Process of transformation is central to Atashi’s practice, whereas the reactions in between the different materials, seemingly irreconcilable in their nature, create a connection. Atashi’s landscapes are in resistance, she says, they provide the conceptual ground for addressing the native, ecological and environmental complexities in relation to energy, memory and transformation - whereas the landscape can be thought both in a micro and macro dimension. The self becomes a material in these landscapes, it is a found object which can be amplified, modified and documented. Atashi creates complex sign systems, in an endeavour to form the reality and change the past. Atashi’s sign systems may require more than our full attention to be deciphered, as magic is forming and reforming reality.
Along with the exhibition Safe Landing APART prepared together with a team of curators Laura Amann, Frederica Bueti and Sara Giannini a profile publication of the artist. In addition to the curatorial texts the publications also contains a contribution of a Slovak visual artist Martin Vongrej, a common textual-visual conversation with Mehnrahe Atashi. Safe Landing is the first solo exhibition of Mehraneh Atashi in Slovakia and Eastern Europe.
APART collective has for the first time encountered with the work of Mehraneh Atashi at the group exhibition DUST in Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw. Her work Entropy Pump (2013) struck their attention. Earlier this year members of APART visited Mehraneh in Amsterdam and then agreed on common project for The HIT Gallery in Bratislava. The work of the artist were premiered in Slovakia in June as a part of an international project Forming of Inevitable Blue, curated by the APART collective.
Mehraneh Atashi was born in 1980 in Tehran and is currently living in Amsterdam, where she was a resident at the Rijksakademie in 2013/14. Her work was presented in several gallery and museum exhibitions, including at the Galerie Gabriel Rolt, Amsterdam (2016),Luckman Gallery, California State University, Los Angeles (2016), Triumph gallery, Moscow (2016), Centre for Contemporary Art at Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw (2015) Victoria & Albert Museum, London (2012), the Musee du Quai Branly, Paris (2009/2007) and in other exhibithions and venues.
APART @ HIT GALLERY
