Comprehensive Exhibition on Iranian Director Illustrates Range of His Work over Five Decades

 

 

Abbas Kiarostami

 

 

EXHIBITION:                Abbas Kiarostami: Image Maker

DATES:

March 1-May 26, 2007 (film retrospective, MoMA)

March 1-May 28, 2007 (media installation, MoMA)

February 11-April 29, 2007 (photography and media installation, P.S.1)

                                   

ORGANIZATION:

Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film, and Klaus Biesenbach, Chief Curator, Department of Media, The Museum of Modern Art, and Chief Curatorial Advisor, P.S.1.

 

PRESS VIEWINGS:

Monday, February 26

Press screenings in Titus 2 theater:
10:00 a.m.                    The Wedding Suit (1976; 54 min.) followed by

And Life Goes On (1991; 91 min.)

 

Thursday, March 1

9:30-10:30 a.m.             Viewing: Media Gallery, MoMA

 

11:00 a.m.-noon           Viewing: P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center

Artist and curators present at both.

 

 

IMAGE: From Trees and Crows. 2006.
A series of 17 C-prints
28 1/2 x 41 1/4"
Collection of the Iranian Art Foundation, New York

 

 

CONTENT: Abbas Kiarostami: Image Maker is the most comprehensive North American exhibition ever presented on the Iranian artist. The three-part exhibition, which is co-presented by The Museum of Modern Art and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, in collaboration with the Iranian Art Foundation, comprises 33 short and feature films (including premieres and newly struck prints), two media installation works, and an exhibition of photographs featuring selections from three separate series including Rain, being exhibited for the first time.

 

 

 

IMAGE: From Rain. 2006.
A series of 7 C-prints
28 1/2 x 41 1/4"
Collection of the Iranian Art Foundation, New York

 

 

The moving image and photographic work of Abbas Kiarostami (Iranian,  b. 1940) is characterized by a distinct personal style, employing contemplative, philosophical themes coupled with a lyrical translation of Neorealism into modernist terms. The retrospective in the Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters includes 33 of Kiarostami's shorts and feature works, such as Through the Olive Trees (1994); A Taste of Cherry (1997), which won the Golden Palm at Cannes; The Wind Will Carry Us (1999), winner of the Grand Special Jury Prize at Venice; and Ten (2002). The media installation in MoMA's Yoshiko and Akio Morita Gallery comprises separate projections of each of the five parts of the artist's 2004 feature Five

 

At P.S.1, the exhibition of Kiarostami's photographic work, on which he has been concentrating since the mid-1990s, includes selected works from two celebrated series: Snow White (1978-2003) and Roads and Trees (1978-2003). Photographs from the new series Rain (2006) and Trees and Crows (2006) will also be exhibited. In addition, P.S.1 presents the premiere of the installation Summer Afternoon (2006).

 

 

 

IMAGE: From Trees and Crows. 2006.
A series of 17 C-prints
28 1/2 x 41 1/4"
Collection of the Iranian Art Foundation, New York

 

 

ABOUT THE CURATORS: Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art, has been with the Museum since 1984. At MoMA, she has organized annual programs such as Premiere Brazil! and Global Lens, as well as Prix Jean Vigo (2006), a yearlong celebration of French film, and Bright Stars, Big City: Chinese Cinema's First Golden Era, 1922-1937 (2005). She is a member of the selection committee for New Directors/New Films. Her publications include: Benjamin Christensen: An International Dane (1999), "Four Decades of Brazilian Cinema" in Cinema Novo and Beyond (1998), and monographs on Carl Th. Dreyer (1994) and Bela Tarr  (2001) as well as interviews and articles for newspapers in the United States and abroad.

 

Klaus Biesenbach is Chief Curator, Department of Media, The Museum of Modern Art and Chief Curatorial Advisor at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center. At MoMA he organized Douglas Gordon: Timeline (2006) and co-organized Doug Aitken: sleepwalkers (2007) with Peter Eleey, Curator and Producer, Creative Time. In 2005 he co-organized New Works/New Acquisitions with Ann Temkin, Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, and collaborated with Roxana Marcoci, Curator, Department of Photography, on the reinstallation Take Two. Worlds and Views: Contemporary Art from the Collection. He is the founding director of KW (Kunst-Werke) Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin; was a member of the international jury of the 1997 Venice Biennale; co-organized the "hybrid workspace" of Documenta 10 in Kassel (1997); directed the Berlin Biennale in 1998, and cocurated the Shanghai Biennale in 2002. At P.S.1 he organized Into Me/Out of Me (2006) and co-curated the Greater New York exhibitions in 2000 and 2005. Mr. Biesenbach also organized the P.S.1 presentation of Roth Time: A Dieter Roth Retrospective, held at MoMA QNS and P.S.1 in 2004.

 

SPONSORSHIP: Abbas Kiarostami: Image Maker is co-presented by The Museum of Modern Art and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, in collaboration with the Iranian Art Foundation.

The exhibition is made possible by The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art and by Sheila and Hassan Nemazee with additional support from Herb and Simin Allison and the Persepolis Foundation.

 

Exhibitions at P.S.1 are made possible by the Annual Exhibition Fund.

 

TRAVEL: The exhibition will travel to Berkeley Museum and Pacific Film Archive (July 2007) and Los Angeles County Museum (Fall 2007)

 

 

 

IMAGE: from Bad mara khahad bourd (The Wind Will Carry Us)
(1999), directed by Abbas Kiarostami
SCREENING: 7 and 16 March
COPYRIGHT: © New Yorker Films
COURTESY: New Yorker Films/Photofest

 

Public Information:

 

The Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019

 

Hours: Wednesday through Monday: 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Friday: 10:30 a.m.-8:00 p.m. Closed Tuesday.

 

Museum Admission: $20 adults; $16 seniors, 65 years and over with I.D.; $12 full-time students with current I.D. Free, members and children 16 and under.  (Includes admittance to Museum galleries and film programs)

 

Target Free Friday Nights 4:00-8:00 p.m.

 

Film Admission: $10 adults; $8 seniors, 65 years and over with I.D. $6 full-time students with current I.D.  (For admittance to film programs only)

 

Subway: E or V train to Fifth Avenue/53rd Street

Bus:  On Fifth Avenue, take the M1, M2, M3, M4, or M5 to 53rd Street.  On Sixth Avenue, take the M5, M6, or M7 to 53rd Street.  Or take the M57 and M50 crosstown buses on 57th and 50th Streets.

The public may call 212/708-9400 for detailed Museum information. Visit us on the Web at www.moma.org

 

 

P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center
22-25 Jackson Avenue at 46th Avenue in Long Island City, Queens, NY, 11101

 

Hours: Thursday through Monday, 12:00 to 6:00 p.m. Closed Tuesday and Wednesday.

 

Admission:      $5 (suggested donation); $2 seniors, 65 years and over with I.D.; $2 full-time students with current I.D.; free for MoMA members and MoMA admission ticket holders. The MoMA ticket must be presented at P.S.1 within thirty days of date on ticket and is not valid during Warm Up or other P.S.1 events or benefits.

 

Directions:       P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center is located at 22-25 Jackson Avenue at 46th Avenue in Long Island City, Queens, across the Queensboro Bridge from midtown Manhattan. It is also easily accessible by bus and subway.

 

Subway: E or V to 23 Street-Ely Avenue (note that the V does not run on weekends); 7 to 45 Road-Courthouse Square; or the G to Court Square or 21 Street-Van Alst.

Bus: Q67 to Jackson and 46th Avenues or the B61 to Jackson Avenue. 

 

Further information available at www.ps1.org and www.wps1.org