Poetry-attack Disorder

Azad Gallery is pleased to announce Farhad Fozouni's solo exhibition, "Poetry-Attack Disorder" (اختلال شعرپریشی), on view from December 27, 2024, to January 8, 2025.

For over 15 years, Farhad Fozouni (b. 1978, Tehran) has been a "poet who does not write poetry". Instead, his primary artistic pursuit is a serious exploration of the question, "What is contemporary poetry?". Fozouni’s work is a direct response to this inquiry, proposing that contemporary poetry should incorporate elements from other art forms to create a more profound and precise experience for the viewer.

The exhibition features three-dimensional works made from multi-layered metal, a continuation of a project he began with single-layer metal typography. These heavy, physical forms of Persian letters and diacritical marks, such as the tashdid and kasreh, are suspended in the air or hung on the wall, creating a sense of both weight and liberation. According to Fozouni, the works reflect the inherent nature of Persian script, which "seems to be written in the air from the ground up," refusing to be placed on a horizontal plane.

A central theme of the exhibition is the idea of "poetry-attack," a term Fozouni uses to describe a process where a flood of poems and words overwhelms the mind, resulting in an output that is not a clear, written poem but rather a more complex work. The exhibition, therefore, is not a single poem, but rather "a book of poetry" where each piece functions as an individual poem, connected by a shared feeling and vision.

Fozouni's works are filled with layers of text, signs, and symbols that combine to form a "poetry-attack" that is not easily deciphered. By using physical materials and forms, he believes he can reduce the number of words in a poem while intensifying the conveyed feeling. For example, by giving a word a sharp, metallic form, he doesn't need to describe its sharpness or coldness; the object itself embodies these qualities.

The exhibition includes an interactive piece based on a poem Fozouni wrote over a decade ago in Berlin. The work invites viewers to engage with it, echoing the artist's belief that contemporary poetry should be a multi-sensory experience that goes beyond the written word.