The Great Game

Iran, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq Central-Asian Republics, Kurdish Region


The idea of this exhibition - and book - comes from the consideration that the geographical area of these countries is, in fact, a historically unique territory, its destiny indissolubly linked to its historical and cultural situation around these places there took place, and still takes place, what since the 19th century has been known as "The Great Game" for supremacy in the Middle East and Central Asia. A tangle of political, economic, religious, and social situations also finds an expression and interpretation in the art produced in these places, and it is this that the exhibition proposed for the Venice Biennale hopes to show through the work of some fifty artists working in the region and who are particularly aware of social-political questions. Curated by Marco Meneguzzo and by Mazdak Faiznia, the exhibition demonstrates the centrality of this question and how it is perceived and reestablished by an international public through the language of contemporary art.

artists: Lida Abdul, Bani Abidi, Adel Abidin, Amin Aghaei, Ghodratollah Agheli, Shahriar Ahmadi, Parastoo Ahovan, Farhad Ahrarnia, Furat al Jamil, Rashad Alakbarov, Nazgol Ansarinia, Reza Aramesh, Alireza Astaneh, Sonia Balassanian, Mahmoud Bakhshi Moakhar, Wafaa Bilal, Mehdi Farhadian, Shadi Ghadirian, Shilpa Gupta, Ghasem Hajizadeh, Shamsia Hassani, Sahand Hesamiyan, Sitara Ibrahimova, Pouran Jinchi, Amar Kanwar, Babak Kazemi, Riyas Komu, Farideh Lashai, Farokh Mahdavi, Mehrdad Mohebali, Ahmad Morshedloo, Huma Mulji, Azad Nanakeli, Jamal Penjweny, Imran Qureshi, Sara Rahbar, Rashid Rana, Atefeh Samaei, T.V. Santhosh, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Wahid Sharif, Walid Siti, Mohsen Taasha Wahidi, Mitra Tabrizian, Parviz Tanavoli, Newsha Tavakolian, Sadegh Tirafkan, Hema Upadhyay, Saira Wasim