Hamzianour & Kia is pleased to present “Pahlavan”, an exquisite selection of four Iranian artists, in collaboration with ALANGOO Fine Art marketplace. The group exhibition includes Najva Erfani, Roxana Manouchehri, Sara Keshmiri and Reza Razm. All four artists explore contortion and evolvement of the body as frames to the hero, the “Pahlavan”, within. They borrow from written and oral epic traditions that are prevalent in the fabric of day to day Iranian life, from the epic of Shahnameh, to mythical and mystical Conference of the Birds. Across these epics and myths, enduring pain and struggling along simultaneously growing and birthing a hero go hand in hand. The artists also visit and revisit gender and identity in a culture that at once rejects the significance of gender by having a genderless language with neuter genders represented in the pronouns, yet magnifies a distinct and deep attitude towards traditional and stereotypical gender rules in the day to day fabric of society.