Russian art lovers get a chance to experience the charm of the Middle East as a top gallery in Moscow exhibits works of contemporary Iranian painters and sculptors.
Installations made of glass and paper, highlighted with touches of golden foil take visitors to contemporary Tehran.
“Extension.ir” exhibition brings together Iranian artists from the generation raised in the 1980s after the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
The walls of the gallery have been decorated with portraits of celebrities and ordinary citizens.
The exhibition’s curator, Нomayoun Askari Sirizi, said the organisers meant to personify contemporary Iran and get Muscovites acquainted with the city.
“We hear too much news that – Tehran and Moscow, Tehran and Damascus, Tehran invites (Russian President, Vladimir) Putin, Tehran supports (Syrian President Bashar al-) Assad – it seems that Tehran is like a figure, like a personage. And I want to represent this personage, because Tehran is not only a city – I mean constructed by the buildings and highways – it is really a political figure in the Middle East and in the region,” he said.
The exhibition displays works of 11 Iranian artists mostly from the Iranian capital.
Among them is Mehdi Abdolkarimi, who said Russia and Iran share a lot of things.
“We (Russia and Iran) have a lot in common, we have a lot of things coming from mutual history. And I can say even before 1979, before 1979, before the Islamic revolution Iranian intellectual figures and the Iranian art scene were so involved in what was happening politically coming from Russia,” he said.
The exhibition runs till July 24.
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016