Isfahan Chehel Panjereh Hotel proudly presents its art residency platform

Draft Idea

Early 2020, Covid 19 pandemic brought about radical changes to people’s lives all over the world. Once the initial shock caused by loss of business and encounter with professional challenges sank in, the public began seeking a way out of the situation. As a result, some unprecedented creativity emerged and the draft idea of art residency project of Room 204 was one such example. The concept revolves around the collaboration of two seemingly unrelated professional groups namely hoteliers and artists.

 Many guesthouses and hotels remained vacant due to travel bans and at the same time the closing down of art galleries and museums made many artists evacuate their studios and working spaces. Now what if one hotel room is turned into a place of residence and workshop of an artist?  The change of space can challenge the artist and provide an opportunity for novel ideas while offering some calm to produce a masterpiece in a temporary workshop. In the meantime, this can be a chance for the guesthouse to get rid of the weariness caused by the pandemic. The idea seeks to make the non-local artist familiar with the art space and artists of the city and provide an opportunity to come up with an art collection over time.

This is the backbone of the idea behind Room 204 art residency which is based on a series of exchanges between the two groups.

The Plan

Chehel Panjereh Hotel (Forty Windows Hotel) started work in Norouz 1379 (2000); on Zayande Roud shore and in the middle of the beautiful city of Isfahan. This is a family hotel with a friendly interior design which offers this lively historical city to the visitors through the frame of its many windows. The hotel name is inspired by an old folklore song about a woman’s dream to build a bathroom with forty columns and forty windows for her lover to repose there. The hotel was renovated from 2008 and 2010 and now in 2020, it is about to get redressed. This time a new artistic life is to be breathed in it thanks to the interest of the Roghani’s and Kavian’s in collecting art pieces. As part of the plan, every month an artist is hosted in the hotel as an art resident so that through a peaceful stay in a city which has so much to explore, the artist can create a piece and explore ideas. Thus, every year, dozens of artists can benefit from this experience and savor creativity in a different environment.

Some details:

The one-month art residency project under the title of “Room 204” can be implemented in two ways:

- Inviting the active Iranian and international visual artists as per the platform management’s suggestion and following consultation with art experts

- Receiving requests from Iranian and international artists, selection by art experts according to the request forms, the artist profile and the proposal delivered for this particular residency project

The language skills for this one-month program is moderate Farsi and English, enough for everyday conversations and communication with the audience and the surrounding environment

The following will be arranged to facilitate the artist’s connection with Isafahan’s art environment:

- Holding an introduction session for the artist to get known by the art lovers and artists of Isfahan

- Establishing contacts with the art community of Isfahan and arranging visits to art studios

- A minimum of two visits of Open Studio by experts, artists and the interested invitees

- Inviting collectors and gallery owners to establish professional links

Vision

This art residency project wishes to serve as a bridge between artists and art lovers in Isafahan and out; it seeks to be a long-lasting base which creates its own art collection (through exchanges with invited artists) in a permanent gallery which showcases these pieces in an environment inspired by the city of Isfahan. Printing books and cards as well as planning the sale of art works of the artists who join this platform along with a monthly report are also part of this project’s vision.

The Room 204 art platform kindly calls on you for collaboration and company.

The first guest:

Jinoos Taghizadeh is born in 1971 in Tehran. A graphics and dramatic literature graduate she embarked on studying sculpture in the Faculty of Fine Arts of Tehran University. Her multimedia and multidisciplinary works have been showcased in many individual and group exhibitions in Iran and other countries over the past 25 years. On top of artistic activities, she has been cooperating with various Iranian and international journals on art critique and has been the editor-in-chief of two magazines. Jinoos Taghizadeh has a record of different art residency projects in the past two decades. She introduces herself as an artist and a storyteller.

The second guest:

Behroo Bagheri is born in 1973 and was raised in Tehran where she resides now. After completing her bachelors’ degree in Islamic Law, from a highly reputable university in Tehran, she travelled to the USA and commenced her education in Fine Art. Thereafter her professional activities have mainly been concentrated on Painting, that she had learnt from well-known artists such as Farideh Lashaie and Mohammadali Taraghijah back in the days. Behroo has exhibited her art works for a large and diverse group of audience by performing a number of personal and group exhibitions. She uses painting as a way of self-expression. Thus, she tries to challenge her abilities clearly and genuinely in order to depict all her encounters through her unique visual language. Design and craft of jewellery is another profession that Behroo has actively pursued during her career. Aesthetics of small objects that she makes are displayed on human body. By learning basics of traditional jewellery making, besides heavily relying on trial and error, Behroo has established a unique style that is simple and instinctiv.

The third guest/artist:

Leyli Rashidi was born in 1986 and lives in Tehran. She got her diploma in painting from Modarres art school and later graduated from Shahed Art faculty in the same discipline of painting. Her works were praised in visual art festivals of London and Tehran in 2008 and 2009. Over the recent decade, she has had 5 solo drawing and painting exhibitions including “ Hidden” in Etemad Gallery, “ The closed scope ” and “ Unstable” in Azad art and Toranj Galleries.

Many of her works have been showcased in group exhibitions in Tehran, Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Kuwait, Beirut and New York. Leyli Rashidi Rauf had two months of art residency experience in Cité Internationale des arts in 2020 and has been teaching drawing in Kherad Art School since 2017.