Wall

Mahmoud Bakhshi Moakhar's Wall is made of a thousand real Bahman cigarettes. When approaching it, the detailed patterns are reminiscent of the beauty of Islamic architecture. The cigarettes are everyday objects turned into ready-mades as the artist has integrated each one of them into the installation to create an appealing effect. Bahman cigarettes are often consumed among the intellectual circles in Iran and, in the instance of this work, the use of this popular brand also refers to Iran's history: in fact, Bahman is also the eleventh month in the solar calendar, and it evokes the iconic movie theatre, Bahman cinema, in Tehran that was bombed during the revolution, in Bahman 1979. Bakhshi has explored this theme in a recent series of work and often plays around with the idea of repetition. He refers to the many levels of destruction, be it physical or political, and thus explores the aesthetics of post-revolutionary Iran.

Mahmoud Bakhshi Moakhar was born in 1977 in Tehran where he actually lives and works. He is the winner of the 2009 Magic of Persia Contemporary Art Prize which led him to hold a solo exhibition at Saatchi gallery in London. He is also part of the Middle East and North Africa Collection of Art of the Tate museum and his works are featured in major private collections around the world.