Niemeyer Center & Contemporanea present the retrospective show in Spain of Iranian photographer Shadi Ghadirian. This exhibition entitled ‘Como todos los días” (Like Everyday), is curated by Mario Martin Pareja, and includes more than fifty photographs which explores all the Ghadirian’s series from 1998.
Shadi Ghadirian’s work is intimately connected to her identity as a woman living in Iran. Her art also questions themes specific to women in other parts of the world. Her subtle photographs reveal to us an Iran of contrasts, between tradition and modernity. They question the role and the status of women in society and explore themes such as censorship, religion, modernity, everyday reality and the madness of war.
Shadi Ghadirian is considered one of the first Iranian photographers whose photographs changed perceptions of how Iranian art and contemporary society were perceived in the late 1990s.
Using a unique style of expression, she began contradicting the harsh and brutal images commonly seen and associated with Iran, challenged Eastern social dilemmas and how the world saw Iran, through the language of art. Her unique mélange of social subjects and taboos with art changed the course of Iranian contemporary photography and paved the way for many other photographers to approach and use this medium differently.
“I am a woman and I live in Iran. I am a photographer and this is the only thing I know how to do. I began work after completing my studies. Quite by accident, the subjects of my first two series were “women”. However, since then, every time I think about a new series, in a way it is related to women. It does not make a difference to me what place the Iranian woman has in the world because I am sure no one knows much about it. Perhaps the only mentality of an outsider about the Iranian woman is a black chador, however I try to portray all the aspects of the Iranian woman. And this completely depends on my own situation. I wish to continue speaking of women because I still have a lot to say. These are my words as a woman and the words of all the other women who live in Iran where being a woman has its own unique system. Although ultimately I create these photographs in my personal studio, however I follow social issues. The photographs are not authentic documentations but deal with current social issues.
Shadi Shadi Ghadirian
Shadi Shadi Ghadirian: Como Todos Los Dìas / Like Everyday
January 11 – March 31
Niemeyer Center
Avenida del Zinc, s/n
33490 Avilés, Spain
