Art, Minorities and Social Change Exhibition
at Harvard University



May 2019

In collaboration with Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, Touch Art Gallery is pleased to present "Art, Minorities and Social Change in Iran", a group exhibition by 42 young Iranian artists and filmmakers. A film screening will be presented during the reception of the art exhibition. The art exhibition will take place from May 3rd to August 15th.

The reception will take place from 6:30pm-9:00pm on Friday, May 3rd at Harvard University, CGIS South Concourse, 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA 02138. The film screening will be held from 7:30pm to 8:30pm at Tsai Auditorium S010.

So-Art is a project of Touch Art Gallery whose goal is to bring together young Iranian artists who wish to address social and  cultural issues in Iran. This project is the first annual art exhibition held by So-Art involving hands-on artists who share a progressive vision of  women, minority rights and social change in Iran through art.

In this group exhibition we will present 42 artworks from:
Fatemeh Heidarpour
Fatemeh Mozafari
Sharareh Eftekhari Yekta
Parastoo Kermani Nassab
Shima Najafi
Kaveh Sistani
Mounir Khadiviyan
Mahshid Agha Seyed Mirzaei
Saeedeh Hajiani
Esmaeil Tejarati
Neda Azizi
Hoorieh Hashemi
Mehri Langroody Poorbozorg
Fariba Farzanfar
Saedeh Hame Keshf
Nazanin Assemi
Fatemeh Amani Rad

Maryam Lori
Elnaz Karimi
Fariba Darabimanesh
Faezeh Hayati
Mahboubeh Mirzaei
Atusa Beyzapour
Milad Karimian Dorhouni
Anahita Baniasadi
Mahya Farahbakhsh
Khabat Nodinyan
Mandana rozkhush
Parisa Shafighi
Babak Javaherpour Ahmadani
Leily Nekookar
Sahar Khosravi
Seyed Mohsen Pourmohseni Shakib
Sarah Yousefi

Also we will screen 5 short films including:

Iranshahr, A film by Mahdi Kamranirad & Mari Moosavi
Freedom,A film by Arezo
History of a respectable family,A film by Iranian Minority
Under our steps, A film by Mahshid Motahar
LipStick,A film by Mostafa Rahgoshay

In this activity, SoArt is proud to honor Shahriar Cyrus, a prominent and socially engaged Iranian artist who was deprived of the right of pursuing higher education, the right of unrestricted artistic activity and in fact deprived of his citizenship rights. Despite all these restrictions, cyrus not only created valuable art, but also shared his knowledge and skills with other students. We honor the efforts of this valuable young Iranian artist and screen a documentary made about him by one of SoArt’s filmmaking students.

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Winners of the SoArt Festival 2019

In the short film section, the jury's festival selected "LipStick" by Mostafa Rahgoshay as the best film of the festival.

The jury also introduced Fatemeh Heidarpour's "As If" painting in the visual arts section as the selected work.

In the popular vote section, Mahshid Motahar's film "Under Our Steps" won the most votes.

The painting "Look at me" by Saedeh Hame Keshf (Baran) also won the most popular votes in the field of visual arts.

Iris Anne Grant, Nader Rofougaran, Mahmood Karimi Hakak and William Oberst are the members of the festival jury.

2021 SoArt Festival for; Women, Children and Minorities

Simultaneously with the opening of the online exhibition of SoArt’s first biennial festival entitled "Art, Minorities and Social Change". The second festival will be held in 2021. If you are interested in participating you may submit your work for a chance to be considered in the 2021 SoArt Festival.