Abbas Kiarostami’s (Iranian, b. 1940) gallery installation Five (2004)—a canny and sublime work which will also be screened as a single theatrical projection during the retrospective of the artist’s entire moving-image oeuvre—beautifully mines the potential of digital imagery and sound while playfully investigating the fluid limits of documentary art practice. Alternatively titled Five Dedicated to Ozu, the work was acquired by MoMA after its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004, and this is its first presentation in the U.S. as a media installation. This meditative work, which focuses on the ebb and flow of the tide at a beach, comprises five segments projected in a continuous and synchronized loop onto five separate partitions dividing the gallery space, with the audio component of each screen blending slightly together.
This work is presented in conjunction with MoMA’s Abbas Kiarostami film retrospective.
Organized by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film, and Klaus Biesenbach, Chief Curator, Department of Media, The Museum of Modern Art, in collaboration with the Iranian Art Foundation.
Abbas Kiarostami: Image Maker is co-organized by The Museum of Modern Art and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, in collaboration with the Iranian Art Foundation.
