The male and female universe, the sensuality of bodies and the violence of war, Islamic and Western cultures, the urgency of modernity and the richness of tradition, the brilliance of dazzling white and the profundity of black: in Shirin Neshat’s art different elements coexist, articulated through tensions specific to contemporary life. The encounter between different worlds is part of the artist’s own personal biography. Born and raised in Iran, Neshat emigrated to the United States to pursue her education, then remained there when the Iranian revolution imposed the regime of Ayatollah Khomeini, beginning in 1979.
She did not pursue a career as an artist, or at least not until, after going back to her native land in 1990 and collecting hundreds of images during the period of the war between Iran and Iraq, she once again returned to America. [...]
