SHIRIN NESHAT

Shirin Neshat was born in Qazwin, Iran in 1957 and now lives in New York City. She is a visual artist who has gained recognition for her photography, film and video installations, which she has used to express complex, philosophical ideas. Winner of numerous awards, including most recently the Grand Prix of the Kwangju Biennale in Korea (2000), the Visual Art Award of the Edinburgh Festival (2000), the Golden Lion Award of the 48th Venice Biennale (1999) and ARCO in Madrid for the best project.

In 2009 she won the Silver Lion for best director at the 66th Venice Film Festival for her directional debut Women without Men, based on Shahrnush Parsipur's novel of the same name.

Shirin Neshat has been featured in many international publications focused on her pre-occupation with the representation of feminism, the veil and the interaction between so-called traditional and modern values.
Shirin Neshat has exhibited widely in major European and American cities e.g. at the Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2000), The Serpentine Gallery, London (2000), The Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio (2000), The Art Institute of Chicago (1999) and the Tate Gallery, London (1998).
She has been included in numerous international exhibitions such as the Whitney Biennal (2000), the Biennales of Sydney (2000), Lyon (2000), Johannesburg (1997) and Istanbul (1995 & 1997) and regularly participates in film festivals internationally.