۲۰۲۰

Vista Award (vista is the Persian equivalent of intellect) was founded to spotlight creativity and artistic mindset in the art of today Iran. Unsurprisingly, it managed to help a number of pioneering artists with decent works to the Iranian art community during the past four years.

The fourth round of award was coincided with the outbreak of Covid-19. Some 126 works of art were submitted, 18 of which were selected by the jury for the next level. After holding online meetings with the creators, 11 artworks were named as the winners of the award.

Submitted works were of higher quality, compared to the previous rounds. Ethnicity, society and environmental were the dominant theme of the works.

The jury meticulously reviewed and discussed the artworks to make sure the winners do deserve the award.

It seems thatqualified works this year are also diverse and in various accents.

Behnam Kamrani

Parting Hair with Sharp Objects

Avazeh Almasi
۱۹۹۴, Tehran
B.A. in Sculpture, Tehran University of art
Participated in 5 Group Exhibitions
Rank 1 in 2 Young Visual Arts Festival

Statement

Parting Hair with Sharp Objects is the name of a visual project that demonstrates an everyday routine from a semi-documentary perspective. Then it goes on, though the details of the routine are modified. The process of using these tools successively is like a game and is a combination of things we do every day and things these tools are capable of. These items each have a specific association and look harmful, but here they are just sharp objects that are used for parting hair which is a simple everyday act. Then they are put aside with no consequence.

Parting Hair with Sharp Objects | Video Arts | 2021

Gavkhuni

Pooneh Oshidari
۱۹۹۱, Tehran
M.F.A in IllustrationTehran University
Held 10 Solo exhibitions
Participated in more than 90 Art fairs, group exhibitions, festivals and art residencies
Mohsen projects’ first prize, Versus first prize and Baharestan first prize.

Statement

Journey on satellite maps and photographs of Google-users is a fascinating pastime that allows us to visit remote areas virtually, as well as zoom in on the visual details of any geography. This project is supposed to be an attempt with the audience, as an interactive installation throughout the gallery’s main hall, to look for and retrieve the image of parts of the dried Gavkhuni-wetland, under several tons of sand with an average height of 30 cm. Gavkhuni is one of the most important watersheds and biological areas of Iran, which in recent decades, has become a large area devoid of habitat and desert with 96% drought.

Gavkhuni | A model of small part of final installation (Color printed banner, sand and Plexiglas) | 90x120x35 cm | 2021

Moment

Aidin Bagheri
۱۹۹۱, Tehran
M.A Sociology, North Tehran Azad University
۲۰۲۱, Tehran, O GALERRY, «Kollaho Ser» Solo Exhibition
Participation in 6 group exhibitions,

Statement

I presume the historical objectivities of many urban landscapes, particularly Valiasr Street, have been lost under an immense amount of depreciated representations. In the face of such superficial and, at times, vulgar depictions, a necessity that calls for a renewed perspective is born. Utterly, it is neither the strolling underneath plane trees nor the occasional ceaseless mass-producing of images leading us into nostalgia that serves the capacity of what ought to be. As it has been said:
Images must provoke a caustic sense of contemplation.

Moment [suspension] | Digital Photography, Analog Photography, Digital Printing, Negative, Video | 60×40 cm | 2021

Untitled

Maryam Behrouzinia
۱۹۹۴, Tehran
BA in Architecture
۲۰۲۱, Solo Exhibiton, Artist studio

Statement

At 16, I started spinning a cocoon around myself when I lost my brother. Separating myself emotionally from others, they saw me as an introvert teen; but the thing was that I didn’t know how to express the pain and anguish I deeply felt missing my brother. Therefore my cocoon became so thick and impermeable throughout the years that it even occludes light from penetrating.

Untitled | Wool | 120x20x25 cm | 2021

۳ Ten Minutes Sculptures

Alireza Khosroabadi
۱۹۹۳, Kermanshah
MA in Theatre Directory
۲۰۲۱, “Score to Do” Project Founder, Researcher, and Curator
۲۰۲۱, Director of «Mother Theater & her Children»
۲۰۲۰, Director of Hamletmachine

Statement

Study on objects that are re-identified in time, might result in sensing of political, social, or cultural structures. Objects that in the moment of application, used as temporary answers, could be traced in history. Therefore, I chose 3 boxes as a stage in the shape of “Telecommunication Posts” at “Vesal- Enqelab crossroad” which becomes a chronicle for women protests. Here are the measurements for that specific Post: 43*117*143 cm.
On every post/box/stage, performers standing with a microphone in his/her mouth, breathing. There are no words or speeches, but breathing. 2 men and a woman stand there for 10 minutes, with their opened mouths, trying to breathe just like the other performer. The sound must be very Strong.
Time: 10 minutes for each performance
*indeed it depends on the performers’ tolerance, it must be at the limit.*
Pauses could happen after 10 minutes to maintain performers fresh.

۳ Ten Minutes Sculptures | Installation | 117x43x240cm | 2021

Function

Omid Rahimpour
۱۹۸۹, Karaj
BA in Mechanical Engineering
Participate in three group exhibitions
Participate in two sculpture symposiums
Winner of 2 design competitions and a sculpture festival
Design and construction of 7 urban elements

Statement

The modern man has become so dependent of his handicrafts that it is often forgotten which is going to help the human race survive, “us” or “our artifacts”?
As much as man-made materials have helped pave the way for life, they have also contributed to the destruction of ourselves and our habitat.The more we move towards industrialization, the more we sink into our self-made darkness. We may depend on them in order to survive, but on the other hand, they cause us to perish and fall into darkness. This struggle and the alternation of existence and non-existence is reminiscent of difficult conditions and futile efforts, as if depicting the cycle of our modern daily life.

In this work of art, two human-sized statues are placed in front of each other in a pool of burnt black oil. These statues are hollow flexible structures which are inflated and deflated using an air pump similar to human inhalation and exhalation. When the bodies are filled with air, they rise up and become steady, pulling themselves out of the oil. When the air is emptied from the bodies by the pump, they sink into the oil like a deflated loose shell. This repetitive loop takes place while the sound of breathing is played in the surrounding environment
The pump and jack installed under the work are also a part of the work evoking artificial respiration devices in the audience minds and symbolizing the effort of trying to keep an unknown situation alive.

Function| Iron, burnt oil and rubber | 2020

Elegy

Mitra Soltani
۱۹۸۸, Shahrkord
MA in Graphic design, Art University
۲۰۲۰,۳ platform gallery, Solo exhibition
۲۰۱۸, FarmanFarma gallery, Solo exhibition
۲۰۰۷, ranian Artist’s House, Solo exhibition
participation in more than 30 group exhibit- ions and making works in environmental fes- tivals and public spaces.

Statement

In Bakhtiari culture, hair is the most valuable property of women and stone is the most important element of this geography.
A geography full of masculine stone-monuments and mourning rituals.
At mourning ceremonies, women cut their hair and hang it on iron memorials and stone lions, scratching their faces and singing the elegy. A ritual that shows the power of women in the face of the rigidity of patriarchal power. This feminine power is not limited to mourning. In the remnants of old customs, in war and ethnic violence, respectable women of the tribe cut their hair and took it to the head of the family and wanted the conflict to end.
As far as I can remember, these women have tried in a feminine way to influence the smallest things in the most important events around them.
Understanding femininity, mourning, and power which shape between rituals, myths, and everyday truth.

Elegy | Iron, stone, hair and paper | 2021

Will to kill and forget1

Zhobbin Abdiani
۱۹۹۵, Marivan
BA in Photography, Tehran University
Selected for the 4th annual photo of Tehran University
Executive Secretary of the 5th Annual Photo of the University of Tehran
۲۰۱۸, Photo Exhibition, Silk Road Gallery
Author of several research articles on photography and contemporary art
۲۰۲۱, Replacement Quorital Virtual Expo

Statement

n 1988, the Ba’athist regime of Iraq launched the large-scale “Anfal” operation in which it destroyed rural and urban life by launching a military attack on the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq.
The title of Operation Anfal, taken from the eighth sura of the Qur’an, was the propaganda of the Ba’athist regime to set fire to parts of Kurdistan that had a Yazidi religion, through Arab Sufism. About 182,000 women, men and children were killed in the operation, which took place in eight stages and at eight strategic points in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Water and soil are two important issues in the pathology of Operation Anfal, as the Ba’athist regime sought to erase the victims from the memory of history by burying them alive, and also by pouring concrete into springs, deprived the Kurdish areas of water to deprive them of rural development. By doing so, the Kurdish population in Iraq would be minimized; In fact, the two elements with which life began and on which human life depends were the means of taking human life in this genocide.
An important issue in the face of events such as the Anfal is the lack of public awareness of the underlying causes, and media propaganda and cover-ups play a major role in this regard. But talking about these slaughterhouses of human history can be a gateway to awareness.
This installation is my tribute to all those who were killed in the most brutal way possible in this genocide, and it is also a tribute to the people who, after many years, are unaware of the fate of their loved ones who were taken to the Anfal camps2.
۱٫ The title of a research article by Bakhtiar Ali, a Kurdish author on the Anfal operation
۲٫ All the photos used in this installation are related to the victims of this genocide, which have been collected by the Ministry of Intelligence of the Kurdistan Region.

Will to kill and forget | Glass, Soil, Metal and Water | 100x100x130cm | 2020

Green bullets

Narges Farahani
۱۹۹۱, Tehran
BA, Graphic Design
Participation in 8 group exhibition

Statement

The condition of Iran’s forests is not good …
A sentence we have heard many times from environmental activists. Now because Improper Cutting and Timber smuggling, construction and road construction activities, occasional intentional fires, we are witnessing more and more destruction of vegetation and trees in our various forest areas, from Hyrcanian forests to Zagros oak forests … Experts in this field have estimated that if the process of deforestation proceeds at the same speed, we will see the complete destruction of these forests in the next sixty years!
For this reason, I have recently started a more serious search for various planting methods. In the meantime, the method of planting seed balls became interesting to me. (seed balls that are made from a combination of fertilizer, plant seeds and clay and after drying and in the spring and in nature are thrown and released to reach the germination stage in natural conditions and with seasonal rain. (This method is more commonly known as guerrilla gardening abroad.) Also, groups in Pakistan have recently been trying to introduce and teach this method to the public.
If we do not consider the special greenhouse conditions for growing seeds, planting seeds in nature will face problems. Seeds are often sown a few centimeters deep in the soil or sprinkled on the soil surface. Seeds that are sown on the soil surface are often eaten by birds or moved by wind and rain and die before the germination stage. Also, in sowing seeds at a depth of several centimeters in the soil, a number of seeds may be eaten by pests or pests before emergence by small animals in the soil, and usually the seeds are grown first in greenhouses and after germination in Soils are planted to increase seed germination.
Therefore, in addition to a coating that protects the seeds inside, the use of clay can provide a nutritious source for seed growth and germination due to its mineral content, including iron oxide, calcium and magnesium. Due to the fact that there are no fungi, bacteria and viruses for the plant in clay, it facilitates the planting of seeds and in another way can be considered a fun and encouraging aspect for planting seeds. Be.
In this project, I will use different seeds that are suitable for regional vegetation in Kermanshah. A protected area that is being worked on by the Zagros vegetation team. The balls that are made to arrange this set will eventually be handed over to this foundation. Also in this project, I try to acquaint more people with this process so that each of us can have a small contribution in maintaining and growing vegetation in our different areas.

Green Bullets | Installation | 2021

The Ghosts of Labyrinth

Sara Ghazi Asadollahi
۱۹۸۴, Tehran
PhD, College of Film & Media, Georgia
Held 5 solo exhibitions
Participation in more than 20 group exhibitions
John T. Milliken Foreign Travel Graduate Award, Paris, France
Fine arts Work Center. Residency award, Pro- vince Town, MA.

Gelareh Goudarzi
۱۹۸۴, Boroujerd
BA in Painting, Faculty of Art and Architecture
Held 1 solo exhibition
Participation in more than 15 group exhibitions

Statement

This project targets a complexity that lies in collective and individual behaviors and deals with the effects of self(individual) on the whole system. Using “game” as an interactive medium in this work invites the audience to participate in creating artwork in an unrealistic/fantastic context. By entering the game’s space, the audience becomes an effective element that drives the game’s narrative, and on the other hand, helps fulfill the project. In addition, the typical significance of the terms “win” and “‘lose” muddles this game by challenging the individual’s success in leaving a faulty system. The game’s location plays a metaphorical role as an unstable system and a simulation of an abandoned building with empty parts, decaying structure, and home to petty activities which form an underground life; A life that twists its existence around the instability and abandonment of the building.

The Ghosts of Labyrinth | Digital Game | 2021

Horn of Africa

Agreen Lotfollahzadeh
۱۹۸۶, Divandareh
M.A in Painting, Soore university
Held 4 solo exhibitions
Participation in 10 group exhibitions
۲۰۱۷, Selected at the 10th Annual London International Creative Competition.

Faezeh Khan Mohammadi
۱۹۸۶, Tehran
M.A in painting, science and culture
Participation in 5 group exhibitions

Statement

About fifteen years ago, according to taxi drivers, our house was in the Horn of Africa and a vital area in the west of Tehran, which was later separated from District 5 as 22. The Olympic Village was very beautiful with diverse vegetation; Mulberry trees, pomegranate orchards and roaring rivers. But now we are faced with a multitude of skyscrapers and cranes that sometimes we can see a piece of sky or mountains. In the metropolis of Tehran due to urban structure and the presence of pollutants; Most days of the year we face polluted air. West of Tehran due to weather conditions; it plays a key role in air movement. In the last few years, the mushrooming of structures and towers has caused rockets to remain in the air. The destructive role of humans in this region is undeniable in the past decade. There is no sign of that pristine greenery and nature, nor the horn of Africa. The Horn of Africa has been renamed Bamland.

Horn of Africa | Installation ( Mixed Media) | 2021