For this exhibition, organised by Candlestar in collaboration with PurdyHicks Gallery in London, Abbas Kiarostami presented a series of photographic and film works celebrating the poetry he constantly finds in inanimate things - rain, roads and trees. The exhibition also featured the rarely seen short film Sleepers (first shown at the Venice Biennale in 2001).  ‘Abbas Kiarostami - a photographic overture’ was launched to coincide with the opening of Kiarostami’s production of Mozart’s Così Fan Tutte at the English National Opera in May 2009.

For Kiarostami, trees are artists, interlocutors and companions and have remained an idée fixe in his body of work. “One of the earliest memories I have is driving in a car with my grandmother 30 or 40 years ago. She said, ‘Look at that one.’ I looked and I saw a solitary tree at the bottom of a hill. I said, ‘So what about it? It’s a tree.’ But she didn’t have any explanation. It’s about that. You cannot put it into words. From my very first photos when I first picked up a camera, I realised that trees had more significance for me than human beings,” he says. “I have always quoted Ibn Arabi, who says that ‘the tree is my sister’. I feel even more than this.”

Abbas Kiarostami was born in Tehran, Iran, on June 22, 1940.  He graduated with a degree in Fine Arts before working as a graphic designer. He then joined the Centre for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, where he founded a film section. This, at the age of 30, was the beginning of his career as a filmmaker. In addition to film work Kiarostami has attracted international acclaim for his poetry and photography. His photographic work includes Untitled Photographs, a collection of over thirty photographs of snow landscapes, taken in his hometown Tehran between 1978 and 2003. An exhibition of Kiarostami’s photographs of roads, trees and views from a car were shown at PS1 Contemporary Art Center in New York in 2007.

One of the most visionary figures in international cinema, Kiarostami makes films that challenge viewers’ expectations of modern filmmaking and expound a deeply humanist philosophy. His film credits include The Koker Trilogy (1987-94), A Taste of Cherry (1997), The Wind Will Carry Us (1999), Ten (2002), and Shirin (2008). Kiarostami takes his inspiration and story ideas from the people around him and from his close observation of everyday life. He stresses a natural, improvisational approach from his actors. In his latest film Shirin, 112 Iranian actresses and Juliette Binoche are shot watching a 12th century Persian play.

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Press Release
A Personal Statement by Abbas Kiarostami explaining his effective exclusion from Britain
Price List
Cosi Fan Tutte press release