workshops

collaborative project history of art photo-based project Text-Image installation Text-Object Installation video

  • The Unknown History of Memory and Isolation

    led by Amirhossein Khorshidfar and Bahar Ahmadifard.

    During this workshop, participants will learn about the most influential authors, literary movements, novels, and theories that form the main branches of the European novel. However, the novel’s history will be studied alongside critical theory and the history of visual arts.

    Although there are no restrictions on linking arts and literature with arbitrary references, it is not particularly helpful. Nevertheless, based on this linguistic convention, we can imagine art and literature as vast spaces, with at least one side touching the other during this workshop. In this case, we should ask ourselves whether there are moments, sparks or turning points in the novels of the 20th century that act as gaps, cracks or holes in the long and thick wall between literature and visual arts, allowing light to pass from one side to the other.

  • Future: as a Point of Departure

    led by Amirhossein Khorshidfar and Bahar Ahmadifard

    “Future: as a Point of Departure” is a collaborative educational program inspired by the concept of Prospective Archeology by the philosopher and media theorist Siegfried Zielinski and formed on “The History of Persian Music” by Ruhollah Khaleqi. First, we will jointly read the text of the History of Persian Music (which has outstanding and unrecognized potential ) and study its historical framework regarding Nasir al-Din Shah’s diary and “All Those Years without Memory,” written by Alireza Mashayekhi.
    In the next stage, the main concept of the “Future: as a Point of Departure” project is to release and realize the locked forces of the Persian novel. What has been fundamentally reversed in this composition is that the departure point is outside of Persian literary texts but is inclined toward the future Persian novel. The History of Persian Music is a real example of intertextuality and combines history, literary self-portrait, music encyclopedia, lived experience, and autobiography.
    Under a common framework, each workshop participant follows one of the aspects of the text in an independent project in their artistic media. While the final works are autonomous, we hope these projects will establish an enlightening and meaningful association, just like the components of a unique constellation.

  • The Language Experience: Defensive Preparation

    Language Experience

    led by Amirali Ghasemi and Bahar Ahmadifard

    How to defend our work? How can the artist’s statement, the concept of the work, the technical description of the work, its certification, and related negotiations be written in eloquent and coherent language? How to prepare for a cultural residency in a foreign country? How to talk about your artistic reflections with some who doesn’t speak the same first language? How do you buy the needed materials or explain the installation procedures to someone in charge of installing our work? How to manage the contract terms so there would be fewer troubles and misinterpretations in the future, and finally, how to cooperate with the curator and exhibition designer and express demands and words of teamwork.