KHOSRO KHOSRAVI

Iran

Khosro Khosravi works and lives in Iran.
He received his BA in fine arts from University of Tehran and his MA in art research from Art University, Tehran. In addition to the numerous solo shows Khosravi has held in Iran and abroad, he has also participated in a number of local and international group exhibitions amongst these are: The Tehran Painting Biennials-Iran 2001, Exhibition of Contemporary Iranian Painting in Doha - Qatar, 2001, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 2002, Triennial International of Contemporary Art, Paris, 2002 and Orientamenti-Attualamente Group, Venice, Italy. He is currently a professor of painting at Sureh University, Tehran. For further information about the artist please visit:
www.khosrokhosravi.com

KHOSRO KHOSRAVI
Fifth Grade, 4.53 min 2006, video still.
Courtesy of the artist

In this work, I look into the educational structure of 10-11 years old girls in Iran. The work carefully explores the effect of the governing patterns of education on the children at that vulnerable age, when their childish characteristics mingle with adolescence. While the video directly addresses religious and pedagogical issues, deep inside it deals with broader cultural contradictions; the contradiction between literature and politics, the contradiction between life and death. The paradoxical dialogues read by schoolgirls are chosen from the fifth grade reading book (Farsi). We observe a blurred image, gradually transforming to sharpen in on a close up frame of a girl's school uniform and hijab (headscarf), the clothing that must be worn by all women in Iran. In this video, I am trying to show the contradictions existing in a simple cultural process.