Tahmineh Monzavi - Requiem for Desolation

Requiem for Desolation - Kharabaat
Tahmineh Monzavi

“We are invited as witnesses to this funeral of ruined places. Remained buildings from past are presented in our sight to show what they have done not only in a certain era but also in the history of their existence. Growing up in these kind of places made my childhood full of imaginations and inspiration from the painting on sealing and the statues in living room. I knew I was living in a powerful place that led me to think deeper and stronger. The existence of past has influenced the young generation, all the signs which are disappearing. The memory of people who used to live in these buildings has vanished. My feeling about these locations is full of sorrow as if they were alive. The death of cultural treasure is as painful as human beings death. I replaced the emptiness of the atmospheres with the existence of woman who are invisible in the muscularity of the society. “Kharabat” (Desolation) is a concept in Iranian and Afghan mysticism, which could mean a place for drinking wine, a holy place to pray or even a ruined place.” Tahmineh Monzavi

This project is still on the progress and will be completed by end of 2016. A part of this project has been taken in Afghanistan. The other section of “A Requiem for a Desolation” has been taking place in Tehran as well as other cities in Iran.

Tahmineh Monzavi (born 1988 in Tehran) is an Iranian documentary photographer and Filmmaker with bachelor degree in photography from Azad art & Architecture University of Tehran. Her main topics of interest are social conflicts and the young generation of Iran. Since 2006 when she started using the media of photography, she has focused on "social contradictions". In her works, she has been finding subjects that are taking place in secrecy and are unofficial in Tehran. These underground social layers are hidden from the eyes of the public and not everyone gets to see. She had the urge to show deeper, hidden currents within the Iranian society, culture and art. Her photographs have been shown in many museums around the world such as "Modern Art Museum of Paris”, "Literature Museum of Giorgia" and “Maxxi museum of Roma”. Monzavi is a promising young artist whose work reveals taboos and stereotypes in Iran and Afghanistan through the images of younger women and marginalized people in a rather explicit way.