Sohrab Kashani

Sohrab Kashani at Centre Pompidou in 2019

Born|  (1989-04-10) April 10, 1989 (age 35)

Tehran, Iran

Nationality| Iranian
Known for| Installation, Performance, Film, Video art, Image, Photography, Writing
Notable work| The Other Apartment, Super Sohrab
Website| sohrabmk.com

Sohrab Kashani (Persian: سهراب کاشانی) is an Iranian artist and contemporary art curator.[1]

## Work as artist

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### Super Sohrab (2009–present)

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Super Sohrab,[2] Kashani’s alter-ego is a superhero who utilises satire and failure in their attempts to navigate the everyday challenges of daily life. Through the documentation of some of their own life events and their own failures, Super Sohrab addresses local and global socio-political problems.[3] Super Sohrab's work often comprises performative interventions presented in photographs, videos, comics, text, and other formats.[4][5] Super Sohrab also arm-wrestles in public to challenge and discuss power dynamics and sets up lifting workshops to practice resilience and resistance.[6][7]

### The Other Apartment (2019–present)

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The Other Apartment[8] is a collaborative project between Kashani and Pittsburgh-based artist Jon Rubin that initially occurred simultaneously in Kashani's apartment in Tehran and an exact replica of that apartment and all of its contents at the Mattress Factory museum in Pittsburgh, U.S.[9] Using detailed photographs from Kashani (who was not able to travel to the U.S. due to the travel ban on Iranian citizens), the artists worked with a team of fabricators to meticulously recreate his Tehran apartment's facade, interior architecture, and all of his personal possessions. From his soap dish to his furniture, everything in The Other Apartment was purchased, altered, or entirely fabricated to replicate what existed in Kashani's apartment.[10][11] Located within The Other Apartment, in both Tehran and Pittsburgh, was Sazmanab, Kashani's contemporary art space. Sazmanab produced programs where every object, video, and performance that happened in one space was meticulously duplicated for the other.[12][13]

### Darookhaneh Apotheke Pharmacy (2022/2024)

[edit]

Darookhaneh Apotheke Pharmacy at uqbar projectspace (2022)

Darookhaneh Apotheke Pharmacy[14] is a conversation space in the form of an Iranian pharmacy run by Kashani and German-born artist Anahita Razmi since 2022.[15] Its spatial set-up comprises an installation filled with copies of Iranian pharmaceuticals and medication packages.[16][17] Emerging in the aftermath of a global pandemic and a period of shared devastation, during which concerns about the unequal distribution of vaccines became pressing issues, Darookhaneh Apotheke Pharmacy makes a link to the Iranian concept of "darookhaneh" ("daroo" (medicine/cure) and "khaneh" (home) = "the home for cure"), testing out what it can enable for hybrid artistic work during crisis.[18] Transcultural (dis)connections, trade infrastructures, legal obstacles, and inequalities in medicine distribution between the Global North and the Global South are some of the topics echoed in this space, which furthermore aims to look at what artistic strategies of appropriation and copying can do for rethinking and shifting (neo)colonial power dynamics. Bringing together selected speakers, collaborators, and the public, Darookhaneh Apotheke Pharmacy fosters discussions and conversations on these critical topics and their larger contexts.[19]

## Work as curator

[edit]

### Sazmanab (2008–present)

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Cinétracts by Other Means at Sazmanab in 2015, a collaboration with Dutch Art Institute / Roaming Academy (Doreen Mende and The Otolith Group)

Sazmanab is a curatorial platform by Kashani which he originally started as an artist-run space and residency program in Tehran in 2008.[20][21] From 2008 to 2014, Sazmanab was located in an apartment in the Sadeghiyeh district of Tehran and later in 2014 was relocated to an old building on Khaghani street near Darvaze Dolat in downtown Tehran.[22][23][24] Since 2008, Sazmanab has set up more than hundred events and exhibitions at its venues and off-site. Sazmanab also holds talks and presentations at universities, museums, and institutions and takes part in international panels, seminars, and forums.[25][26][27][28]

### Exhibitions curated

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* Sohrab Kashani and Joseph del Pesco, Voice-over (in three parts) Sazmanab (Tehran, Iran) and Mattress Factory Museum (Pittsburgh, PA, United States), 2019.[29]
* Sohrab Kashani, Shattered Frames: Recent video work from Iran, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, 2016.[30]
This series of videos was later screened in Tehran, at the Pejman Foundation Kandovan site.[31]
* Sohrab Kashani and Reza Aramesh, Centrefold Project: Spring of recession, Sazmanab, Tehran, Iran, 2015.[32]
* Sohrab Kashani, Mapping Within: An Alternative Guide to Tehran, The Mine, Dubai, UAE, 2015.[33][34]
* Sohrab Kashani, Lost & Found in Tehran: Contemporary Iranian Video, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, United States, 2013.[35]
* Sohrab Kashani, Subjective Truth from Iran, Center for Contemporary Art Tbilisi (CCA-T), Tbilisi, Georgia, 2013.[36][37]
* Sohrab Kashani and Sandra Skurvida, Still Lives and Selected Acts, Dastan's Basement, Tehran, Iran, 2013.
* Sohrab Kashani and Sandra Skurvida, TVDinner Tehran, Sazmanab (Tehran, Iran) and Immigrant Movement International (New York, USA), 2011.
* Sohrab Kashani, The 1st Tehran Annual Digital Art Exhibition (TADAEX), Mohsen Gallery, Tehran, Iran, 2011.
* Sohrab Kashani and Jon Rubin, The Tehran/Pittsburgh YouTube Mix, The YouTube School for Social Politics, 2009.[38]

## See also

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* Modern and contemporary art in Iran

## References

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1. ^ "Sohrab Kashani". lafayetteanticipations.com. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
2. ^ "Super Sohrab". supersohrab.com. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
3. ^ Saeed Kamali Dehghan (31 October 2013). "Iran's artists warn US and European sanctions are affecting their work". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
4. ^ Naveed Mansoori and Mohammad Salemy (9 March 2014). "Accelerating Beyond "Iran"?". Ajam Media Collective. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
5. ^ Sandra Skurvida (27 May 2015). "Remediation of the News Feed". Art Practical. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
6. ^ "Cosmopolis #2: rethinking the human at Centre Pompidou". e-flux.com. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
7. ^ "The Superhero Summit". kadist.org. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
8. ^ "The Other Apartment". theotherapartment.com. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
9. ^ "The Other Apartment". mattress.org. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
10. ^ Golnar Yarmohammad Touski (26 March 2020). "Two Artists Attempt to Collaborate Across Continents, Travel Bans and All". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
11. ^ Laura Feinstein (2 December 2019). "In 'The Other Apartment,' One Home Spans a Deep Divide". Bloomberg CityLab. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
12. ^ Gabriella Angeleti (5 November 2019). "Experimental art space in Tehran has been recreated in Pittsburgh". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
13. ^ Sarah Cascone (3 February 2020). "How Two Artists Meticulously Reproduced a Tehran Apartment Gallery in Pittsburgh as a Way Around the Iranian Travel Ban". artnet News. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
14. ^ "Darookhaneh Apotheke Pharmacy". darookhaneh.de. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
15. ^ "Arts of the Working Class". artsoftheworkingclass.org. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
16. ^ "uqbar projectspace". projectspace.uqbar-ev.de. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
17. ^ "philomena+". philomena.plus. Retrieved 13 May 2024.
18. ^ "Art Rabbit". artrabbit.com. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
19. ^ "NEUSTART für Bildende Künstlerinnen und Künstler". innovative-kunstprojekte.de. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
20. ^ Daria Kirsanova (9 January 2013). "Paradox of Tehran". Art Fridge. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
21. ^ Doreen Mende (12 January 2014). "A Postcard from Tehran". Manifesta Journal. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
22. ^ Travel + Leisure Staff (January 2016). "Best Places to Travel in 2016". Travel + Leisure (Time Inc.). Retrieved 10 May 2016.
23. ^ Doreen Mende (12 January 2014). "A Postcard from Tehran". Manifesta Journal. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
24. ^ The Skype Team (19 January 2015). "Portals: Shared Experiences over Skype". Skype Blogs. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
25. ^ "Run an Art Space in Tehran". machineproject.com. 25 March 2016. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
26. ^ "Alternative Art Spaces and Practices in Iran | Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies". Archived from the original on 2016-06-10. Retrieved 2017-02-18.
27. ^ Michelle Moghtadar (10 November 2014). "Iranians scream into pots at new contemporary art center". Reuters. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
28. ^ Laurence Cornet (17 February 2015). "Iran Special Edition : Reza Aramesh at Sazmanab". L’Oeil de la Photographie. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
29. ^ "Voice-over (in three parts)".
30. ^ Sara Raza (22 January 2016). "The Social Studio". Guggenheim Blogs. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
31. ^ Admin (7 April 2017). ""Shattered Frames"". Pejman Foundation: Kandovan. Pejman Foundation. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
32. ^ "Conflict Kitchen » Iranian Film & Video Festival".
33. ^ "The Mine: Group Exhibition — ART WEEK". Archived from the original on 2015-06-30. Retrieved 2015-06-28.
34. ^ "Mapping Within: An Alternative Guide to Tehran and Beyond - Art Events - TimeOutDubai.com". Archived from the original on 2015-04-22.
35. ^ "Iranian Video Art Featured in Public Art Discussion at CMA on June 20 2013".
36. ^ "SubTehran: Subjective Truth from Iran | cca". Archived from the original on 2014-03-30. Retrieved 2014-03-30.
37. ^ "Caucasusartmag » SubTehran: Subjective Truth from Iran". www.caucasusartmag.com. Archived from the original on 2014-03-09.
38. ^ "Conflict Kitchen » the Tehran/Pittsburgh YouTube Mix".

## External links

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* Official website