Artists

Hazrati, Mohsen

Fal Project, 2022
Courtesy: Mohsen Hazrati; Foto: Frank Kleinbach

Mohsen Hazrati’s (b. 1987) practice centers on the digital world that has so recently become part of our reality. His work continuously dissolves the boundaries between virtual and physical space and establishes a link between the individual spheres. Artworks by Hazrati emphasize the interaction between artwork and viewer, giving rise to a multifaceted image of our time.
The local culture and rich history of Shiraz, Iran, are another of the artist’s key focuses. Hazrati’s Hafiz Book (2022) impressively links digital technologies with bibliomancy, which involves foretelling the future by interpreting a randomly chosen passage from a book. The practice is firmly rooted in Persian culture; even today, the opening of a book by the poet Hafez is a significant event in some ceremonies in Iran. The artwork references this moment with the user’s random selection of a poem. The piece then translates the words contained in that poem into code and, through the resulting algorithms, searches the internet for specific image, sound, and text data so as to supposedly predict the future and use visual language to convey centuries-old literature into the digital realm.
The work creates an intimate dialogue between humans and machines and, in doing so, opens up new levels in the aesthetic experience of digital cultures. It also raises questions about alternative truths and the realities of objects and data, and addresses both the conditions and effect of the (post)digital age on our everyday lives. How does technology affect sociocultural change? Does unlimited access to knowledge and information enhance a society’s critical consciousness? Or does it rather cause the opposite?
Hazrati’s work negotiates all this in a differentiated way and articulates ways we might improve the general understanding of media.

Text: Gloria Aino Grzywatz; englische Übersetzung: Amy Patton

Mohsen Hazrati’s (b. 1987) practice centers on the digital world that has so recently become part of our reality. His work continuously dissolves the boundaries between virtual and physical space and establishes a link between the individual spheres. Artworks by Hazrati emphasize the interaction between artwork and viewer, giving rise to a multifaceted image of our time.
The local culture and rich history of Shiraz, Iran, are another of the artist’s key focuses. Hazrati’s Hafiz Book (2022) impressively links digital technologies with bibliomancy, which involves foretelling the future by interpreting a randomly chosen passage from a book. The practice is firmly rooted in Persian culture; even today, the opening of a book by the poet Hafez is a significant event in some ceremonies in Iran. The artwork references this moment with the user’s random selection of a poem. The piece then translates the words contained in that poem into code and, through the resulting algorithms, searches the internet for specific image, sound, and text data so as to supposedly predict the future and use visual language to convey centuries-old literature into the digital realm.
The work creates an intimate dialogue between humans and machines and, in doing so, opens up new levels in the aesthetic experience of digital cultures. It also raises questions about alternative truths and the realities of objects and data, and addresses both the conditions and effect of the (post)digital age on our everyday lives. How does technology affect sociocultural change? Does unlimited access to knowledge and information enhance a society’s critical consciousness? Or does it rather cause the opposite?
Hazrati’s work negotiates all this in a differentiated way and articulates ways we might improve the general understanding of media.

Text: Gloria Aino Grzywatz; englische Übersetzung: Amy Patton

Fal Project, 2022
Courtesy: Mohsen Hazrati; Foto: Frank Kleinbach