Hossein Valamanesh Wins Art and the Moving Image Commission

19 September 2014

Adelaide Film Festival today announced local contemporary artist Hossein Valamanesh as the recipient of its 2015  Art and the Moving Image commission, in partnership with the Samstag Museum, Carriageworks and the University of Western Australia.

Valamanesh’s new work, CHAR SOO, will debut at Samstag during the 2015 Adelaide Film Festival (AFF), and will then be presented at Carriageworks (NSW) and the University of Western Australia Cultural Precinct in 2016.

He has been awarded $50,000 to develop his work.

Born in Iran in 1949, Valamanesh graduated from the School of Fine Art in Tehran in 1970, migrating to Australia in 1973. After completing further studies in visual arts at the South Australian School of Art, he has exhibited frequently in Australia and overseas.

Valamanesh has received numerous awards including the Australia Council Residency in Berlin, and an Australia Council Fellowship. His work is included in most major public Australian art collections.

Drawing on his Iranian heritage and experience of the Australian landscape and culture to create resonant artworks, Valamanesh has become one of Australia’s most significant contemporary artists.

AFF Festival Director Amanda Duthie said today of Valamanesh: “Hossein is such an important Australian artist and it is very exciting to be able to commission a screen based work to premiere here in Adelaide and then on to Perth and Sydney. Our focus on enabling audacious and ambitious work from all screen practitioners is the cornerstone of the Adelaide Film Festival.”

Ms Duthie said the Art and the Moving Image project is a natural evolution from the outstanding success of the partnership between the Samstag Museum and AFF which commissioned and presented the world premieres of moving image projects work by Lynette Walworth, Warwick Thornton and Daniel Crooks at the last three festivals [2009, 2011 and 2013].

Hossein Valamanesh said today: “I am thrilled to be given this opportunity to work with the moving image and I am looking forward to working with Nassiem Valamanesh, and Bridget Ikin in Australia, and M. Reza Jahanpanah & his crew In Iran.”

CHAR SOO will be produced by Bridget Ikin, from Felix Media: “I have been enchanted by Hossein’s work for a very long time, so it’s wonderful now to have the opportunity to collaborate with him on this major moving image work, to be shot in his homeland,” Bridget said.

Hossein Valamanesh is represented by GAGPROJECTS/Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide, Berlin
Rose Issa Projects, London
Grey Noise, Dubai
Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

Mark McGowan  -­‐ 08. 8394 2530/ 0419 695 487

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