JUNCTURE GALLERY PRESENTS NOMADS OF PERSIA: The Varanasi Editions
JUNCTURE GALLERY PRESENTS
NOMADS OF PERSIA: The Varanasi Editions
TEXTILE WORK BY FIROUZ FARMANFARMAIAN
THE FIRST EDITION OF MAJOR INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION
NOMADS OF PERSIA
On View Wednesday, October 9 to Saturday October 12
12 St George St, London, Floor 2
Firouz FarmanFarmaian, Varanasi Khorjins, 2024. Images courtesy of Ferdinand van Alphen/Design.
London, UK – August 20, 2024 – Juncture Gallery will present NOMADS OF PERSIA: The Varanasi Editions, an installation of three new textile editions by Firouz FarmanFarmaian. The works will be on view at an exhibition at 12 St George St in Mayfair, London, from Wednesday, October 9 to Saturday, October 12, coinciding with Frieze Week London 2024. A reception will be held on Wednesday, October 9 from 6pm to 8pm.
NOMADS OF PERSIA: The Varanasi Editions debuts three large works from the artist’s collection of limited-edition textiles made from hand-knotted wool and silk produced in Varanasi, India. As a follow-up to the FarmanFarmaian’s GATES OF TURAN installation presented at the 59th Venice Biennale, the artist engages with a transformative interpretation of traditional nomadic iconography. FarmanFarmaian’s textiles bring a contemporary perspective to the 600-year-old hand-knotting techniques developed in Central Asia, Iran, and Northern India by abstracting geometric motifs. A complete body of work in its own right, the exhibition also serves in part as a preview of FarmanFarmaian’s latest project NOMADS OF PERSIA, an immersive large-scale mixed-media installation that blends textile, video, and sound.
NOMADS OF PERSIA delves into the rich traditions and history of endangered Iranian nomadic tribes — the Bakhtyari and the Qashqai — drawing a parallel between the instability of their contemporary existence and the artist’s own experience of exile. Forced to flee Tehran with his family after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, FarmanFarmaian pays homage to a complex and often overlooked aspect of Persian cultural heritage while reflecting on themes of displacement, resilience, and identity.
NOMADS OF PERSIA: The Varanasi Editions will serve as the first phase and a thematic preview of NOMADS OF PERSIA, a project spanning three continents. The series will be unveiled on November 8, 2024 at the Cairo Citadel as a featured exhibition of the fourth edition of “Something Else,” a nonprofit independent contemporary art initiative presented by Chief Curator Simon Njami and Artistic Director Moataz Nasr. NOMADS OF PERSIA will culminate in New York City in December 2024 with exhibitions at Salomon Arts and The Furman Gallery, a video and sound installation at the Museum of Arts and Design, and an album release at the Soho Playhouse Showcase. NOMADS OF PERSIA is the next chapter of FarmanFarmaian’s Postribal series, that matured at the GATES OF TURAN installation presented at the 59th Venice Biennale at the first-ever pavilion of Kyrgyzstan in 2022.
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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 Juncture Gallery
Juncture Gallery was founded by Camilla and Firouz FarmanFarmaian in 2023 to foster a deeper understanding of the crossover between art and design. All NOMADS OF PERSIA-related units and artworks will exclusively be available on Juncture’s Artsy page: https://www.artsy.net/partner/juncture-gallery
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For images, further background or interviews, please contact:
Katrina Stewart
Senior Account Coordinator, Visual Arts
Blue Medium
T: +1-212-675-1800