Art exhibition warns cotton farming in decline in Iran

TEHRAN.(Iranart) – An artist has set up a video art installation at Tehran’s Vista Gallery, warning that cotton farming is sinking into oblivion in the northern Iranian fields that once gleamed white in the autumn with cotton ready to be picked.

Mohammadreza Arab-Khazaeli has used numerous gunnysacks filled with raw cotton to perform his installation art entitled “Cotton Gunnysacks”.

Earlier in February, the impression of “Cotton Gunnysacks” was selected as the best artistic idea of the year at the first annual Vista Contemporary Art Prize.

Arab-Khazaeli who spent years of his childhood near the cotton fields in the northern Iranian region of Mazandaran said in a press release on Tuesday that people of the region look back on those years with a certain amount of nostalgia.

“The cultivation of cotton has declined in the region and perhaps, the closure of Ghaemshahr Textile Company caused the decline, and in my opinion, cotton farming is spending the last years of its life in the region,” he stated.

“The decline in the cultivation of cotton will definitely affect the social behavior and lifestyle of the cotton growers and the people living nearby,” he lamented.

It was a difficult task to implement the “Cotton Gunnysacks” idea in practice at an art gallery, Arab-Khazaeli said. However, he is satisfied with the result.

The exhibition will run until October 3 at the gallery, which can be found at No. 11, 12th Alley, Mir Emad St.