Farhad Ostovani : « Two women »

At first glance, it's just an ordinary black-and-white photo of two women in a bedroom, seemingly strangers to each other. One is standing at the back of the room, arranging her hair, while the other, seated in an armchair, is in the foreground, in profile, looking straight ahead. They are separated by a large empty space, highlighted by a vertical line that divides the back wall into light and dark sections.
Yet when he discovered this photo in 2005, Farhad Ostovani was fascinated. He couldn't take his eyes off the image of his mother and grandmother. “From that first glance, after years, I was already looking for something in that picture, and I couldn't figure out what!”
From then on, he drew inspiration from it, as if he wanted to revive a moment from the past. For 18 years, Farhad Ostovani engaged in a creative process. He drew from the photo, trying to understand what he was looking for. From the original he makes copies, which he enlarges, cuts, recomposes and rearranges, like musical variations, taking care not to let himself be overwhelmed by emotion.

Farhad Ostovani was born on October 14, 1950 in Lahidjan, in northern Iran, near the Caspian Sea. He began drawing and painting at the age of 12, taking lessons in a private class and copying European masters as well as Russian portraits and landscapes from the early 20th century. After completing his schooling, he entered the Fine Arts Department at Tehran University, before entering the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris four years later, from which he graduated.
Farhad Ostovani has traveled extensively in the Middle East, living in Egypt, the United States and Italy. In 1983, he settled in Rome for four years. During this time, he began to reflect on the garden of Alioff, the mythical garden of his childhood. This initial work gave rise to other series, including one devoted to trees and another to the horizon. His first exhibition took place at the French Institute in Teheran.
In 1994, he met the poet Yves Bonnefoy and Bernard Blatter, director of the Musée Jenisch Vevey. It was the beginning of a friendship that led to numerous exhibitions and publications.
In 2008, after devoting many years to works inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach's Golbderg Variations, Farhad Ostovani, in residence at the Bogliasco Foundation in Liguria, near Genoa, began another series inspired by the same composer's Suites for Solo Cello.
He returns to the foundation in 2013, to complete his project on the first of these suites. Invited back for a residency in February-March 2021, he completes a project for a series of works inspired by Dante's Vita Nuova. The same year, he begins another project based on Joyce's Ulysses, entitled La coscienza dell'acqua in Ulisse.
Farhad Ostovani's works have been the subject of countless publications and exhibitions in museums and galleries worldwide.