This Fair which embraces all of Asia returns to the 8th arrondissement of Paris during the Fiac, with a platform entitled “Tehran Now”.
Last year, in the absence of the Fiac due to the health crisis, Asia Now was on the front line in Paris. This fall, the major modern and contemporary art fair returns to the Grand Palais Éphémère. “In 2020, Asia Now offered visitors a still journey. This year, collectors can travel again, from the United Kingdom, perhaps the United States, Japan, countries that should not be in quarantine logic. We expect more international fans. There is a very positive window of opportunity,” confides Alexandra Fain, the founder and director of the event. Big news: after India in 2020, Asia Now welcomes Iran for its 7th edition. “It is interesting to note that the Asian Society, in New York, integrates much of the Middle East into ‘West Asia’. It’s not just extreme Asia,” underlines Alexandra Fain. The objective? “Bringing their galleries and their artist’s visibility in Paris, while their country is going through a complicated moment, and inviting them to join the global conversation. Thanks to visas, they should be able to come to France,” she adds.
From west to east among the forty French and international galleries, nine brands from Tehran are present on the Iranian platform. These are +2, Aaran, Ab-Anbar, Ag, Azad Art, Bavan, Etemad, Mohsen and Saradipour. At the suggestion of Anahita Vessier and Tatiana Gecmen Waldeck, these galleries highlight around twenty artists established in Iran. Furthermore, the Iranian artist Sepand Danesh, living in Paris and exhibiting at the French Pavilion at the Universal Exhibition in Dubai this fall, created a sculpture for Asia Now. The Behnoode Art Foundation further presents artists Zartosht Rahim (Iran), Reza Lavasani (Tehran, Iran), Farshid Shafiey (Iran), Hossein Maher (Tehran, Iran), Farshido Larimian (Babol, Iran) and Mahmoud Obaidi (Iraq and Canada), as well as jackets created in collaboration with the latter. Still, within the framework of this focus, Odile Burluraux, curator at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, offers a video program of Iranian women artists. Called “Burning Wings”, dedicated to the poet Forough Farrokhzad, it brings together works by Morehshin Allahyari, Atousa Bandeh Ghiasabadi, Negar Behbahani, Samira Eskandarfar, Parisa Ghaderi, Elika Hedayat, Anahita Hekmat, Gelare Khoshgozaran, Shiva Khosravi, Tala Madani, Tahmineh Monzavi, Rojin Shafiei, and Sanaz Sohrabi.
https://www.artnewspaper.fr/2021/10/15/asia-now-regarde-vers-liran
