Profile: Bita Shafipour
Iranian art and culture are currently at the forefront of American media. Tyler Green on his Modern Art Notes blog a few days ago posted a piece titled "Dissent, Life in Iran and the Arts," on recent examples of shows dedicated to Iranian art. The post in turn points to Claire Messud's contribution to the New York Review of Books' blog titled "Revealing the Real Iran," in which the critic argues for the value of fiction in helping articulate a culture's true identity. "Fiction and poetry work differently from history or autobiography, opening to us the interior lives, the unrecorded ephemera and minutiae of people and their places," she writes.The young Iranian artist, writer, producer and occasional curator Bita Shafipour is working to support an understanding of contemporary Iranian culture in Los Angeles with a project titled Society of Cinema and Arts, orSoCiArts, which is an online community for socially conscious artists. A recent graduate of USC's School of Cinematic Arts, Bita also runs a small production company dedicated to producing socially conscious multi-media shows designed to promote the artists on the SoCiArts site. "Our goal is to create a platform for like-minded people to come together as a community and celebrate the arts and think about what matters in our society." Why is this so important to Bita?
"My generation never saw the revolution in Iran," explains Bita, "and because we grew up during the war, we saw the worst side of Iran. But we were also connected to the West through the Internet and media, and I think this has helped this generation create different art forms, and to find different ways to get their ideas beyond Iran."Based in Santa Monica, the SoCiArts production company was launched in September 2007 by Bita and her partner Arash Kolahi. That year, they produced an art exhibition called "Souvenirs From Iran," a sold-out concert at Disney Hall (for Homay and the Mastan Group, "the most controversial and socially conscious classical ensemble from Iran," explains Bita), and two sold-out screenings at the Landmark Pico for the film Tehran Has No More Pomegranates.
"The productions were really the motivation to create the online community, to keep the connection alive virtually," Bita explains. "These events also created the opportunity for me to work with the Craft and Folk Art Museum and co-produce 'Exploring the Other Through the Lens of Iason Athanasiadis,' an incredible photo journalist who was later arrested in Iran during the June disputed election."
The online component of SoCiArts was launched just over a year ago, in December 2008, and Bita and her partner have been even busier since then. During the recent uprising in Iran, for example, Bita co-curated with Building Bridges an exhibition titled "Fly With the Cage" for Phantom Galleries and Edgar Varela Fine Arts, which was on view between July 10 and August 1, 2009. "We wanted to do something more than protest at the Federal Building," explains Bita. "We wanted to create a friendly atmosphere where people could come and talk about what democracy in Iran really means."
SoCiArts has also hosted an online film festival and competition, sponsored by the Farhang Foundation, and is currently seeking submissions for a 2010 festival. Titled the Farhang Foundation Short Film Festival, the event seeks music videos - interpreted broadly - about any aspect of Iranian culture, including its arts, history, crafts, geography, cuisine or lifestyle. Submissions from Iranian and non-Iranian artists are welcome, and the deadline for submissions is February 22, 2010.
Bita notes that last year's festival received far more submissions than she anticipated, and she's hoping for a similar response this year. "We had pieces from many parts of the world, and already this year, I've gotten emails from people in many different parts of Iran as well." She continues, "Despite the turmoil in Iran that really shuts things down, people are still doing things, making films and creating art. And that's really exciting to us."
First image: "Peace in Iran," by Bita Shafipour
