Hossein Valamanesh awarded Adelaide Film Festival commission

Multi-disciplinary visual artist Hossein Valamanesh has been announced as the recipient of the Adelaide Film Festival’s 2015 Art and the Moving Image commission.

Awarded by the AFF in conjunction with the Samstag Museum, University of Western Australia and Carriageworks, the commission provides the South Australian artist with $50,000 to support the creation of a new work set to be unveiled at Samstag as part of the 2015 AFF.

The announcement recognises Valamanesh’s four decades at the forefront of Australian contemporary art, where the Adelaide-based, Iranian-born artist has worked prolifically since migrating to South Australia in the early 1970s. With work exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of Western Australia and basically every major institution you could think to name in our region, this commission will see the artist embark on Char Soo, a new moving image project in collaboration with producer Bridget Ikin and Iranian cinematographer M. Reza Jahanpanah.

Char Soo will draw on footage shot in Iran by Jahanpanah and his crew, continuing Valamanesh’s interest in exploring his Iranian heritage through art, and will be exhibited at Carriageworks and the University of Western Australia following its Adelaide debut.

AFF Director Amanda Duthie described her excitement in announcing the commission this week, following previous successful collaborations between Samstag and AFF in 2009, 2011 and 2013.

“Hossein is such an important Australian artist and it is very exciting to be able to commission a screen based work to premiere here in Adelaide,” she said. “Our focus on enabling audacious and ambitious work from all screen practitioners is the cornerstone of the Adelaide Film Festival”