Shirin Neshat arrives today for Tofifest!
And she is! Today Shirin Neshat will come to us! Global contemporary art star and winner of Venice’s Silver Lion for best director arrives on Toruń Tofifest. Neshat will be a special guest during Polish premiere of her debut film, which has brought her laurels Venetian – “Women without Men". This is the first visit of the Iranian-American artist on the Polish Film Festival.
Beautiful, recognized throughout the world, the author of the works for which fight the greatest galleries from the U.S. and Europe. Neshat who lives in New York, is one of the first artists who so powerfully introduced issue of place of women in Islamic countries into the global discussion about the art.
Sho does this in a masterly manner, avoiding aggression, asking in his work questions precise as surgeon’s blade. Main question asks to the essence of Islam and why in Islam a woman has to be worse than a man? About this certain issues treats her film debut, awarded by prestigious Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival – “Women without Men” (“Bedun Zanan-e Mardan-e”), which will had its Polish premiere at this year’s Tofifest film festival main competition ON AIR. Under the guise of historic cinema, in the mystical-poetic way film tells the story of the most contemporary problems of Iranian women. It is a unique example of cinema about at and the cinema which is an art.
Shirin Neshat says about her film: “It was a work full of love, lasting six years (...). This film tells the world about my country”. The image shows exquisitely crafted view of Iran in 1953, when a British- and American-backed coup prepared by Iran’s Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi removed the democratically elected government of Mohammed Mossadeka and changed the country into a dictatorship. Western countries led to this situation to protect their interests and rights of fuel oil. The image is a German-French-British co-production.
“Women without Men” maintained in the magical realism style is amazing, and rather difficult conglomeration of realism and visionary. Neshat showed what could be the Iranian cinema without censorship – wrote in the Gazeta Wyborcza, Tadeusz Sobolewski.
Neshat was previously known primarily as a photographer and video art artist. Her short film “Turbulent” in 1999 got the first prize at the Venice Art Biennale. Her photo series “Women of Allah” which present Iranian women in chadors covered the Persian letter reflected echo was reverberant. Neshat creations can be included to still a few attempts of exploring the essence of Islam and translating it to the universal language of art. Sha started to create late – when she was 30, under the influence of shock which was the first from two decades re-visit in her native country. Nowadays she is now considered as one of the most important contemporary artists. Her very intimate, autobiographical video works have been exhibited in the most prestigious international exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale, the Carnegie International, the Whitney Biennial, Sydney Biennale, Lyon Biennale and the Biennale in Kwangu.
- Screening of film “Women without Men”: 17:15, Baj Pomorski
- Meeting with the director: 19:30, Baj Pomorski
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