Ag Galerie is pleased to announce the opening of Mohsen Yazdipour’s solo exhibition titled “A Sight Not to See” simultaneous with a book launch organized by Nazar Art Publications. Mohsen Yazdipour (Tehran, 1980) received his MA in photography from the Art University of Tehran in 2005. His work has been exhibited in Iran, Europe, Australia and the United States and was acquired by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
We look forward to welcoming you on Friday!
A Sight Not To See
The experience of living for thirty years in one of the older neighborhoods of Tehran, with its different localities and residents, has formed the way I look at and understand life. It is a way of living in this city from which I cannot easily detach myself.
I look back and memories of that house, neighborhood, school, university, and mandatory military service are tied to the geography of Baharestan Square, Pich-e Shemiran, and Enghelab Avenue. The old names of the city come alive to the tune of my grandmother’s voice: Derakhti Bus Stop, Valiabad Public Bath, Chekonam Square….
In those days, the city was still in human scale. We’d see things and keep them in mind. Our memories were tied to our feet and we’d summon them with every step.
Today, however, my home is surrounded by expressways!
Modernism has changed the coordinates of my life by changing my modes of relocation within the city. For me a “trip” was to go to another town; now, it’s urban commuting. Expressions like “daily commute” and “city trips” are part of my daily life.
City trips no longer give me space to observe, communicate, or save experience to memory – they have become opportunities to act out, to make quick and transitory observations. It is as if “Greater Tehran” no longer cared for the way we communicate with it; no longer paid attention to collective memories of a generation.
Spending long hours in expressways of Tehran have opened new vistas and spaces for me, something akin to the wanderings of a child in his/her first encounter with the world; surrounded by giant structures!
I have arrived at a new understanding of life with this new lifestyle: “Crossroad” contradicts our wider view of the earth.

Mohsen Yazdipour, 2018