Mehrdad Mirzaie (www.mehrdadmirzaiee.com) Mehrdad Mirzaei is a lens-based media artist from Iran. He is currently an MFA Candidate in photography at Arizona State University. Mirzaie was born in Tehran and grew up in Ekbatan town near the capital of Iran. He received his BFA in photography from Tehran Art University in 2012. His focus and interest are in archives, Image studies, and alternative processes. In the last ten years, He has worked on various archives individually and as a team. These projects have been completed or are still ongoing in research works and art exhibitions. He also focuses on interdisciplinary studies in art, culture, politics, and society.
The Inertia project is an archive-based project that I started in 2009. This project began when I photographed people around me because of the challenging political and social experiences that had affected Iranian society in those years. These events coincided with the formation of the “Green Movement” in Iran. A movement that sought fundamental reforms in the country’s political structure. At that time, the daily life of each person I met became more and more important to me. I was a student at the Tehran University of Art and the university was one of the most important bases of social and political protests. Therefore, the project’s main body includes photographs of students at the University of Arts. People whom I saw every day and as if I lived with them.
This approach and project continued throughout these years in various forms. The evidential aspect of these images and their archival nature are more important to me than their artistic aspect. This archive is a part of the spirit of the times that my generation and I have experienced. The series of the events and circumstances that happened has left a significant impact on the time we live in. Meanwhile, we are witnessing the continuation of fundamental changes in the power structures in Iran. Today’s events are not only about today. There has been a continuous aspiration to change and improve human civilization throughout history. This is an archive about the lives of others who were and are important and may not be alive now.
These days, after the passage of a decade from that period and those events, the students of the same university are currently forming the “Women, Life, Freedom” revolution, and their perseverance, resistance, creative protests, and their tireless fight for justice terrifies any oppressive regime. In the last five months, the standing of these students for equality and justice has been monumental. Now, when I look at this archive of several thousand photos, time becomes meaningless. History continues to be shaped, and the spirit of the time gets defined by every life that resists, is in danger, or taken.
Today is Wednesday, the exhibition’s opening day; While I was doing the last editing of the text, I remembered that today, February 15, is the day that the regime troops murdered my classmate “Sane Jaleh” in 2009. He was a theater student at the Tehran University of Arts.
With respect to Sane and to all my fellow students who keep life and standing alive in that university these days.
