AISA NOW 10th EITION
Roya Khadjavi is pleased to participate in Paris asian art fair, Asia Now 2024
Roya Khadjavi Projects presents a major exhibition of works on paper by Maryam Khosrovani titled " Sève." These minimalist pieces result from extensive research on the survival of ecosystems in Iran, where traditional architectural elements, such as water basins in Persian Gardens, merge with nature through water—an invaluable resource under threat from global warming in the Middle East. The works, often adorned with Lapis Lazuli pigments, needlework, and silver and silk embroidery, exhibit a delicate, liquefied quality that echoes the artist's fading memories of her homeland. Complementing Khosrovani's minimalist works is a selection of figurative portraits on cardboard and wood by Atieh Sohrabi, embellished with Persian flowers and patterns, referencing Persian gardens frequented by dark-eyed beauties.
Dates: October 17-20, 2024
Location: Monnaie de Paris
Atieh Sohrabi presents her recent works which evokes the quiet strength of Middle Eastern women, captured within vibrant floral patterns inspired by Persian gardens. Each piece envelops the wood panels, creating a rich tapestry of color and texture. The flowers, drawn from the Persian garden, sometimes obscure the faces, inviting contemplation of identity and the unspoken narratives that shape our understanding of femininity. In this interplay of visibility and concealment, she seeks to express the silent complexities of heritage and self.
« Sève ». Series by Maryam Khosrovani, Artist-architect, as well as artist-weaver and archivist of patterns, Maryam Khosrovani has been conducting long-term research for several years on the survival of certain ecosystems, particularly in Iran, where traditional architecture and natural elements merge—often through water and the organization that forms around a central basin. From this central basin, Maryam Khosrovani decided to create a series of 9 basins, installed on the ground, each presenting a different aquatic composition using a different technique (embroidery on paper, colored pencil, dye on paper, needlework, plaster casting, etc.). The microscopic subtlety of the gradients of blue and lapis lazuli (from deep blue to white) evokes both the reflections of water (without water) on the patterns of an architecture that is timeless and an integral part of everyday life in countries like Iran or Morocco, and the "gradients of memory" connected to these sites or visual ecosystems that populate the artist's imagination, in the shadow of these polymorphic geometric patterns that liquefy with the passage of water (and exile). This process of memory liquefaction is established by the title of the installation: “Sap.”
The 9 basins, installed like "steles" surrounded by concrete, but drawing the eye like the reflections of a fountain, become the artisanal metaphor of a visual tradition in danger of disappearing, just as severe droughts and water shortages are already affecting several regions in Iran.
Morad Montazami, director of Zamân Books & Curating