Interview with Soroosh Milanizadeh

Soroosh Milanizadeh, born in 1978, a photography graduate from Art and Architecture Azad University of Tehran. He is a Photographer, Video Artist, Painter, and art curator. He started his constant professional career in 1999 and has attempted to express his social concerns, particularly the position of women in society ever since.

Avoiding political views or journalistic approaches in his artworks, yet consistently contemplating the inseparable relation between political and social matters in Iran, he focuses merely on expressing his social and humanistic viewpoints pondering over the relationship between humans.

All along this path, he has not confined himself to photography and has also taken advantage of films, video arts, and performances as well to express his emotions and viewpoints. Women and women-related issues have been the consistent and explicit elements in all his works depicting his interest and stance on their social, personal, and sexual place. As he states, this interest originates from a challenge he faces in his personal experiences and views towards women around him.

Besides his works having been exhibited in Iran’s most prestigious galleries and catching the eyes of art collectors and audience in Iran, they have also been exhibited in Florence Biennale 2019 and were sold in Bonhams Auctions (Islamic & Indian Art) in 2015, and in Tehran Auctions in 2014 and 2016.

Ahmadreza Dalvand, the late well-known critic states: “In his recent photo exhibition, Soroosh Milanizadeh deals with the memory of Art in Europe the way Westerns aimed to deal with postmodernism utilizing Eastern memory.”

Dr. Nayyerreh Tavakkoli, sociologist and Director of Art Sociology Department in Iranian Sociological Association, states her take on the video performance of “Hidden, In the Shade of Silence”, exhibited in 2015, as: “Soroosh Milanizadeh’s short yet moving films illustrate different faces of rape with pure brevity using technical cinematic features.”

Having considered the lack of devoted and technical art curators in Iranian art society, Soroosh Milanizadeh has curated a number of successful collections by both young talented artists and art pioneers who are known for their style under the title “From Where to Where?” which is considered research on art leaving far-reaching positive effects on the trend of art curating in Iran.

He has been devoting more time to painting for the past three years, an art he was once involved in during his teenage years.

Theater lighting, designing and photography, cinema and television photography, technical photography and lighting teaching, art project management and directing, and giving consultation as well as guidance to younger artists in their artistic currents and orientations are among his other activities.

Interview by Siavash SufiNejad “Mr. Design”