Image Maker. His oeuvre is distinguished as much by its ethical and philosophical core as by its aesthetic purity and focus on the humanity of ordinary people. All of his cinematographic works have an elusive yet immensely powerful poetic quality, one that develops as questions asked in a blunt.
Image Maker
Abbas Kiarostami is widely celebrated as one of the world's leading contemporary
filmmakers. His recognizable, personal style of filmmaking is permeated by a
forward-thinking, innovative spirit that has placed his work at the vanguard of
filmmaking—all the while carving a place for Iranian cinema in modern film history.
Kiarostami's oeuvre is distinguished as much by its ethical and philosophical core
as by its aesthetic purity and focus on the humanity of ordinary people. All of
Kiarostami's works have an elusive yet immensely powerful poetic quality, one that
develops as questions asked in a blunt, straightforward manner evolve into much
larger ethical and philosophical inquiries. This first U.S. retrospective of Abbas
Kiarostami's works on film and in digital media is complemented with an installation
in MoMA's Media Gallery and an accompanying exhibition at P.S.1 Contemporary Art
Center.
Film director Abbas Kiarostami’s (Iranian, b. 1940) recent artistic journey
into electronic media and installation work, as well as his earlier singlechannel
pieces, are marked by an enthusiastic sense of discovery. This
gallery installation of Five (2003)—which will also be screened as a single
theatrical projection during the retrospective of the artist’s entire
moving-image oeuvre, on view in The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters—
demonstrates the changes in perception that can occur when the same
work of art is presented in different settings. Five, also titled Five Dedicated
to Ozu, was acquired by MoMA after its world premiere at the
Cannes Film Festival in 2004. This is its first presentation in the U.S. as a
media installation. The five different parts of this meditative work, which
focuses on the ebb and flow of the tide at a beach and the people and
animals that enter the frame, are projected in a continuous synchronized
loop on five separate screens that wind through the gallery. Abbas
Kiarostami: Image Maker coincides with a film exhibition in The Roy and
Niuta Titus Theaters 1 and 2 and The Celeste Bartos Theater, and an
exhibition of his photographic work at P.S.1. Organized by Jytte Jensen,
Curator, Department of Film, and Klaus Biesenbach, Chief Curator,
Department of Media, The Museum of Modern Art, in collaboration with
the Iranian Art Foundation.
Opening: march 1, 2007
MoMA
11 West 53 Street