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CinemaPRO -
Saturday, December 13, 2014 - 20:30
Written by:
Arash Nassiri
Cinematography:
Arash Nassiri
Editing:
Arash Nassiri
Sound:
Margot Priem
Music:
Flavien Berger
Producer:
Estelle Benazet
Production:
Le Fresnoy
World premiere
TEHRAN-GELES flies us over a would-be space, where past and present, memory and imagination merge under luminous Iranian adverts and signs projected over an aerial night-time image of Los Angeles. “During the flight, phone call recordings relate memories of events that took place in Tehran. These stories refer us to the city’s past. In the 1970s and 80s the reality of American life was projected onto Tehran’s social and urban fabric. The revolution brought this period to an end. Like science fiction cinema, in which the present of a city is projected into the future, this video projects the past of Tehran into the present, taking Los Angeles as a setting.” (Le Fresnoy)
Director:
ARASH NASSIRI is a young artist Franco-Iranian born in Tehran in 1986; he lives and works in Paris. After a stint at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, an exchange to Berlin to study the relationship between art and technology and a path to the Decorative Arts of Paris to study photography and video, NASSIRI finished his apprenticeship at the prestigious institution Le Fresnoy in Tourcoing. The work of Arash Nassiri confronts the collective imagination and individual stories, as a contemporary fable, and has been shown in group shows De l’objet à la ville (made by the Arts-Décoratifs during 2010 Architecturale Biennale de Venise) and the Triennale of Young Creation in Istanbul.
Contact:
arash.nassiri[at]gmail[dot]com
Director's statement:
TEHRAN-GELES is an overview of a night-time cityscape, how Tehran could have looked, had its Americanization continued from the '70s until present day. While watching the aerial images we hear stories from former residents of Tehran. These memories create another off-screen image of Tehran. They bring the past to life, similar to the way in which we tell an anecdote to a friend. They were recorded on the phone because I wanted to use that sense of distance as when you talk to someone who is near to you, while he could be on the other side of the world. (…) I think that in case such as this the artist always has the same role, but one which is different from that of a director who builds the images from scratch. Making the video resembles more like making a collage, it's not quite the same approach. (…) It is the joining of the two types of images, the aerial shots and the inlaid luminous signs, which forms the piece. At the same time, using the overlaid banners makes Tehran-Geles fall into the line of fantastic cinema, like Superman or Blade Runner.” (Arash Nassiri, Lechassis interview)
TEHRAN-GELES is an overview of a night-time cityscape, how Tehran could have looked, had its Americanization continued from the '70s until present day. While watching the aerial images we hear stories from former residents of Tehran. These memories create another off-screen image of Tehran. They bring the past to life, similar to the way in which we tell an anecdote to a friend. They were recorded on the phone because I wanted to use that sense of distance as when you talk to someone who is near to you, while he could be on the other side of the world. (…) I think that in case such as this the artist always has the same role, but one which is different from that of a director who builds the images from scratch. Making the video resembles more like making a collage, it's not quite the same approach. (…) It is the joining of the two types of images, the aerial shots and the inlaid luminous signs, which forms the piece. At the same time, using the overlaid banners makes Tehran-Geles fall into the line of fantastic cinema, like Superman or Blade Runner.” (Arash Nassiri, Lechassis interview)