Kolsum Salehi | "The Library of Babel": Dastan's Basement

Dastan's Basement presents "The Library of Babel”, a collection of works by Kolsum Salehi, opening on Friday, December 24, 2021. The exhibition will be on view until Friday January 07, 2022. "The Library of Babel" was conceived in the past two years, a period whose long-term effect we are not yet privy to. "In the past two years we have gained new experiences in the vicious cycle of existence and history!" says the artists, "Works in this exhibition are informed by the current circumstances." "The Library of Babel" is her first solo exhibition at Dastan's Basement.

The Body of "The Library of Babel" is composed of two sections. The first are handmade books made of collected images of demolished buildings, portraits of disfigured soldiers, instruments of torture, and biological organs of living creatures. The second section is a space-specific agglomerative installation of what resembles detritus. Kolsum Salehi's approach is primitive [in nature]. The salt-cured handmade prints or the fragmented abstract constructs give off a sense of immediate decadence. 

Born in 1988 Kolsum Salehi developed her professional career as a painter and sculptor. She held her first solo exhibition (“The Waste Land") in 2015 and has participated in numerous solo or group exhibition projects, including "Weight of Time" ( a solo project via Dastan:Outside Electric Room, 2018), or "Shadowlessness or..." (Group exhbition, Curated by Aidin Xankeshipour in 2019, V-Gallery). She was given the Vista Prize in 2019. "The Library of Babel" follows Kolsum Salehi's previous series "Oasis" (O Gallery, 2018). She is a multimedia artist that invites the audience to interact with her work.