[[[ The Voided Loom ]]]
دارپوده
The Voided Loom is a project initiated by Sarah Moridpour, co-founder and executive director at [P]Art Collective in collaboration with Pouya Afshar and Neda Moridpour, other artists and founders of the collective.
The Voided Loom is a unique story of Kelardasht's Carpet: a video documentary that portrays the ties between culture, emotions and the environment of a community which gave the primeval folklore of carpet weaving its form and generation to generation permanence.
Kelardasht's Carpet weaving, the art and practice of hundreds of years old, was a memento of immigration of an ethnic group but unfortunately it has not gained the reputation it deserves and it is in the verge of extinction. What you will see, hear and experience in this documentary is a visual perspective of a two year study of this region and its carpet weaving art, to be compiled as Socially Engaged Art project in the future.
The video is in fact an independent documentary selected from a large number of interviews and narrative stories gathered around the aesthetic characteristics and positions of Kelardasht Carpet throughout its rise and fall, it's effects on the community of women and their lives in Kelardasht.
...Those pieces of findings that were impossible to be put in any form of writing or depicted on any page of a book are being portrayed in this film. However, this project is still in progress and it had not ended with this short film.
[P]Art Collective is aiming to continue this project in Kelardasht in order to use art as a mean of community building and community engagement.
The Voided Loom was the Second Prize Winner at The Farhang Foundation Short film Festival in 2012.
The documentary was screened at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)as part of the festival and also at the Celebration Ceremony of the Persian Hand-woven Carpet at the National Museum of Persian Carpet in Tehran, Iran.
Thanks to all the community members and professionals in carpet weaving industry in Iran, who have helped us through out our research and development of this project. We had the honor to work with scholars such as:
- Dara Moridpour, Orthopedic surgen, Dedicated local community member.
- Manouchehr Sotoudeh, Father of Historical Geography in Iran.
- Razi Miri, Founder of Sherkat Sedarat Ghali, Winner of the Best Contemporary Hand Knotted Craft Art of the World at the Carpet Oscar organized by Adil Besim KG of Vienna.
- Shirin Sour Esrafil, Carpet researcher, Owner and Manager of Carpet Weaving Institute
- Ketabollah Safari, Co-founder of the Kelardasht Carpet Weaver's Union
- Kourosh Bararpour, founder of Kelardasht Sustainable Development Foundation
SCREENINGS:
2015. Harvard Universtiy. Department of Middle Eastern Studies. Cambridge. MA. USA
2014. NEW YORK UNIVERSITY. NYC. NY. USA.
2012. Los Angeles County Museum of Art(LACMA). Los Angeles. CA.USA.
2012. Celebration Ceremony of the Persian Hand-woven Carpet. National Museum of Persian Carpet. Tehran. Iran