be shown in Colombia University few years ago & it's a little bit carelessly edited: "We still have a bunch of unused materials ..." says Neda Razavipour. The whole story was filmed during their big big project with atisaz residential complex. Masoume Mozafari's old portraits can't connect visitor's mind with any other artworks in the exhibition.they are as good as always but what they are doing here among these so called post modern artworks?!

The curator(s) the exhibition can't be proud on this unless believing (or claiming) that these are an un-perceptible variety of pieces ranging from rubbish to fine artworks under title of a portrait exhibition!

"Word for word" video Installation by Amirali Ghasemi (installed in azad art gallery ,Tehran

Parkingallery.com; Transition :Installation in Azad Art Gallery TehranA light torch was given to every visitor who wanted to participate in the installation, then the attendees were asked to stand in front of the camera while a video collection of random short clips, taken of Tehran's flickering neon lights (taken in the streets from restaurants, shops, supermarkets & ...) was played in the background.The result was recorded & screened live on the other screen. The combination of random people who frequently participated & agreed to stand on the spot and comercial neon words created & introduced an enormous wide range of new expressions & meanings.
Amirali Ghasemi BA in Graphic Design Azad University , Faculty of Art Tehran

Work experience:

• Graphic design: since 1998

• Photography: digital & analouge since 1997

• Director of Parkingallery art space since 1998

• Web design & photography instruction in the Parkingallery Studio since 2000

• Co-production of 4 short documentary films 2000-2005

• Design of Meera band's back projection clips, Feb. 2003

• Design of Dna band's back projection clips, Oct 2003

• Design of 127 band's back projection clips, May 2004 (with Reza Haeri)

Exhibitions:

30 group & solo exhibitions in Tehran Art Galleries , including 5 drawing exhibitions & 12 graphic design exhibitions & 6 video installations

Awards:

- Fifth Prize of the 2001 Tokoha CG Art (Computer Generated Art) Exhibition for the “Portrait of Forough (an Iranian Poetess)”, Jan. 2002, Tokoha Art Museum , Tokoha , Japan

- Second Prize of the Web and Multimedia section for the design of the site: “www.iranianprofile.com,” at the 7th Biennial of Iranian Graphic Designers' Artworks, March 2002

Participation:

• Participation in Annex section of the 8th International Iranian Photo Exhibition 1998, Tehran Contemporary Art Museum , Tehran , IRAN

• Participation in ‘Under 21 Year-old' & ‘Experimental' sections of the First Tehran International Contemporary Drawing Exhibition, Dec.1999/Jan. 2000, Tehran Contemporary Art Museum, Tehran, IRAN

• Participation in the First Self Promotional Posters Exhibition by Iranian Graphic Designers, Spring 2001, Tehran Contemporary Art Museum , Tehran , IRAN

• Participation in the 2001 Tokoha CG Art Exhibition, Tokoha Museum of Art , Tokoha , JAPAN

• Participation in the 7th Biennial of Iranian Graphic Designers' artworks, February/March 2002 Niavaran Cultural Center Art Gallery , Tehran , IRAN

• Participation in the 9th Competition – Exhibition of Students' Posters in the frame of the 13th Festival of Posters at Chaumont: «Etudiants, Tous à Chaumont» with the title « L'Image du Monde/Le monde des Images» (World of Images/Image of the World), June 2002, Chaumont , France

• Dancing Fan in Iran 's Pavilion in Venice as Selected Collection by TMCA Sep 2002

• Participation in 2002 German poster museum exhibition: "Children Are The Rhythm of the World" in Essen , Germany [see poster here].

• Participation in 2002 1st Korean International Poster Biennial cultural poster, Nov. 2002 [see poster here]

• Participation in 10th Competition – Exhibition of Students' Posters in the frame of the 14th Festival of Posters at Chaumont: «Etudiants, Tous à Chaumont» under the title «Drugs: Pleasures, Hazards, Addictions», June 2003, Chaumont , France

• Participation in Un Cri Persan (graphistes d' iran ): Persian Shout (Iranian graphic design exhibition) as an IGDS member, Chaumont , France , Sep 2003 [see posters here]

• International Art Blog Online exhibition organized by the centre of attention gallery London , Sep 13th - Oct 13th,2003

• Participation in 8th Tehran International Poster Biennial February/March 2004, Khial Art Gallery , Tehran , IRAN [see poster here]

• Participation in the 9th Tehran International Photography Biennial June July 2004, Khial Art Gallery , Tehran , IRAN.

Featured in Art Magazines such as Bidoun (UAE), Freize (UK), Etapes (France) , (2+3)D (Polland), Typo (Czech Republic), Neshan (Iran) Andishe-e-Iranshar (Iran) & Tasvir :Image Of the year (Iran) .And Iranian Newspapers such as Akhbar, Entekhab & Iran newspaper.

website: amiralighasemi.com

Lomo LC-A // the show is over // the show must go on

Lomo LC-A // the show is over // the show must go onThe Bad News: Lomo LC-A Production has stopped

Listen closely and take a seat. Here is the bad news first. The original and one-and-only Lomo LC-A camera has been taken out of production. Some of the most beautiful items ever created (the original VW bug, Constellation, Tupolev, Concorde and Illushin airplanes, Polaroid SX-70's, Olivetti typewriters, Lambretta scooters, Commodore 64 computers, Wacker Innsbruck, etc.) have disappeared despite the enormous love and respect that they command. According to the LC-A's Russian factory (LOMO PLC), the LC-A has proven too expensive to continue given their existing structure. As they no longer produce any cameras outside of the LC-A, they lost key manufacturing synergies. Engineers and craftsmen experienced in 35mm cameras are a dying breed. Wages and energy costs have skyrocketed. Our beloved LC-A consists of 450 individual parts, and is extremely labor-intensive to construct. The days of its precise assembly by hand have come to an end and its production is no longer cost-effective within their new structure.

Just After Boring Holidays

I'm back again I'm working on a new weblog in persian too, that's why I'm not writing here often. But forgive me I promise to update this on time & here is some NEWS
I have my Yellow poster for our video exhibition in Chamount's International competition ...
I'm working on my website to a total re-new I will be available soon I made a set of new poster with that illustrations which I MADE in Feb .We will have 3 exhibitions in spring
2 poster exhibitions in the holy city of Qom in a caltural center & another in Isfahan's contemporaray art museum ... the 1st one is realy excites me as Qom is like Vatican with a totaly religious atmosphere I'm looking forward to see how they think about our posters ....
we are adding some new poster to that CHARGOUSH exhibition which we had in Mashhad ...
& Reza abedini is on tour around the world .... here & there in workshops &
exhibitions ...
The other exhibition includes some video artworks & some installations ... We are 3 graphic designers, one video artist & one musician ... I'm working on a video artwork based on neon types in Tehran oposite to some of my photos the other designers are NAZGOL ANSARI NIA ( I will post A page for her soon on parkingallery she is very clever & talented she studied in UK & USA & now she teaches in a univercity in Tehran ) & Iman RAAD

Live from the IRIS

Live from the IRISNina & Amirali

My feelings

I heard many good news this week but I feel very bad, I normaly don't write about my feelings here just links & news some how but parkingallery need some new artists & new energy as fanoosphoto.com is uploading a page for every young talented photographer in parkingallery I dont know whats the use my visitors are more & i have better design acualy every artist has his/her page with specific design not just uniforms, any way I feel that I'm loosing them .... I'll keep working till I die....

Rene Wanner's Poster Page / News

Rene Wanner's Poster Page / News A poster by Amirali Ghasemi & Iman Raad on the 1st page of Rene wanner's Posterpage.ch ....
Thanks Rene!

Parkingallery: Exhibition & Event Reviews

Parkingallery: Exhibition & Event Reviews
Chargoush exhibition in Mashhad

[CHAR-GOOSH] Group Poster Exhibition by Reza Abedini, Morteza Akoochakian, Maryam Enayati, Farhad Fozouni, Amirali Ghasemi, Behrad Javanbakht, Iman Raad, Reyhaneh Sheikhbahaei, Soha Shirvani in Mashad 29 dec. 2004- 6 jan. 2005 (9- 17Dey1383 ) -9 am-8pm

Opening: 29 dec.-5 pm


Address:Shariati complex, Sera Adabiat,Mashad

SEE the parkingallery's review here!

iranian.com: Posters, photo essay, , Amirali Ghasemi

iranian.com: Posters, photo essay , Amirali Ghasemi I'm on Iranian.com's this month's feature, I will be glad to know your Idea too....