Press Release
Navahi Projects is pleased to announce the opening of “peakBASE”, a Vatttan_project (Peyman Shafieezadeh/Mohammad Ghazali) at Navahi projects.
The opening reception will be on June 10, 2022. The show will be on display through June 20, 2022.
“peakBASE” is the duo’s first collaboration with Navahi projects.
Navahi aims to achieve and maintain a reliable status in introducing contemporary artists and significant artistic projects through active presence and participation in contemporary art’s local and global milieus.
Vatttan Projects tries to provide a space for pondering and constructing a self-created concept that includes an added value. This space strives to be flexible as well as independent.
Peyman Shafieezadeh (b. Tehran, Iran) is a multidisciplinary artist and a Vatttan project developer.
He received his B.A. in painting from the Islamic Azad Art and Architecture University of Iran.
Shafieezadeh’s works were presented at several Iranian and non-Iranian solo and group exhibitions.
He has received the first prize in Tehran National Sculpture Biennale (2017) at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMoCA). Shafieezadeh has also been present at The 5th Bejing International Art Biennale at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing (2012) and the 4th Guanlan International Print Biennial at Guanlan Original Printmaking Base in Shenzhen, China (2013).
Peyman Shafieezad is an artist who sees the world in the reflection of his existence. He challenges primary concepts and raises a question in the audience’s mind. Shafieezadeh employs materials created for different usage as raw materials and transforms them into something completely different from the innate quality of the matter.
In his works, Shafieezadeh makes the audience doubt their understanding of his works, hence returning to encounter them once more and reconsider their initial impression.
Mohammad Ghazali (b. Tehran, Iran) holds a B.A. in photography from the Islamic Azad Art and Architecture University of Iran and has lived and worked in France and Germany.
Now he lives and works in Tehran, Iran. In his photography, Ghazali engages with the relationship between urban spaces and individual life stories, often with Tehran as his subject.
He has exhibited in more than 20 national and international shows and was awarded 1st prize in the 9th Tehran Photography Biennale in 2004 for his work ‘Self Portrait’, which was acquired by the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMoCA) for its permanent collection.
This exhibition includes three works by Peyman Shafieezadeh, seven works by Mohammad Ghazali and a joint piece by the two artists.
Exhibition statement
In the absence of space
No eye remembers the moment when light passes to another eye
The event horizon is where the image ends, and thinking begins
peakBASE is the moment when horizontal depiction devours vertical understanding.
Hence, the moment of seeing begins.
I remember the tag game, I don’t remember it clearly, and I never learnt the rules, not even as a child, and no one explained it to me. So I never bound myself to the rules of the game. I remember one or two people played it. One would be the free player who had to chase you instantly, and you were to get to somewhere higher. This somewhere could be one or several steps higher than the ground. As soon as the free player touched the other player, players changed roles, the one on the top would descend, and the one on the bottom would ascend.
I understand both players; I have been in their shoes. When I was the free player, I felt lonely and afraid, and when this moment of loneliness was prolonged, I would feel desperate at the bottom of a pit.
But when roles changed, I would attempt to reach the highest heights to observe others, my eyes would sparkle, and my smile would taunt the others.
I feel sure that men are inclined to ascend, a reminder of Rumi’s poem:
“From the heavens, we’ve come, and there we’re heading”
The notion behind the poem is something burning deep within our souls; when we climb the highest peak in Iran, we feel this urge to land our flag, and we would fall, the flag won’t go down any further; I feel secluded in my soul.
I collapse and doubt my existence.
I feel I’m collapsing even when I’m at the highest point, my knees bend, and I stare into the deep void in front of my eyes. The fall devours me.
Why do I see nothing?
What if I’ve gone blind?
Why do I hear nothing?
I call for someone, and no one hears me; I reach out and can’t touch anything; I’m panting, I’m worried, I remember the days gone by, I revisit my life, all the pleasures and displeasures. Eventually, I feel numb; I lose my breath; we feel suffocated; we are being silenced.
Vatttan Project
Spring, June 2022
