A mix of jazz (Ibrahim Maalouf), pop (Kadim al Sahir, George Benson), classical Arabic music (Sabah the musical, Farida and the Iraki Maqam Ensemble) and a not to be missed dance performance (Cherkaoui), this is Beiteddine festival’s eclectic 2011 program. Next to the stage, Beiteddine invited accomplished Iranian graphic designer Reza Abedini’s to show his work for the first time in Lebanon.
Born in Teheran in 1967, Abedini is well known for blurring the lines between art and design, combining simple illustrations with poetic typography and elegant layouts. With a strong sense of pride in his Islamic heritage and Iranian background, Abedini believes that traditional art forms are dead and that “graphic design is a new art of the 21st century”.
So what’s so innovative about Abedini’s compositions? His use of patterns and shapes that may best be seen in Islamic architecture and the mixing of various fonts and language seem truly free of the influences of the International Style. Exploring the beauty of the Persian language, his characters’ bodies merge with intricate calligraphy and floral elements, and sometimes letters are simply forming the shape of the body. “In Iranian beliefs, the human body is called ‘the small world’, where the words come down. Therefore, the body is sacred, like words” says Abedini. In the artist’s work, typography and image, color and texture seem to all dance together inside the silhouette of a figure, or they extend and intertwine with one another to create beautiful patterns that literally draw the viewer in.
Florence Thireau
“Exhibition of Reza Abedini”
Beiteddine Art Festival (01 372 430)
From June 24th to August 4th 2011
This article was published in Time Out Beirut, July 2011.
MILLE ET UN ARTISTES 