This exhibition period explores and looks closer at change of perspective.  If you tell a story, it does not necessary say much more that in its selves. If you tell one more, you’ll see both stories in light of each other. Do you tell a series of stories and show repetitive patterns, themes and forms in storytelling, you’ll see similarities and they are linked together in countless touchpoints. They tell us something, not just about their own stories, but about stories in themselves.

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Kunsthall 3,14 is thrilled to feature a great part of her ongoing new series Letters I Never Wrote by the Iranian artist Jinoos Taghizadeh. Stamps are the visual memory of a nation. Stamps record the majestic phenomena of the past, they are the proud ambassadors of a nation to the world. Jinoos Taghizadeh stamps on the other hand remember, however, events no nation can be proud of and would rather attempt to go unnoticed. The artist prints images on the back of official stamps and thus produces her own unofficial series. These stamps bring forth destruction of a nation that is not readily available information. Taghizadeh has decided to tell stories that are omitted from the official version of Iranian history.

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These stamps she has produced have the value of the smallest unit of the Iranian currency. They correspond to a Rial, and if you wanted to use it, one would have to plaster the envelope completely with her stamps, so that the letter could reach its destination. The stamp series is produced in a limited edition. Each stamp set (with one, two or four pieces) will be printed in ten editions. 

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Taghizadeh work at Kunsthall 3,14 is installed in with panoptikon perspective. From a curatorial standpoint this way of displaying the work will in a subtle way also enhance the concept of the individual stamps. The French philosopher Michel Foucault viewed the panopticon as a symbol of the disciplinary society of surveillance where behavior could be modified. Foucault build on Jeremy Bentham’s conceptualization of the panopticon as he elaborates upon the function of disciplinary mechanisms in such a prison that was built in 1799, and illustrated the function of discipline as an apparatus of power. The ever-visible inmate, Foucault suggests, is always “the object of information, never a subject in communication”.

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Jinoos Taghizadeh was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1971, and holds a B.A. in Fine Arts from the College of Fine Arts, University of Tehran, and a diploma in dramatic literature and theatre from the Niavaran Cultural Center, Tehran. She has had dozens of solo exhibitions, the latest of which was Open Wiring (2015, O Gallery, Tehran). Since 2000, she has been part of numerous group exhibitions in Iran and several international exhibitions. She has been the editor-in-chief of the fine arts section of Aftab Net magazine in Tehran since 2012 and was a member of the editorial board of the bilingual online journal Tehran Avenue from 2001 to 2009. In the period 2012-2014 she was the Editor in chief of fine arts section in “Aftab Network” Magazine, Tehran, Iran, and in 2013 she was Member of Jury committee, 7th Selected Among the New Generation Competition, Tehran, Iran.

 

[jinoostaghizadeh.com]

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> “Stamping Time” by Sohrab Mahdavi >>>

> Interview with Jinoos Taghizadeh by Johnny Herbert >>>

> Publication: Letters I Never Wrote >>>