Alserkal Avenue
Join us for a tour of Alserkal Arts Foundation's Public Art Commissions with artists Ala Ebtekar and Sahand Hesamiyan.
New site-specific commissions by Fahd Burki (Grey Noise), Ala Ebtekar and Sahand Hesamiyan (The Third Line) have taken shape within the public realm at Alserkal Avenue. Their ideas inspired a wider curatorial framework, The Follower, which encourages keener observation of the natural elements - the wind, the sun and the stars - as a means of wayfinding and regaining cultural knowledge.
Join us for a tour of the public art commissions with the artists Ala Ebtekar and Sahand Hesamiyan, and the Alserkal Arts Foundation team.
The tour will start in The Yard
Biographies
Ala Ebtekar (b. 1978 Berkeley, CA) is an artist who has situated his art practice as a relentless leveling, exploding, and collapsing of time and space to bring steadying attention to the contemporary moment.
His vast transnational background in studio practice, public and street art, has led to being the founder and director of Stanford University’s Art, Social Space and Public Discourse, an ongoing Stanford global initiative on art that investigates the multiple contexts that shift and define changing ideas of public space. This ongoing critical framework of conversations, newly commissioned art projects, and exploration of various cultural productions and intellectual traditions looks at recent transformations of civic life. Furthermore, he has more than a dozen public and civic art commissions, most recently produced by Facebook, SFO/San Francisco International Airport, and the Asian Art Museum.
Sahand Hesamiyan (b. 1977, Tehran, Iran) holds a Bachelor of Sculpture from the University of Tehran. The artist's versatile practice is informed by a profound understanding of construction techniques, culminating in larger-than-life metal sculptures and small elaborate works on paper. By creating interactive pieces that eclipse the mere repetition and reflection of these traditional forms, Hesamiyan is able to convey his acute technical abilities while taking inspiration from years of craftsmanship and historical concepts.
Embracing the close ties between geometry, mythology, and philosophy, Hesamiyan is focused on extracting traditional elements from these ancient sciences and adapting them for the present and future. His explorations often manifest in the form of complex sculptures, whether they be freestanding objects or multifaceted wall installations. As a master of designing structural systems, Hesamiyan reinterprets architecture and its elements in Persian architecture.