Sohrab Kashani | "Sazmanab": Electric Room 49/50

Dastan is pleased to announce “Sazmanab”, an archival presentation of 10 years of Sazmanab programs by Sohrab Kashani at Electric Room. The exhibition will be open to public view from September 14 to September 25, 2018. Electric Room will be closed during the religious holidays (September 19 and 20).
Sazmanab at Electric Room is a collaboration of Sohrab Kashani and Sohrab’s childhood friend and artist Siavash Naghshbandi. Marking Electric Room’s 49th project —out of a total of 50— the Sazmanab archive seeks to present the audience with the potentials of running a small-scale non-commercial space with flexible programming. Through sharing the experiences of starting off from his home-studio in Tehran’s Sadeghiyeh district and expanding Sazmanab in small steps, Sohrab Kashani seeks to encourage the audience to take similar paths.
Sohrab Kashani is an interdisciplinary artist and independent curator based in Tehran. Sohrab is the Founder and Director of Sazmanab. Over the last decade, he has played a major role in the creation of a number of other spaces in Tehran. As an artist, Sohrab has exhibited internationally and both as an artist and cultural producer has held numerous talks and presentations at institutions and universities worldwide including: Asia Society, New York; Tisch School of the Arts NYU, New York; Stanford University, Palo Alto; International Studio & Curatorial Program (iscp), New York; Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh; Pomona College, Los Angeles; University of California, Irvine; Delfina Foundation, London; Gasworks, London; Haus am Waldsee, Berlin; YARAT, Baku; and Global Art Forum (Art Dubai), Dubai.
Sazmanab was founded in 2008 by Sohrab Kashani and was originally based in Sadeghiyeh district in the Western part of Tehran. Sazmanab, in Persian, means Department of Water. Sazmanab's complete title, Sazmanab Department of Creative Treatments and Circulations, is based on Sazmanab's main mission of circulating art and culture locally and internationally and expanding the knowledge, appreciation, and practice of contemporary arts and cultural discourses in Iran and the region. In 2008 and when first opened, Sazmanab was located in a small apartment (Sohrab’s home-studio), directly across the street from Tehran’s Department of Water for the Sadeghiyeh district. Since its official founding in 2008 and throughout the years Sazmanab has continued to focus on relationships with other institutions, museums, galleries, and practitioners outside Iran. And to accomplish this, Sazmanab has often relied on its use of the internet and online communication tools such as Skype, which from 2008 to 2010, and before starting the Sazmanab residency program, served as its main means of communicating with institutions and practitioners outside Iran.