Opening for Iran: Memory X Heartbeat

Iran: Memory X Heartbeat, a group show curated by Roya Khadjavi and the Safarani Sisters opens at ShowUp with a reception on Friday, November 6th from 5 to 8 pm.

About the Exhibition

This exhibition brings together a group of Iranian artists emerging from a shared origin yet living across geographies, but whose practices all unfold through distance, displacement, and time. While physically separated from their country of birth, they remain connected to it through treasured memories, a common language, and lived experiences. 

The title of the exhibition, Iran: Memory X Heartbeat, alludes to the constant struggle between the heart and the head. It is a reflection of the internal fight these artists and others undertake every day to keep their treasured memory of Iran alive. They let the memory live in their hearts, and avoid their internal concept of the land becoming distant, erased by current events. The artworks do not attempt to reconstruct Iran as it is, but as it is remembered: imagined, and carried. They reveal a space suspended between presence and absence, clarity and distortion - much like memory itself.