Zahra Fuladvand: Darkness before birth and after death

Exhibition Opening

“Life is nothing but a continuing dance of birth and death. A dance of change. Every time I hear the rush of a mountain stream or the waves crashing on the shore or my own heartbeat, I heard the sound of impermanence. These changes, these small deaths are our living links with death.” (Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan book of living and dying)

“Darkness before birth and after death” is a performance created by Zahra Fuladvand, which had been performed in Artus studio as a part of “UNSEEN…UNHEARD…UNSPOKEN exhibition on May 2019. This performance, has been born from the simple image of Iranian Funeral ceremony. From that image, the others appear and find their connections. The whole piece, is dancing and dying of these images between two darkness.

These Images had been photographed as Series of post documentary photos by Dr. Csanadi Gabor. Besides that, There is a documentary video of the process of photography of the performance shot by Manuel F Conteras.

These photo series and documentary video will be exhibit in 37 Gallery on September 25.  The video is 10 minutes 23 seconds which will be projected on the wall in Gallery and it will be on loop. There will be around 20 to 25 photos in different sizes and will be installed in different hidden and unhidden spots like under the table on the floor on the wall or hanging from the ceiling. The concept is giving the feelings of participating in Iranian funeral ceremony to Audience. There will be a short performance in the opening of exhibition. Performers will holding the objects like candle, Mirror, rice and date as it is common in Iranian funeral ceremony and walk among the audiences.

About the Artist:

Zahra Fuladvand is an Iranian performative art creator. She has received her bachelor and master degree in Theatre directing from Tehran Art university, Iran. She has worked with several Iranian and European theatre companies since 2012. Theatre companies such as Av theatre group in Tehran, Polish Avant-garde theatre company OPT Gardzience and Artus creative studio in Budapest. Her recent artwork was a performance based on Ritual and Iranian funeral ceremonies which had been performed in Artus studio on May 2019. Beside her Art practice, she is researching and studying on found environment and preexisting natural spaces for per formative arts.

https://zfuladvand.wixsite.com/mysite

On view: 25 September  - 29 September 2020.