"Like a pig in Tehran" at Café Aunja

poster designed by "Amir Saboury"

Tonight is the opening of an expo of my daily visual sketchbook at café Aunja.

One year ago in the busy, crazy metro of Tehran, I decided to write down what I was hearing around me. It was too interesting to be forgotten. I started to draw and to write a few words as captions for each image. I posted them on my instagram as it seemed to be very fashionable in Tehran.  As I didn't know anyone on this platform I let myself free to write what I wanted. A few weeks after I came back to Montreal and I started a new job.  After nine years of living here, Montreal for me is still a city to discover, a society to de-code. Montreal is full of hidden stories which are not easy to see or to hear. People talk less but if you succeed to read their minds, they have a lot to surprise you. Montreal's silence makes me ponder, think and take my time to observe. This is a gift I will take away with myself to wherever I go.

These drawing were originally accompanied by texts in Farsi. I'm happy to get a chance to translate 46 of them in French and English.  A lot of concepts and ideas I had in the original texts are not translatable. So a lot of texts are way too different in the English and French versions. At the end they are different ways of telling the same stories. I'm now very curious to see how it will work.

These drawings from a Montrealer's journal are named after a Bosnian proverb: "Like a pig in Tehran!"

I want to thank Elham Yousefi and Hamed Masoumi, the couple behind the idea of Café Aunja, a place which is much more than a café to me.

The translations of these texts are done by me but are beautifuly final-touched by someone who interprets me even better than myself : Jean-Christophe Leblond.

Autour d'une table

In October ,"Autour d'une table" was presented at the Oaxaca film festival in Mexico in the international competition. In November it was presented at Animated dream in Estonia in the category of Animated documentries.

Programme jeunesse Iran at FNC 2014

A bit of update on the last two months:

Last summer and fall, I was invited to work on two programs for children and youth for the Festival de nouveau cinéma (FNC) for the "P'tits loups" section. These two programs of Iranian animation films were presented on the 13th of October in Montréal.

"P'tits loups" is the youth section of FNC which focus on cinema for younger audience and their family.

"Story of red pencil" by Alireza Chitaie

"The sparrow and the boll" by M. Ahadi

"Autour d'une table" at DC Shorts film festival

I will be in Washington DC for this weekend to attend the DC Short fest and to present may latest short, Autour d'une table (Around a table) in the official competition.

As usual I will Instagram my experience!

Where Have I seen this before?

A simulation of my project "Where have I seen this before?" on the facade of Museum of contemporary art in Zagreb, from May 23- June 8, 2014 as part of the program Animation Goes MSU, a collaboration between Animafest festival and the MSU.


"Where have I seen this before?"

BEYOND REACH at Supertoon2014

 "Beyond reach", the music video I've made for Negar Bouban's song has been selected in the official competition of Supertoon2014 (Croatia) in the category of music video competition. The festival will start tonight and will go on till the first of August.
 
Here is the link to the trailer of "Beyond reach":
Excerpts from '' Beyond Reach''


Link to the festival program. Our work is under the category of COMPETITION OF ANIMATED MUSIC VIDEOS:

Official competition- Supertoon 2014

An avant-goût : "Les remparts de Varsovie 1943-44"

The most enjoyable part of my work is the first sketches I do for the animations-to-be.

A couple of months ago I started working on a project about the story of a woman  during the uprising in Warsaw during the second world war . I've done a few minutes of animation for this documentary called "Les remparts de Varsovie 1943-44".

 Today I was going through the first sketches, comparing them with the final result. 

;) ! Not bad!

This is only an avant-goût! I'll post the videos and more info about this collaboration very soon! 

"Les remparts de Varsovie 1943-44" is a production of association MEDIEL asbl and André Bossuroy (Belgium) as director and producer. 

"Where have I seen this before? "- Some photos and an interview

An interview mainly but not only about my animation installation "Where have I seen this before?".  16 site-specific animations were selected by Animafest and the museum of contemporary art in Zagreb(MSU) to be projected on the façade of the museum from May 23 to June 8, 2014.

This interview was done by Dolores Marčetić, during my visit to Animafest 2014.


By the way it is published in Croatian!

www.libela.org/razgovor/5179-umjetnici-e-u-iranu-zele-prijeci-granice-i-otvoriti-se-svijetu/

Zagreb's journal

Bok! Here is a journal of my souvenirs from Zagreb and Animafest2014. A lot of them are inspired by my instagram notes and posts while I was there.

Détective Animé@ Cruel Summer!

"Where have I seen this before" in Zagreb!

An adaptation of the window installation “Where have I seen this before” that I’ve created for the windows of M.A.I. has been selected to be projected on the media facade of MSU (Museum of contemporary art-Zagreb) as part of Animation goes MSU in collaboration with Zagreb Animafest.
A special thanks to Éléonore Goldberg (Animator and colorist), Jean-Christophe Leblond (Urban elements design) and Julie Verfaillie who did a great job for the sound and music of the original work. Although this adaptation will be presented without music because of the limitations of the site but this work owes a lot to her beautiful audio creation.

The first version of this animation was created in 2012 during my residency at MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) and Prim Centre, with the financial support of M.A.I. long-term mentorship program. 

My work will be presented on the MSU façade with 15 other animation works from Japan, Australia, China, USA, Croatia, Austria, Serbia and New Zealand. The opening was on the 23rd of May and the projections will go on till the 8th of June. I'll be there from the 31st to the 8th. I've never been to Zagreb and am really looking forward to a week of adventure, observation, thinking and insta-drawing in a company of the big animation community!

"Un regard sur l'animation iranienne contemporaine"

Finally the idea I was working on for a long time cam into life and it happened! A selection of 22 animations produced in Iran during the last 10 years was programmed to be shown as part of the Cinemathèque Québécoise's spring program.

Below is an interview between Détective Animé and Parissa (Two souls living in the same body) on the how and why I decided to work on this idea.


Un regard sur l'animation iranienne contemporaine

Program 1

program 2

Détective Animé @ fishing all through the winter

I took sometimes off from my blog. I went on a trip, I watched a lot of Iranian short animations from the last 10 years. I met a lot of independent animators and filmmakers. I will soon write a post about this project.

 At the end of my trip to wonderland I came back home and it was white everywhere. I started a new job and I reduced the speed of my life a bit. Winter helped me look at what I've already done and where I eventually want to go.

 While I was in Tehran,I started to draw what fascinated me in my daily life and I continued that at my return on a daily, weekly basis. Surprisingly, my ideas are transferred so differently on the paper that I get to realize and to accept that what I seem to see is not what I really see. In other words what I think I see is not really what I see. The image I keep in my mind from my surrounding is a mix of what is transferred through my eyes + what I like to see + what I already have in my mind at that moment.

I put these drawings on my instagram . You find a link to this page on the right column of my blog. It's snowing again!