The Vista Contemporary Art Awards aims, as with the previous years, to discover and introduce top ideas in visual arts and is now in the later stages of its 3rd annual run. A belief in the importance of the process of developing unique, creative ideas which lead to artworks that are authentic, valuable and, at the same time, contemporary and in harmony with world art approaches and trends forms the foundation of the cash prize competition/cultural support. Holding an exhibition showcasing the top 10 ideas, preceded by the juries selecting from the countless submitted proposals, and followed by providing the means for the top winning idea to be realized in the gallery, bear witness to the fact that the Awards’ founders value the unrivaled place of idea generation processes and point of view creation mechanisms leading to creative actions in the form of contemporary artwork and wish for the growth of this essential notion that helps Iranian art survive and flourish. The Vista Contemporary Art Awards is hopeful that it has succeeded, as it has in the past, in achieving its three primary goals, namely, (1) identifying and introducing top, innovative ideas in Iranian contemporary art, (2) valuing the writing of project proposals and artist’s statements and the processes of art creation, operational planning, and budget estimation, and (3) content creation and media coverage for top ideas with the goal of enriching the Iranian knowledge and culture. The 3rd Vista Contemporary Art Awards juries, Nazgol Ansari-nia, Rozita Sharaf-jahan, Parisa Pahlavan, Hamid Severi, Behnam Kamrani, and Behrang Samadzadegan, evaluated the submitted proposals based on criteria such as contemporaneity, theoretical basis, practicability, and having cultural potentials. No theme was specified for the competition and contestants were free to submit works done in any medium and with any subject matter. Following this year’s call for entries, the juries received a total of 187 proposals, 19 of which were selected after dozens of specialized review and discussion sessions and their artists were invited to separately defend their proposed ideas before the jury panel. The interview sessions resulted in the selection of 9 proposals from 10 artists to enter the semi-final stage, be featured in the exhibition showcasing the top ideas, which is to be held at Vista Art Gallery in the winter of 2020, and compete for the place of final winner. The finalists are: Oldouz Nabizadeh, Iman Jesmi, Aysa Rashidi, Hamidreza Azad, Sanahin Babajanians, Samira Rahbani, Shauna Abdullahian and Ehsan Alizadeh, Kolsoum Salehi, and Houfar Haghighi. It should be noted that although proposals in every contemporary visual art form, such as painting, photography, sculpture, video art, and installation, were welcomed by the Vista Awards and eligible for consideration, most of the submissions were installation ideas.

 

Symphony of Despair

Hamidreza Azad
1993, Amol
Painting
His paintings and videos are shown in a number of group exhibitions

Statement

The sound is a kind of energy which is made by the action of particulate matter, in such a way that a particle makes sound waves by hitting another one. By this action sound will be spread.
The sounds like other energies are always around us and have a necessary role in recognition and vividness of our surroundings. By saying vividness, we mean to emphasize more on concepts transmission, process and perception of feelings confronting with phenomenon. If we put our assumptions on the origin of the survival of the energy, we can almost say that the sounds around us will never be destroyed. Now we suppose a place that all the sounds gathered there and all doomed to an eternal repetition. One can receive irregular pattern of sound which is formed by the sounds of all things that are able to produce sound. In this set, the aim is to bring about the experience of being in a place that by sound, an archived history will be spread for audience; either nonlinear or artificial. Among other facilities of this work, we can mention a microphone which will be turned on a few hours of the day and the sound will be disconnected and the general light will come back to the auditorium. In this moment the audience can add their voices to the record in the microphone in order to be played on the next level. The historiography of this work contains the turning points of history which included human beings errors, successes and adversity. For instance, moments like launching a spacecraft for the first time, the speeches for war announcements, human rights statement, the extinction of a special kind of animals, etc. the sound file will be started from a spot that human being is not able to talk and is leading to intelligent human with a evolutional rhythm. In all stages, sounds from the nature will grieve in the lamentation of human beings decline.

 

Sanahin Babajanians

1991, Tehran
MA in painting

Group Exhibitions:

Kamaloldin Behzad Art Gallery- Tehran 2010
Mokaab Art Gallery- Tehran 2010
Khorshid Art Gallery- Tehran 2011
Zarna Art Gallery- Tehran 2011
Kamaloldin Behzad Art Gallery- Tehran 2012
Idea Parsi Art Gallery- Tehran 2014
Alzahra university- Tehran 2016
Mah Art Gallery- Tehran 2019
Solo Exhibitions:

Farmanfarma Art Gallery – Tehran 2019

Art Festivals And Awards:

Jokal Art festival- Pardis Mellat Art Gallery- Tehran 2017
Jokal Art Festival- Pardis Mellat Art Gallery- Tehran 2019
Winner of Mohsen Projects- Mohsen Art Gallery- Tehran 2019

Statement

The presented work is a structure designed by elements derived from Islamic-Iranian and Christian-Armenian architecture which represents the inevitable duality Armenians have to tackle in Iran. This so-called twofold sensation (thousand fold in actuality) that the work is trying to depict is a challenge felt not only by us Armenians but anyone living in the modern world, the consequences of which are undeniable.

This is a single wooden structure with a hexagonal[1] base, arched walls and a rib vault [2]designed with decorative elements spread around it. The hexagonal basis is 470×470 mm, each wall 1009×740 mm and the dome 110 mm high, which makes a structure of 1200×1480 mm. The whole piece will be made of ply wood of different thicknesses, between 9 and 18 mm relating the requirements. The inner part of the work is going to be supported by six triangular cutouts of the same material. Lastly some textures will be applied on the whole surface preparing the grounds of the paintings which will be eventually added to the work, thereby supporting the general concept.

For the work to be made there will be the need for the wooden pieces to be cut by CNC machines of different dimensions. The pieces will be put together using different glues which have been selected accordingly to the general material, height and weight. To make sure of the stability of the work some metal supports will be added to the inner part of the piece.

craze

Iman Jesmi
1984، Mashhad
MA, Composing

Statement 

So many sounds that were silenced by our presence, so many conversations disrupted by our being and all the lives destroyed by our passage. Being is not always life-giving. At times, being can be an end to the life of what was once there. A life ended as a result of our passage. 

‘’Craze’’ is attempting to create a space for finding one’s self and eventually getting lost in it. A journey to reach what is longed and idolized. In this journey however, all on our path cease to exist due to our very presence and fall victim to the seeker’s presence and ambitions. This presence, albeit in the form of a mystical journey, has certainly been a harmful and disappointing one. 

In the Absence of the City

Hoofar Haghighi
1983 Tehran, Iran
MA, Photography, Art University, Tehran, Iran
BS, Mechanical Engineering, Azad University, Takestan, Iran

Solo Exhibitions
2018, Expired Place, O Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2015, Timequake, Mehrva Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2008, In a Safe Place, Iranian Artists Forum, Tehran, Iran

Group Exhibitions

2018, Occurrent, Bavab Art gallery, Tehran, iran

2018, “shahr” international film festival, Tehran, Iran

2018, Snow, 14 Art gallery, Tehran, Iran
2017, I, the Photographer, Mehrva Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2016, Decade, Mehrva Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2016, Rebel Scene, New Art Exchange, Nottingham, England

2016, Victor Polynsky award, Kyrgyzstan

2016, A Glance at the Iranian Contemporary Photography, Pardis Mellat Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2015, The End, Mehrva Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2015, Younger than Life, Shirin Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2015, Perception, Edinburgh Iranian festival, Scotland

2014, Ocolus, Mehrva Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2014, 13th Biennial of Photography, Tehran, Iran

2013, The Walls of My City, Arte Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2012, Six weeks of Iranian Art, Toronto, Canada

2012, Saba Photography Expo, Tehran, Iran

2011, Elephant in the Dark, Delhi, India

2011, Tehran Art Expo, Fravahar Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2011, First National Nature Photography Festival, Tehran, Iran

2011, Image of the Year, Tehran, Iran

2010, Iranian Contemporary Practice in Documentary Photography, Fravahar Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2010, Aksbazi, Aaran Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2010, New folder2, Silkroad Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2008, Black and White, Art Center Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2008, Nature, Iranian Artists Forum, Tehran, Iran

Curatorial Projects

2017, Museum of Patriotism, group photography exhibition, Mehrva Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2015, In Brackets, group photography exhibition, Abi Gallery, Tehran, Iran

Statement

– Introduction and Description of the Idea
In this project I aim to simulate imaginary photos of places that have not ever been visually captured, and the need to do so has simply never arisen; to create fictitious images of Tehran, similar to old topographic photographs of the city, before it had faced the effects of the extensive urban development in the last century. Photos that demonstrate the absence of the city and the presence of nature in all places in the not-so-distant past.
Photography came to Iran in 1843, merely three years after its invention was announced in France. This is while the first public photography studio in Iran was established in 1869, and thus the then royal court had absolute monopoly over photography. These imaginary photos belong to that 26-year period, and are of places where people gather. Places that were non-existent in the Tehran of that era.
Places: Azadi Square, Mehrabad Airport, Tehran Railroad Station, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Ghasr Prison, City Theater of Tehran, Azadi Stadium, Ekbatan Town, Behesht-e Zahra.

 

Inanimate nature

Asia Rashid 

1985, TEhran
BA in Sculpture

_ “ Interrupted “, Solo Exhibition, Electric Room Gallery, Tehran, 2018
_ Group Exhibition, Lajevardifoundation, Tehran, 2015
_ Photography Group Exhibition, Mahe Mehr Gallery, Tehran, 2014
_ Exhibition of Works by Graduates in Sculpture from the University of Art, Iranian Artist Frum, Tehran, 2013

Statement

Valiasr Street is well known for its length and Plane trees. in 1939, 60000 Plane trees were planted on sides of this street. Nowadays, only 8000 of those trees are left. The story of disappearing those trees is the the same as the story of destruction of Tehran itself. This city gets larger in its size while the nature within this city is shrinking. I live in a such city.
I spent all my childhood in the nature. the nature was just around the corner for me. All I needed to do was to open my arms to hug the mountains, the sea and the trees. These days, the nature is only some photographs in my laptop to me. I don’t even know the photographers of those pictures.The nature ends for me where the unknown photographer decides to. Those photos are not telling the whole truth.

Untitled

SAMIRA RAHBANI

1982, Tehran
MA in Painting

EXHIBITIONS 

• Diba(a group show)Diba Gallery, Kerma,2016
• Be Tamashaye Bahar ( a group show) Contemporary Art Museum, Kerman,2012
• Cutartists (a group show)Mohsen Gallery, Tehran 2010
• Painting (a group show) Soratgar Gallery, Kerman, 2010
• Contemporary Art Museum, Kerman, 2008 & 2009
• Shahrokhi Gallery, Kerman, 2006 & 2007
• BootiyaGallery,Kerman, 2005
• Solo Show ,Bootiya Gallery, Kerman, 2007
• Photography (a group show) Contemporary Art Museum, Kerman, 2003

Statement

I believe that we are all stuck in a dark, toxic, confusing and surprising place; aggregated with bitter events and enormous deceits, facing each of us –more exposed than ever– towards (an encounter with) our surroundings. In this chaotic setting, everybody is trying out self-prescribed answers or reaching out for auxiliary means; a state similar to the tale of Scheherazade and her Thousand and One Nights of storytelling, Rapunzel and the braiding of her hair, or the wife of Ulysses’ lengthy loop of sewing and ripping the burial sheet. I recall my mother from distant childhood memories, shadowed by confusion or trouble, telling her own fortune by interpreting the short and horizontal lines of a striped divination. She paired the lines by connecting them and if a single line was left out in the end, there would be hope; and if not, eternal and inevitable doom.
I believe that even today, the chaos and confusion have caused many faith-seeking minds to be overflooded with unfulfilled fortunetellings –many of which can outline our current status; a state of repetitive confusion.
Meanwhile, I have chosen “weaving”, this inherited feminine act, a symbolic act of “hope”, as a transition from trouble to freedom, or a trial towards inhibiting time in order to analyze happenings in my surrounding; improvised and continuous weaving or braiding of long and short threads with twists and knots and mysteries until reaching change. In the meantime, even though I can’t conceive an exact ending point for this process, I will keep on weaving much like Scheherazade kept telling her stories to preserve her hope for emancipation.
This hope has not only produced weavings that represent the obscure and blinded state of my environment, but also simultaneously signifies a sense of long lasting hope that, in my opinion, lead to strange and inevitable accumulation; an accumulation that despite its positive sides of hopefulness, like any other kind of accumulation, will be exhausting, mysterious and confusing.

 

empty

KOLSOUM SALEHI

1988, Tehran
BA in Painting
Solo Exhibition

• Waste Land- O Gallery- September 27, 2015
• Weight of time – Electric Room /Dastsn – May 2018
• Oasis – Gallery O – February 12, 2019

Internal group exhibition

• Agog- (Aidin xanakshiPour QURITOR) – V Gallery- October 2016
• Update- (Aidin xanakshiPour QURITOR) – V Gallery- 2017
• G C A 2 – ( Navid jahanbakhsh)- Mojde gallery
• Encircle the apple or shadowlessness- (Aidin xanakshiPour QURITOR) – V Gallery-2019
• Art fair, Tehran art book fair- 2019

Statement

When a man gets mad from pain
Others don’t
They only see her madness
murat menteş

Consider the hollow square cube that is a small archive drawer with the skin of a living being, Tanned and stretched. Transparent, delicate skin showing the cube’s empty space The patches of skin are joined together by not-so-subtle sutures. These sutures are created by hair, their self-made hair, which is collected daily during daily work.
The empty space inside the cubes is understood by the shell and its appearance, Something feels like it can’t be seen.
In classical physics, the empty space is free of matter, but according to quantum theory, the empty space is full of matter. Quantum vacuum fluctuations. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle is based on this, a vacuum is a dynamic environment in which few particles randomly disappear and reappear, creating an alternating field of energy.
During the course of one’s life, a person is often involved with emotions, sometimes more painful and difficult. Imagine a wound that doesn’t even have anything to care for but it’s a never-ending pain that is sometimes beyond tolerance, Psychologists define pain as this.
Pain is an unpleasant sensory experience and emotional experience with partial or partial injury to the body!
There are many things in humans or in any other being that cannot be seen, They are not touched but have a profound effect that is unthinkable. They cannot be defined correctly but they can be felt well. Pain is one of them, a pain that affects the human psyche.
The sadness and all the deep feelings that are created within the human being are nothing but empty space. It is in the interest of the great tribulation of man to hold a sign or part of it, as if he had something sacred to worship that he could refer to, One of the psychological ways to solve the psychological problems is to deal with the problem. The feeling that annoys the whole soul of the human being and loses its power when faced with it and has less effect.
Man is an archive of these emotions, which over time is not well understood, but the power and influence of what lies in the hidden archive of mind and emotion remains.
Imagine a hundred of these statues stacked up like a hollow pyramid in a triangular form, The pyramid has different meanings in different religions and cultures, , The word pyramid is derived from the Greek word for(pyra) fire (mid) and center. It means the energy released from the center of the pyramid.
This shape helps connect the Earth’s energy to the heavens. The bottom surface of the pyramid represents a solid, earth-based foundation that connects to the Earth in large sections and sends additional energy to the earth while the tip of the pyramid is capable of Direct energy from the ground up.
Triangular or pyramidal stones refer to a tall tomb or tomb.
Within every human being there is a paradise and hell, a cemetery and a birthplace whose significance is understood only by the individual.
Each of these bricks has their own unique character and personality.
For example, in some of these cubes there is a cylinder that is covered with hair and is only a part of the skin.
To make these cubes, a metal reinforcement is required to make the angles and columns, then the mortar is molded with gypsum, cement and lime.
The number of these cubes can be much higher than 100, this number is estimated to be approximately 2 meters in height at 2 meters.
Lighting is very important in this work to show both the transparency and emptiness of the bricks and to increase the weight of the space. Building space and atmosphere is very important, requires a heavy, stable and effective space.

 

Dystopia

Shana Abdollahian
1996, England
BA, Painting

Ehsan Alizadeh
1999, Mashhad
BA of Architecture

Concept Stores

Oldoz Nabizadeh
1982, Tehran

Participating in 13 Group Exhibition