[P]Art Collective was founded in 2010 in Iran to create art that serves as an intervention into society. This art practice is a series of collaborations in public domains,where social exchange matters. Collective's mission is to organize communities not for healing or improving a situation but to exchange ideas, to raise social awareness and to practice democracy and freedom by using dialogue as the methodology.
2010- present
Los Angeles, CA
Rostam in Wonderland
[P]Art Collective and Sooriland Studios.
“Rostam in Wonderland” is an animated series based on Rostam, the mythical hero of the Shahnameh (Book of Kings), and his experiences in 21st century Iran. The Shahnameh is part of the canon of classical Iranian literature, written in the 10th/11th century by Ferdowsi, one of Iran’s most renowned poets.
“Rostam in Wonderland” profiles Rostam’s encounters with a world completely different from his own. In every episode, Rostam learns something new about modern Iranian culture and other issues of everyday life in present day Iran.
Throughout the series, Rostam is forced to reconcile his own traditions and experiences with cultural complications, technological advances, and the new ideologies permeating Iranian life. Each episode is unique, highlighting everything from social customs to simple complications experienced by every day Iranians.
This project is a collaboration between [P]ART Collective and Sooriland Studios.
News:
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Upcoming screening of Rostam in Wonderland at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). 2018-2019
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Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) Permanent Collection
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Islamic Art Now II. Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). 2016
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Farhang Foundation Short Film Fstival First Prize Winner. Rostam in Wonderland: Sohrab's Blood.2013
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Farhang Foundation Short Film Fstival Second Prize Winner. The Voided Loom. 2012
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Activism Meets Art at [P]Art by Neda Moridpour. Muftah Magazine. 2013
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Rostam in Wonderland: A Six Pillars Interview with Pouya Afshar. 2013
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Hamshahri Javan. Interview with Soroush Rezaie, founder of Sooriland. 2013
The Voided Loom: Kelardasht's Carpet
[P]Art Collective
The Voided Loom is a unique story of Kelardasht's Carpet: a video documentary that portrays the ties between culture, emotions and the environment of a community which gave the primeval folklore of carpet weaving its form and generation to generation permanence.
Kelardasht's Carpet weaving, the art and practice of hundreds of years old, was a memento of immigration of an ethnic group but unfortunately it has not gained the reputation it deserves and it is in the verge of extinction. What you will see, hear and experience in this documentary is a visual perspective of a two year study of this region and its carpet weaving art, to be compiled as Socially Engaged Art project in the future.
The video is in fact an independent documentary selected from a large number of interviews and narrative stories gathered around the aesthetic characteristics and positions of Kelardasht Carpet throughout its rise and fall, it's effects on the community of women and their lives in Kelardasht.
...Those pieces of findings that were impossible to be put in any form of writing or depicted on any page of a book are being portrayed in this film. However, this project is still in progress and it had not ended with this short film.
[P]Art Collective is aiming to continue this project in Kelardasht in order to use art as a mean of community building and community engagement.
The Voided Loom was the Second Prize Winner at The Farhang Foundation Short film Festival in 2012.
The documentary was screened at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)as part of the festival and also at the Celebration Ceremony of the Persian Hand-woven Carpet at the National Museum of Persian Carpet in Tehran, Iran.
