St.A.i.R. Präsentation

During her residency at Forum Stadtpark, Iranian-born London-based artist Solmaz Farhang has been exploring the tension between hope and despair in times of geopolitical and environmental crisis. A starting point for this project is the increasingly degraded natural environment of Iran, her country of origin, alongside the deepening crisis in which many Iranians find themselves- caught between a brutal theocracy and the devastating consequences of war, with no clear end in sight. Yet, for Solmaz, these experiences point towards wider conditions; where political violence, environmental destruction and uncertainty create a shared sense of anxiety and despair. Against this backdrop, and working primarily with lens-based media, Solmaz asks whether and how the tension between hope and despair can be invoked through still life photography? And what might emerge from confronting, rather than avoiding, the “zero point of hopelessness”? During her open studio at Forum Stadtpark, Solmaz will share the outcomes of these explorations alongside some earlier experiments and research that have informed her current practice. The open studio will begin with a brief artist statement.