When: December 2nd, opening at 6 pm, also open in the weekend, 12-6.
Where: Chiellerie Gallery, Raamgracht 58, Amsterdam
Why: Great contemporary art from Iran!
Who: The fabulous brothers from Tabriz
What else: food, drinks, live dj
PDF with pics & prices available upon request: manuelaklerkx@gmail.com
Klerkx Art Agency proudly presents ICY & SOT FROM IRAN!
This is the unique story of two young brothers, Icy and Sot, living in Tabriz, Iran. They could easily spend their time working, sleeping, watching TV and hanging around with their friends... but they don't. Instead, they happen to be two of the most famous graffiti artists from Iran (alongside pioneer A1one); risking their lives, day after day, because they are young men with a mission. They want to show the world how social and political abuse in countries like Iran ruins the lives of ordinary people.
By using images of the most vulnerable people in society – elderly people, women and children – their work gives them a voice and a face. Each time they create their ghostly, fading, multi-layered images, referring to peace and war, love and hate, hope and despair, in the streets of Teheran, Tabriz and abroad (with a little help from their friends), they generate admiration and buzz.
One can not remain indifferent staring at ‘their’ praying, playing, crying and laughing children, their lonely and faceless women and older men. You want to embrace and console them - even carry them home. Icy and Sot manage to transform political oppression and dictatorship in crystal clear images of human suffering, without easy slogans and without bluntly brutal graphics.
In contrast to many street artists living in relative freedom and relative prosperity in Western Europe, Icy and Sot "remind us that art has always been a mode of resistance, and graffiti has always been a political gesture.”