We are delighted to announce our collaboration with Reza Aramesh’s solo exhibition “Number 207” on the occasion of the the 60th Venice Biennale, at Chiesa San Fantin, curated by Serubiri Moses, April 16th to October 2, 2024.
The British-Iranian artist Reza Aramesh was previously included in the Iranian Pavilion of the 56th Venice Biennale. “Number 207” is his first solo exhibition in Venice. It showcases three groups of ongoing sculptural series created specifically by Reza Aramesh in response to the architectural setting of the San Fantin Church. One of these series titled “Study of Sweatcloth” as an Object of Desire, which also forms the title of the exhibition, are two hundred and seven life sized men’s underwear carved from Carrara marble and dispersed evenly in formation across the floor of the church to achieve an illusion of abandoned garments.
Each work refers to detention centres that the artist sought outthrough his archival research. The extant historical works of art contained within Chiesa San Fantin include the well-known “The crucifixion” by Leonardo Corona, who’s highlighting of Christ’s loincloth stand in direct conversation with their contemporary iterations, installed by Aramesh. Reza Aramesh, who’s practice is well documented and represented in museums and publications across the world, presents unnerving ‘icons of beauty and terror’ that derive from two key types of visual sources. The first, the beauty of Renaissance and Baroque sculpture and painting of saints in agony and ecstasy. The second, researched archives of shocking reportage imagery of victims of war, conflict, and displacement. Aramesh’s aim has been to ‘create a dialogue between icons of European art history and images of contemporary zones of conflict’.
“Number 207” is presented by MUNTREF Museum Buenos Aires, with support from the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami (ICA Miami). Collaborators are Diocese Patriarcato di Venezia, Dastan Art Gallery, and Stjarna.art.
Please get in touch with Judith Reisinger, Director of our NY office, if you have questions in regards to the artworks on display in Venice, e-mail to judith@c1760.art.
Furthermore, to review other available artworks by Reza Aramesh please click here.
Reza Aramesh was born in Iran and is based in London and New York. Working in sculpture, drawing, embroidery, ceramics, video and performance in a succession of ‘actions’, Reza Aramesh draws inspiration from media coverage of international conflicts dating from the mid- 20th century until present day. This coverage is then transformed into sculptural volumes in collaboration with non-professional models, who help him reenact his chosen source materials. No direct signs of war remain in the physical end results and the characters seem driven out of their initial contexts. Opposition between beauty and brutality allows the artist to unveil the absurdity and the futility of these actions. Aramesh de-contextualises these scenes of violence from their origins, exploring the narratives of representation and iconography of the subjected male body in the context of race, class, and sexuality in order to create a critical conversation with the western art historical canon.
Aramesh holds a Masters degree in Fine Arts from Goldsmiths University, London. His work has been exhibited in both solo and group exhibitions such as the 14 Bienal de la Habana, Asia Society Museum, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Breuer, New York, SCAD Museum, Atlanta, Georgia, Akademie der Kunste Berlin, the 56th Venice Biennale, Art Basel Parcours, Frieze Sculpture Park, London, Sculpture in the City, London, Armory Show Off-Site at Collect Pond Park, New York and at Maxxi Museum, Rome among others. Aramesh has orchestrated a number of performances and situations in such spaces as The Barbican Centre, Tate Britain and ICA, London. His works have entered public and private collections worldwide including Argentina, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, USA, Belg ium, Israel, France, Iran, Lebanon, Italy and the U.K.
Serubiri Moses is an author and curator based in New York City. He is the author of several book chapters translated into five languages and is the editor of Forces of Art: Perspectives from a Changing World (Valiz, 2021). He currently serves as faculty in Art History at Hunter College, CUNY. He previously held teaching positions at New York University, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, and the New Centre for Research and Practice, Dark Study, and Digital Earth Fellowship. As a curator, he has organized exhibitions at museums including MoMA PS1, Long Island City; Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; and the Hessel Museum, Bard College, NY. He serves on the editorial team of e-flux journal.
