Farhad Kalantary
Farhad Kalantary (Tabriz, Iran, 1962) is a visual artist working primarily with non-narrative films and video installations. He has studied at San Francisco State University (BA, 1992) and San Francisco Art Institute (MFA,1996) and he lives and works in Oslo, Norway.
His works have been shown in various international film festivals as well as in galleries and museums in the US and Europe, and they are part of the collections of Moderna Museet, Stockholm, and the Arts Council, Norway.
Kalantary is the co-founder and leader of Atopia: "Center for Film & Video art" in Oslo (www.atopia.no), and he also works as an independent curator.
Curator statement
Nonalignment
Video art in the public space prompts new challenges for artists and curators who take on the engagement. Outside of its normal habitat video art is placed alongside the street signs, political posters, advertising billboards and screens on the street.
As it penetrates the public space video art enters a territory that has long been invaded by advertising companies. The non-commerce in the public space has no place and no voice; it is out of view today. In this setting video art could have the position of carrying the potential of instigating a new public sphere. But from the outset it has to declare its own independence and nonalignment.
Nonalignment also refers to a characteristic of this program of artists’ video works that I have assembled for Public Screens.
This program aims to follow the suggestions made by its title both in respects to its external positioning in the public space as well as in regard to its internal composition. The nine video works in this program are all silent and approximately three-minute long. What they all have in common is their intense engagement with various aspects of the poetics of everyday life. In this sense these works are not tied together with a specific line of ideas. On the contrary each work is given a breathing space to uphold its own sense of distance and personality.
Farhad Kalantary
Oslo, 26 April 2010
SELECTED SCREENINGS / EXHIBITIONS ( * = Separate)
2011 * Balistan, Stenersenmuseet, Olso, Norway
Retrospective: Film & Video art - Norway 1960-90, StenersenMuseet, Oslo (curator)
2010 *Trails of Water Behind a Passing Boat, Gallery Trafo, Asker, Norway
Video program, Elisabeth Foundation of the Arts, New York
Cities Re-imagined, Museum of Contemporary Art, Vojvodina, Serbia
*Details, Public art project, Atopia, Oslo, Norway
The Third season of Atopia’s Vitrine Project, Oslo (curator)
European Media Art Festival, Osnabrueck, Germany
2009 *Trails of Water Behind a Passing Boat, Gallery 3,14, Bergen, Norway
* Trails of Water Behind a Passing Boat, Trøndelag Senter for Samtidskunst. Trondheim, Norway
Video Program, Bureau for Unstable Urbanism, Kjubh Kunstverein, Köln, Germany
Høstutstillingen 2009, Kunstnernes hus, Oslo
Winter, Public art project, Atopia’s Vitrine, Oslo
Norway Video Art, namaTRE.ba project, Trebinje, Bosna i Hercegovina
Raulandutstillinga 2009, Rauland kunstforening, Norway
Made in Norway, V.I.P. Art Gallery, Belgrade, Serbia
Visions of Atopia, D21 & Prager Frühling, Leipzig, Germany
The Second season of Atopia’s Vitrine Project, Oslo (curator)
AWARDS & STIPENDS
2010 Statens garantiinntekt for kunstnere, Norway
2009 Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfonds prosjektstøtte, Norske billedkunstnere
Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond, Norske billedkunstnere
2008 Statens Utstillinsstipend, Norsk Kulturråd
2006 Fond for Lyd og Bilde, film project: ”Balistan”
2005 Artist Residency grant in Paltform Garanti Istanbul, OCA, Norway
2004-6 Statens Kunstnerstipend 2004 – Arbeidsstipend 3 år
