Shahryar Nashat

In Shahryar Nashat's video works, although sometimes invisible, there is always more than one protagonist. There always seem to be a notion of power between the protagonists with the aim to apply influence or pressure in order to control the situation. Yet, there is never clear who submits to power and who is in control. The roles switch constantly.

Nashat's work has many layers. The individual is never isolated in his own universe. He is connected to other individuals or to his own individual past or history in general or maybe the future.

Nashat's earlier works resemble Beckett plays, as they are fictions in which the protagonists seem to obey rules. Their action seems to consist in contemplating a situation where anything is possible and likely to happen, yet confined by invisible rules. The rules become visible in the recent works presented in this exhibition as Shahryar Nashat places his protagonists into the setting of the 'fascistic' architecture of the Palazzo della Civiltà in Rome in his film Optimism. In The Regulating Line a young athlete finds himself placed in a space in the Louvre, facing a dramatic baroque mise en scène by Rubens.

Whereas in Optimism an office employee has to withstand the humiliating interrogations by his superior, the young athlete in The Regulating Line answers the baroque power surrounding him with his own physical presence.

Shahryar Nashat, born 1975 in Teheran, lives and works in Paris. Nashat had his eduction in Geneva, Switzerland. He graduated 1999 from the École Supérieure d'Art Visuel of Geneva. In 2001 and 2002 he was artist-in-residence at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam.

Further: 2003 one-year residence at the Swiss Institute in Rome. 2001, 2002, 2003 winner of the Swiss Art Award of the Swiss Federal Office of Culture. Solo shows at CAN, Neuchâtel, 2003, Galerie Elisabeth Kaufmann, Zurich in 2004, Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris in 2004,

Group show at Kunstmuseum Solothurn in 2005, participation at the Swiss Pavilion in Venice in 2005 and in 'The Gravity in Art' at Stichting de Appel in 2006.

Pressetext

Shahryar Nashat: Video works
The Regualting Line (2005)
Optimism (2003)
Les Négateurs (2003)