Morehshin Allahyari - FB
The Florence Biennale awarded Morehshin Allahyari the “Lorenzo il Magnifico” Special Award from the President for her commitment to the protection of cultural heritage.
Morehshin Allahyari is a new media artist, art activist, educator, and curator. She was born and raised in Iran and moved to the United States in 2007. Her work extensively deals with the political, social, and cultural contradictions we face every day. She thinks about technology as a poetic tool to document the personal and collective lives we live and our struggles as humans in the 21st century.
Morehshin Allahyari is a new media artist, art activist, educator, and curator. She was born and raised in Iran and moved to the United States in 2007. Her work extensively deals with the political, social, and cultural contradictions we face every day. She thinks about technology as a poetic tool to document the personal and collective lives we live and our struggles as humans in the 21st century.
The “Material Speculation: ISIS” series at the X Florence Biennale
At the X Florence Biennale Morehshin presented Re Uthal from her “Material Speculation: ISIS” series, a 3D modelling and 3D printing work in progress focused on the reconstruction of ancient statues and artefacts (of the Roman period from the city of Hatra, and Assyrian artifacts from Nineveh) that were destroyed by ISIS in 2015.
"Material Speculation: ISIS" represents a particular solution for the establishment of an archive of cultural heritage and at the same time suggests the use of 3D stamping technology as a possible documentation tool at the service of a process of historical reconstruction and therefore of remembrance.
With this project the artist goes beyond representation and metaphoric gesture: each 3D printed object of the series incorporates a flash drive and a memory card, which includes images, maps, pdf files, and videos gathered on the artefacts and sites that were destroyed. Like a time capsule, each exemplary is sealed as containing testimony of civilization to be preserved for the future (with instructions for opening the object so as to access computer devices without destroying it). The information material included in each piece of the series is the result of extensive research, to which have contributed Iranian and Iraqi and Iranian historians, and collaborators of the Museum of Mosul. To complete the final phase of the project, the 3D molding files will be ordered in an online archive and downloadable, therefore accessible to the public.
"Material Speculation: ISIS" represents a particular solution for the establishment of an archive of cultural heritage and at the same time suggests the use of 3D stamping technology as a possible documentation tool at the service of a process of historical reconstruction and therefore of remembrance.
With this project the artist goes beyond representation and metaphoric gesture: each 3D printed object of the series incorporates a flash drive and a memory card, which includes images, maps, pdf files, and videos gathered on the artefacts and sites that were destroyed. Like a time capsule, each exemplary is sealed as containing testimony of civilization to be preserved for the future (with instructions for opening the object so as to access computer devices without destroying it). The information material included in each piece of the series is the result of extensive research, to which have contributed Iranian and Iraqi and Iranian historians, and collaborators of the Museum of Mosul. To complete the final phase of the project, the 3D molding files will be ordered in an online archive and downloadable, therefore accessible to the public.
Morehshin Allahyari in the world
Morehshin has attended numerous exhibitions, workshops, and festivals, and around the world, including the Open Engagement, Prospectives ’12 International Festival of Digital Art, and Currents New Media Festival. She has presented her work and creative research at the TED and CAA conferences as well as in the course of other events hosted by universities, museums, and cultural institutions, namely the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas Museum of Art, and other. Her work has been featured in Rhizome, Hyperallergic, Animal New York, Art F City, Creators Project, Dazed Digital, Huffington Post, NPR, VICE, Parkett Art Magazine, Art Actuel Magazine, Neural Magazine, Global Voices online, and broadcasted by Al Jazeera and the BBC. Morehshin is currently a Lecturer at San Jose State University and the Co-Founder and Assistant Curator in Research at Experimental Research Lab at the Autodesk Pier 9 Workshop in San Francisco.
www.morehshin.com
www.morehshin.com
X Florence Biennale photos by The Factory prd