BIO

Golnaz Payani is a Franco-Iranian multidisciplinary artist born in Tehran in 1986. After obtaining her Bachelor's degree in Painting from the Faculty of Art and Architecture in Tehran, she pursued further studies at the School of Art in Clermont-Ferrand, earning her DNSEP (Master's; National Higher Diploma in Plastic Expression) in 2013. Golnaz's open artistic practice explores various mediums, including film, video, fabric works, installation, performance, and poetry. She regularly showcases her work in solo and group exhibitions in France and abroad.

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Statement

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"Does the old oak wardrobe remember the time when it had leaves? »
- Paul Valéry

"My artistic journey is rooted in the theme of disappearance, exploring traces and their perception. Born in Tehran in 1986 during the Iran-Iraq war, the following years were marked by the regular broadcast of lists of missing people. These disappearances took various forms in Iran, affecting not only political figures but also everyday aspects of life, imposed by the adults' injunction to silence, forcing children to keep their daily lives hidden from the outside world. Joyful celebrations such as birthdays, weddings, and gatherings with friends took place in secret, away from prying eyes. My childhood was a constant conflict between outward appearances and the invisible private life.
At the age of 15, I was forced to wear the veil, which changed my relationship with fabric. I used to love playing with fabric scraps I got from my grandmother, but they became objects of oppression, a burden. From wonderful, tangible, and colorful toys, they turned into a uniform that erased all traces of my personality. My departure for France in 2009 had a significant influence on my artistic work. I developed my interest in what was now out of sight, disappeared, and invisible, and I reconnected with my love for fabric.

The versatile nature of textiles fascinates me; they can both conceal and reveal, uniting the visible and the invisible. I realize that textiles serve as both a boundary and a connection, representing us as they cover us.
Today, I question both the credibility of the trace to represent its source and the fragility of our memory to remember it. Once reality is displaced, erased, or covered by the juxtaposition of other possible realities, what images remain faithful to their representation? If our interpretation of reality is merely a projection—truncated, distorted, or corrected from the perception of the original event—it also changes over time, at will.

I neither praise nor criticize memory. My work allows the trace to emancipate itself from its source and become an accomplished form, possessing its own identity.
My works freeze moments to reveal various temporal realities. I extract the object from time, analyze it, and dissect it in its precise state at a given moment, like a surgical slice. I closely examine this reality and question the links that remain between the object, its trace, and its trajectory."

 

CV

 

Solo Exhibitions

July 2024

Biennal Art en Chapelle

February - May 2024

Le long des sentiers entrelacés (Along the Intertwined Paths), Alexandra
David Neel Museum, Dignes-les-Bains

December 2023 - January 2024
On the other side of the wall, Praz-Delavallade Gallery, Los Angeles

November 2023

Les murs s’en souviennent (The Walls Remember), Château des Charmettes Torcy

July 2022

Entre les lignes (Between the Lines), Praz-Delavallade Gallery, Paris

October 2021

One woman show, Asia Now Art Fair, with Praz-Delavallade Gallery, Paris

November 2019

L’ombre des oasis (The Shadow of the Oases), Praz-Delavallade Gallery, Paris

June 2018

Mille saisons (A Thousand Seasons), End of residency exhibition, DomaineM, Cérilly

October 2015

Seconde de flottement avant la ruine (Second of Suspension Before the Ruin), La Trap, Pré-Saint-Gervais

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Selected Group Exhibitions and Screenings

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November - January 2023

Enivrez-vous (Get Drunk), Praz-Delavallade Gallery, Paris

December 2022

Family and friends 2, Backslash Gallery, Paris

October 2022

Contemporary Art Textile Biennal, Contextile 2022, Guimarães.

2021

Il était une fois (Once Upon a Time), Nouchine Pahlevan Gallery, Paris
Originales (Originals), Les Eglises Art Center, Chelles

2020

La terre est bleue comme une orange (The Earth is Blue Like an Orange),
Praz-Delavallade Gallery, Paris
Broderie : point de départ (Embroidery: Starting Point), La Manufacture
Museum of Memory and Textile Creation, Roubaix

2019

The sound of silence, Praz-Delavallade Gallery, Los Angeles
Les fleurs de l’été sont les rêves de l’hiver racontés le matin, à la table des
anges (The Summer Flowers are the Winter Dreams Told in the Morning,
at the Angels' Table), Praz-Delavallade Gallery, Paris
La Percée des images (The Breakthrough of Images), DomaineM, Cérilly
Terre de femmes (Women's Land), Praz-Delavallade Gallery, Paris

2018

Ailleurs est ce rêve proche (Elsewhere is This Close Dream), Villa du Parc, Annemasse
Poétique du geste (Poetic Gesture), Graineterie, Houilles

2017

Beyond the map, Paratissima, Turin
Screening of a film as part of Ni tout à fait là, ni tout à fait ailleurs,
(Neither Quite Here, Nor Quite Elsewhere), Apollo Cinema, Châteauroux
Mapping at last, Eric Mouchet Gallery, Paris

2016

Horizon, Magasin Art Center, Grenoble
61st Salon de Montrouge, Beffroi, Montrouge
Du point à la Ligne #4 (From Point to Line #4), Mamia Bretesché
Gallery, Paris

2014

Screening of two films, Bowery Art + Science, New York
Tropisme(S) #5, Chanonat
Screening as part of BISFF (Bangkok International Student Film Festival),
Bangkok
Video featured as Video of the Week on lesinrocks.com, Paris
Contemporary Art Weekend, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse
Les enfants du Sabbat n°15 (The Sabbath Children No. 15), Le Creux de
l’enfer, Thiers
Première (Premiere), BBB Art Center, Toulouse

2013

XV de France (France XV), Le Grand Atelier, Clermont-Ferrand

2012

It’s normal, Villa Kuriosum, Berlin

2011

limited access 3, studioSTRIKE, Londres
limited access 2, Mohsen Gallery, Téhéran
Bruit et chuchotement (Noise and Whispers), Chapel of the General
Hospital, Clermont-Ferrand

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Formations

2013

National Higher Diploma of Plastic Expression, ESACM

2008

Bachelor's degree in painting, Azad Islamic University, Tehran Branch,
Faculty of Art and Architecture, Tehran