Parastou Forouhar

Parastou Forouhar , also Parastu Foruhar ( Persian پرستو فروهر) (* 1962 in Tehran / Iran ) is an Iranian artist. As a concept artist, Parastou Forouhar uses all media from drawing to photography to computer-animated image sequences to address her subjects, such as the situation of women in society, especially in Muslim societies, or torture as a systematic, image-filling "ornament" reflect and illustrate.

A completely different type of work by the artist are her script spaces, which join Persian characters without meaning or nonsense. The spaces themselves change through the extensive painting. Parastou Forouhar's Written Rooms can be seen in the University of Toledo (2014) and, more recently, in the Institut des Cultures d'Islam ICI in Paris.

The artist curates her own exhibitions at irregular intervals, such as “Omid * Unlimited Together” for the Anne Frank educational institution in Frankfurt, or as co-curator for the Tehran issue of the quicksand series for contemporary art.

biography

Parastou Forouhar studied art at the University of Tehran from 1984 to 1990 and moved to Germany in 1991, where she completed a postgraduate course at the Offenbach am Main University of Design , studying with Adam Jankowski , among others . She has lived in Offenbach am Main since 1992.

Parastou Forouhar's parents ( Dariush and Parwaneh Forouhar ) were murdered in their home in Tehran on November 21, 1998, presumably by the Iranian secret service . Dariush Forouhar was a labor minister in the secular cabinet of Prime Minister Mehdi Bāzargān . Both were among the leading opposition politicians in Iran. The proceedings were delayed by the authorities and ultimately brought to an incomplete conclusion.

Every year the artist, who carries on the legacy of her parents' political opposition, travels to Tehran to organize a memorial service for her murdered parents. She was prevented from doing this by the Iranian authorities on several occasions, sometimes even with the withdrawal of her passport, or in 2016 with a lawsuit for lese majesty sought by conservative forces because one of her most famous installations consists of office chairs covered with religious flags.

From the summer semester 2019, Forouhar will hold a professorship for a class for fine arts at the Mainz University of Art of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz for five years .

Prizes and awards

• 2001 grant from the Hessian Cultural Foundation
• 2004 Scholarship from the Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral in Bad Ems
• 2005 Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces in Melbourne
• 2006 scholarship from Villa Massimo in Rome
• 2012 Sophie von La Roche Prize
• 2017 residency grant from the artist residence Chretzeturm , Stein am Rhein

Exhibitions

• Parastou Forouhar in the German Cathedral
• Parastou Forouhar in the Lindwurm Museum , Stein am Rhein

Movie

• Death in Tehran - contract murder in the name of God by Thomas Giefer with Parastou Forouhar (Con Voi Film 2004 for ARD)

"The film reconstructs the details of this politically and religiously motivated murder, accompanies Parastou Forouhar in her search for truth and justice and traces the traces of the crime to the power center of the Islamic state of God ..." (excerpt from WDR press release)

Fonts

• Take off your shoes. (Picture book), 2002
• The country where my parents were killed. Declaration of love to Iran. Freiburg: Herder 2011, ISBN 978-3-451-30467-5
• Parastou Forouhar, The grass is green, the sky is blue and she is black ... Text: Elisabeth Schraut, Stein am Rhein 2017

literature

• Christopher de Bellaigue: In the rose garden of the martyrs. A portrait of Iran. From the English by Sigrid Langhaeuser, Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2006 (English original edition: London 2004), pp. 257–268 and 299–305.

Web links

• Official website of Parastou Forouhar
• Parastou Forouhar: Art as a political weapon
• The Iranian regime prevents Parastou Forouha from leaving Iran
• Parastou Forouhar on culturebase.net
• Interview with Parastou Forouhar
• Parastou Forouhar, “The uprising of the nameless and the real face of the Iranian regime”, Deutschlandfunk Kultur , Kompressor, January 4, 2018, 2:17 pm, 6:52 minutes , accessed on January 4, 2018.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Sven Siedenberg: Parastou Forouhar: The weapons of art . In: The time . March 16, 2015, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed September 19, 2017]).
2. ↑ Parastou Forouhar Beautiful and Sad. March 20, 2013, Retrieved September 19, 2017 (Australian English). 
3. ↑ El Greco 2014: Body Letter. October 19, 2014, accessed September 19, 2017 . 
4. ^ Lettres ouvertes, de la calligraphie au street art - Institut des Cultures d'Islam . In: Institut des Cultures d'Islam . ( institut-cultures-islam.org [accessed September 19, 2017]).
5. ↑ BS Anne Frank :::: Completed projects. Retrieved September 19, 2017 . 
6. ↑ Home. Retrieved on September 19, 2017 (Swiss Standard German). 
7. ↑ Personal details: Parastou Forouhar . In: Der Spiegel . tape 47 , November 22, 2010 ( spiegel.de [accessed September 19, 2017]).
8. ↑ DW German: The Iranian artist Parastou Forouhar | Culture. 21. January 24, 2010. Retrieved September 19, 2017 . 
9. ↑ The Iranian artist Parastou Forouhhar is charged with blasphemy: The victim as an enemy of the state | Culture Info | SWR2 . In: swr.online . ( swr.de [accessed on September 19, 2017]).
10. ↑ Interview with artist Parastou Forouhar (German blog post) - Reconfiguring Anonymity. Retrieved September 19, 2017 . 
11. ^ Professorship for Parastou Forouhar at the Mainz Art School. In: www.kunstforum.de. November 26, 2018, accessed November 30, 2018 . 
12. ↑ Former scholarship holders - artist residency Chretzeturm. Retrieved September 5, 2017 . 
13. ↑ Elisabeth Schraut , 1955-, Museum Lindwurm: Parastou Forouhar - "The grass is green, the sky is blue, and it is black ..." Stein am Rhein, ISBN 978-3-03306379-2 .