Sirous Namazi: Pending

Curator: Tessa Praun

Sirous Namazi’s solo exhibition Pending opens at Magasin III on September 9. Since the 1990s the Iran-born and Stockholm-based artist has explored themes of memory, loss of information, and exclusion. The new exhibition comprises exclusively of new works created specifically for and at the museum.

Through sculpture, embroidery, installation, and film, Namazi addresses questions such as: Whose memory is closest to reality? Can one recreate what has been? The large-scale new film work titled 12:30 (2023) takes its cue from previous works by the artist and is based on family member’s memories from their home in Iran, that they were forced to leave abruptly during the revolution in 1978.

Central to the presentation is an extensive group of sculptures Patterns of Failure (2023), composed of decorative and utilitarian porcelain items that Namazi sourced from thrift stores. Looking for details that catch his eye, back in the studio the artist then smashes the items and singles out what caught his interest. The thereby selected parts are meticulously glued together to create entirely new forms, lending the objects new identities.

Patterns of Failure also serve as prototypes for the three white sculptures named Rebound (2023). The porcelain sculptures have been 3D scanned and 3D printed in porcelain clay, before being fired and glazed. In the process of scanning the works, information is lost, abstractions and distortions occur. For Namazi, such loss is reminiscent of the mechanisms of our memory.

The series of embroideries In-betweens (2023) are similarly based on detailed photographs of the porcelain originals. Translated pixel by pixel and cross-stitch by cross-stitch onto textile, the pixels both dissolve and unite the motif. Instead of a hand, it is a machine that has carried out the embroidery, allowing the work to address both possibilities and limitations of the advanced mechanics. 

The exhibition is a continued manifestation of Sirous’s ongoing endeavor to understand and process his past, his identity, and his place in the world. 

“Others have similar experiences of being in an in-between space, even if they do not have the experience of being refugees.” —Sirous Namazi

Exhibition booklet 
An exhibition booklet will be offered to visitors free of charge. It will also be available to download from the website after the opening of the exhibition. The booklet includes a text written by Tessa Praun, exhibition curator, and a poem by poet Iman Mohammed, written at the invitation of Magasin III and with a starting point in the theme of the exhibition.

Sirous Namazi
Born 1970 in Kerman, Iran. Lives and works in Stockholm. Namazi studied at the Malmö Art Academy from 1993 to 1998, and at the Art School Forum in Malmö from 1993 to 1995. Together with Jacob Dahlgren, Namazi represented Sweden at the Nordic Pavilion, Venice Biennale in 2007. The works of Sirous Namazi are included in a range of collections, including Malmö Art Museum; Kiasma, Helsinki; Statens konstråd; Le fonds National d’art Contemporain, France; Magasin III Museum for Contemporary Art, Stockholm.

Skin of the Soul
September 9–December 17, 2023
Curators: Tessa Praun and Sofia Ringstedt
The group exhibition Skin of the Soul opens the same day, on September 9, with works from our collection by Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg, Carin Ellberg, Noa Eshkol, Anton Henning, Susanne Henriques, Marcus Schinwald, Linnéa Sjöberg, Olle Skagerfors, Geraldine Swayne, and Sixten Sandra Österberg.

The collection presentation Skin of the Soul explores the body as both a site for our inner experiences and a barrier that protects us. The works in the exhibition examine how emotions such as sorrow, fear, desire, and lust can manifest physically, and how our physical experiences, in turn, can leave deep emotional imprints.

Meriç Algün’s solo exhibition A Glossary of Distance and Desire will continuously be on view this fall and works by Fatima Moallim in the art library.