By Katayoon Halajan
The Menart fair — the only art fair in Europe devoted entirely to modern and contemporary art from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region — held its seventh edition from Oct. 22 to 25, with Iranian artists and gallerists featuring prominently.
Thirty-four galleries from 18 countries showing works by 105 artists came together from Oct. 22 to 25 at the Menart Art Fair, which was founded in 2021 by Laure d’Hauteville. The theme of this year’s fair was “Where is home?” and half of the exhibiting artists were women.
Among Iranian artists exhibiting was sculptor Atousa Vahdani, who has lived in Paris for around three years and exhibited with Negah Gallery. Her work focuses on women.
“I mostly work on social subjects, and my focus is on the lives of women in Iran,” she said. “I do not look at women’s problems only from a political angle; I also examine them from a cultural one. The collection I am showing here is titled ‘Message in a Bottle’ and is inspired by the real stories of women. For me, it is like writing a message in the depths of despair, putting it in a bottle, and entrusting it to the water in the hope that somewhere, someone might read it.”
“When I was in Iran and was not permitted to hold an exhibition, I secretly made these figures in the privacy of my own studio and placed them in bottles, hoping that one day these messages would be read and the stories of these women would be heard. The other piece on display here is from the series ‘Woman, Now and Henceforth,’ which I began in 2010. For this series, I took casts of women’s bodies and covered them with termeh (a traditional handwoven fabric).”
“In our culture, we cover the bodies of the dead with termeh at funerals, reflecting the idea that Iranian women are dying while still alive. The series is ongoing, but its form has changed in recent years, and the termeh has been removed from the figures. The courage of Iranian women in recent years has shown that they no longer accept the termeh. I am certain that these works will soon take on a brighter, more joyful color.”
Another artist showing at the fair, Toobi Rahimi, presented photographic works from her series “I Still Have a Suitcase in Iran” with A2 Gallery.
“The series is inspired by the wave of emigration among my friends in Iran and is a response to the social conditions there,” she said. “The project began with my own experience: I traveled to Germany intending to stay, but ultimately decided to return to Iran.”
“For me, the suitcase became a symbol of this state of limbo, a feeling of being caught between staying and leaving. Many migrants leave behind not only their belongings but also relationships, memories, parts of their identity, and unfinished stories. Some leave and carry these things with them, while others return because they cannot leave them behind. In this project, the suitcase represents everything that remains suspended between these two decisions.”
Also participating in the fair was the Istanbul-based Iranian gallery Shiva Zahed. Founded a year ago, the gallery marked its first anniversary at Menart Fair by presenting works by three Iranian artists: Reza Lavasani, Mahsa Karimizadeh, and Ahmad Rafi.
