OCEANS OF TIME VIDEO AND TEXTILE WORK PRODUCED IN KYRGYZSTAN BY ARTISTS FIROUZ FARMANFARMAIAN AND STEFANO CAGOL

OCEANS OF TIME
VIDEO AND TEXTILE WORK PRODUCED IN KYRGYZSTAN
BY ARTISTS FIROUZ FARMANFARMAIAN AND STEFANO CAGOL
Curated by Dušan Smodej

On View from October 15 – 20, 2024
Galerie Variation,
26 rue Duperré, 75009 Paris
Opening Reception October 15, 6pm-10pm

Firouz FarmanFarmaian, Kayakalak Panel Four, 2022. Kyrgz felt & yak wool.

Paris, France  – October 14, 2024 — Firouz FarmanFarmaian Studio announces the artist’s inclusion in a dual artist exhibition, Oceans of Time, organized concurrently with Art Basel Paris. Oceans of Time will feature works by FarmanFarmaian and Stefano Cagol, created during their separate travels in Kyrgyzstan. FarmanFarmaian will present a series of Kayakalak Panels, textile artworks created in Kyrgyzstan for the official Kyrgyz Pavilion of the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022, while Cagol will unveil his latest work of the series We Are the Flood, a video work created during his travels in Kyrgyzstan in the summer of 2024.

FarmanFarmaian’s series Gates of Turan, to which the Kayakalak Panels belong, derives from the spirituality and semiotics of the brings us on an ancient journey with the Kyrgiz nomadic tribes, deeply rooted in spirituality and semiotics; while Cagol’s We are the Flood transverses invites to embark on an even more ancient journey to the time of the creation of the Kyrgiz mountains, based on geological research and poetic intuition.

As told by curator Dušan Josip Smodej, “time can be envisioned as a vast, uncharted ocean, its depths teeming with layers of history, culture and memory. Like the ocean’s ever-shifting tides, time is in constant flux – fluid, cyclical and elusive. As we navigate this boundless sea, we rely on the work of explorers such as archaeologists, biologists and artists, who act as tidal currents, stirring the waters and revealing the hidden treasures of the past. Two such currents are Firouz FarmanFarmaian and Stefano Cagol, whose work, while exploring seemingly unconnected topics in the same land, travels through oceans of time.”

“As we ride their tidal currents through this ocean, we are both observers and participants, watching the currents shift and change, while also contributing to them. Our travels, whether to ancient ruins or uncharted landscapes, are not just physical journeys but voyages through oceans of time itself.”

Note to Media: Images are only to be used for press purposes promoting the exhibition. They are not to be cropped. By using the following images, the recipient agrees to the terms of usage. The reproduction of the images at a later point in time is only possible in agreement with the author, which needs to be stated in written form. By reproducing these images, the terms of usage are automatically agreed upon.

The material is available for download on this LINK.

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About Firouz FarmanFarmaian

Firouz FarmanFarmaian (b. 1973 in Tehran, Iran) is an artist, composer, film director, and cultural producer. He is a descendant of the Qajar dynasty, a Turkic tribe that rose to power in present-day Iran in the late 1700s. Exiled since the 1979 Iranian Islamic Revolution, he is French-Swedish by nationality and considers himself stateless. FarmanFarmaian is inspired by history, memory, nomadic visual culture, and the concept of the post-tribal — a way of rehabilitating tribal tradition and worldview back into contemporary discourse. His work is often sourced from, inspired by, and produced in collaboration with tribal craftsmen. Through the mediums of painting, textile, film, music, and technology, he explores themes such as Persian lore, nature, industrial design and architecture, and the interplay between realism and abstraction.

Instagram:
@firouzfarmanfarmaian
@nomadsofpersia

About Stefano Cagol 

Stefano Cagol (b. 1969 in Trento, Italy) studied at Brera Academy in Milan and Ryerson University in Toronto with a postdoctoral fellowship from the Government of Canada. He has given lectures and conferences, including Bauhaus University in Weimar, Brera Academy in Milan and Goldsmiths University in London. In 2022, he initiated the We Are the Flood platform on the climate crisis at MUSE Science Museum Trento, and in 2023, he founded the MUSE Anthropocene collection. He has been the artistic director of Castel Belasi, a hub for eco practice and thought, since 2023. He has participated in the 59th, 55th, 54th Venice Biennale; Manifesta 11; 14th Curitiba Biennale; 2nd OFF Cairo Biennale; 1st Xinjiang Biennale; and 1st Singapore Biennale. Solo exhibitions include MAC Museum in Lissone (2023); CCA Center for Contemporary Art in Tel Aviv (2021); MA*GA Museum in Gallarate (2019); Galleria Civica in Trento (2016); ZKM Karlsruhe (2012) and Mart – Modern and Contemporary Art Museum of Trento and Rovereto (2000). A 2-times recipient of the Italian Council (2023, 2019) of the Italian Ministry of Culture, he works in the fields of Conceptual Art, Environmental Art, Eco-Art and Land Art, reflecting for years on borders, influences, energy and the environment.

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Katrina Stewart
Senior Account Coordinator, Visual Arts
Blue Medium
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