Sheida Soleimani
Italy & Libya, 2019
Archival pigment print
109.2 x 144.8 cm
43 x 57 in.
43 x 57 in.
Edition of 3 plus 2 artist's proofs
Copyright the artist
Soleimani’s series, 'Reparations Packages,' reframes the paying of reparations as a global practice by which nations turn the ethics of historical injustices into playing fields for geopolitical and economic interests....
Soleimani’s series, 'Reparations Packages,' reframes the paying of reparations as a global practice by which nations turn the ethics of historical injustices into playing fields for geopolitical and economic interests. The photographed sets are comprised of painted backdrops specific to the landscape of the nations in question, populated by pertinent cultural signifiers and monuments to national identity and colonial legacy. The series makes visible the histories leading up to the agreement of a reparations package, untangling narratives of victimhood and perpetrator.
'Italy & Libya' concerns the reparations package agreed upon in 2008 by Silvio Berlusconi’s and Muammar Gaddafi’s governments. The wallpaper is a close-up of Berlusconi and Gaddafi‘s hands, about to shake on the reparations package that took decades to negotiate. Soleimani’s image includes various symbols of conquest and national identity, wading into debates around restitution: at the heart of negotiations was the return to Libya of the “Venus of Cyrene,” a headless marble statue of Venus found early in the Italian colonization of Libya (1911-1943). Other symbols take on gravity throughout the image, from the green flag of the Gaddafi era to the suspended 'Frontier Wire' built by Italians to separate Libya from Egypt to the black and white image of resistance fighter, Omar al-Mukhtar, which Gaddafi pinned to his lapel on his first state visit to Italy. The painted background of the image refers to the arguable real purpose of the reparations package: a promise of a $5 billion infrastructure stimulus package in the form of a new highway system—to be built only by Italian companies.
Sheida Soleimani’s work melds installation, sculpture, performance, film and photography to highlight her critical perspectives on historical and contemporary sociopolitical events across the Greater Middle East. The daughter of political refugees that were persecuted by the Iranian government in the early 1980s, Soleimani dissects emerging narratives surrounding the power dynamics between western and middle eastern nations. Soleimani’s work primarily entails the staging of elaborate studio sets that are documented photographically. The sets combine photographic images with props, painted backdrops and performances to create mash-ups of competing media narratives, cultural signifiers and historical references. Her research-led practice draws on oral histories, citizen journalist accounts, declassified documents and common news threads in equal measure, creating collisions in reference to sociological events throughout the past century. Soleimani’s work explores the intersections of art and activism, as well as how social media has shaped the landscape in current political affairs and uprisings.
Soleimani received her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2015. Her recent series 'Medium of Exchange' was the subject of solo exhibitions at Southern Utah Museum of Art (Cedar City, UT, USA), 2019; Contemporary Arts Center (Cincinnati, OH, USA), 2018; Atlanta Contemporary (GA, USA), 2018; and CUE Arts Foundation (New York, NY, USA), 2018. In 2019, Soleimani participated in the deCordova Biennial (deCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA, USA). In 2021, she will have a solo exhibition at Fabric Workshop and Museum. Her work has been recognized internationally in both exhibitions and publications such as Artforum, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, Interview Magazine and VICE Magazine, amongst many others. Soleimani resides in Providence, RI, and is a professor of studio art at Brandeis University, and formerly at the Rhode Island School of Design.
'Italy & Libya' concerns the reparations package agreed upon in 2008 by Silvio Berlusconi’s and Muammar Gaddafi’s governments. The wallpaper is a close-up of Berlusconi and Gaddafi‘s hands, about to shake on the reparations package that took decades to negotiate. Soleimani’s image includes various symbols of conquest and national identity, wading into debates around restitution: at the heart of negotiations was the return to Libya of the “Venus of Cyrene,” a headless marble statue of Venus found early in the Italian colonization of Libya (1911-1943). Other symbols take on gravity throughout the image, from the green flag of the Gaddafi era to the suspended 'Frontier Wire' built by Italians to separate Libya from Egypt to the black and white image of resistance fighter, Omar al-Mukhtar, which Gaddafi pinned to his lapel on his first state visit to Italy. The painted background of the image refers to the arguable real purpose of the reparations package: a promise of a $5 billion infrastructure stimulus package in the form of a new highway system—to be built only by Italian companies.
Sheida Soleimani’s work melds installation, sculpture, performance, film and photography to highlight her critical perspectives on historical and contemporary sociopolitical events across the Greater Middle East. The daughter of political refugees that were persecuted by the Iranian government in the early 1980s, Soleimani dissects emerging narratives surrounding the power dynamics between western and middle eastern nations. Soleimani’s work primarily entails the staging of elaborate studio sets that are documented photographically. The sets combine photographic images with props, painted backdrops and performances to create mash-ups of competing media narratives, cultural signifiers and historical references. Her research-led practice draws on oral histories, citizen journalist accounts, declassified documents and common news threads in equal measure, creating collisions in reference to sociological events throughout the past century. Soleimani’s work explores the intersections of art and activism, as well as how social media has shaped the landscape in current political affairs and uprisings.
Soleimani received her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2015. Her recent series 'Medium of Exchange' was the subject of solo exhibitions at Southern Utah Museum of Art (Cedar City, UT, USA), 2019; Contemporary Arts Center (Cincinnati, OH, USA), 2018; Atlanta Contemporary (GA, USA), 2018; and CUE Arts Foundation (New York, NY, USA), 2018. In 2019, Soleimani participated in the deCordova Biennial (deCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA, USA). In 2021, she will have a solo exhibition at Fabric Workshop and Museum. Her work has been recognized internationally in both exhibitions and publications such as Artforum, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, Interview Magazine and VICE Magazine, amongst many others. Soleimani resides in Providence, RI, and is a professor of studio art at Brandeis University, and formerly at the Rhode Island School of Design.
