Miloudi’s “PerseFornia, being 20 years old in Tehran” exhibited in Paris

LONDON - The Nouchine Pahlevan art gallery in Paris is hosting November 3-20 a solo exhibition by Moroccan documentary photographer Youness Miloudi about Iran’s youth.

The "Persefornia, avoir 20 ans à Téhéran" (PerseFornia, being 20 old in Tehran) is dedicated to a new generation of documentary photographers.

Miloudi looks without prejudice onto a segment of a strong Iranian youth in a thousand-year-old civilization. Matured, dreamed, thought out, his project accentuated by several trips to Tehran, has been shaped over several years like an urban tale.

Each picture challenges our visual perception. His specific approach questions the potential and materiality of photography.

This unclassifiable series militates in hollow, on several fronts, against the tyranny of thoughts: the 8th Art, thus embodying a final sign of counter-power.

Miloudi structures his portraits in order to better summon the unconscious and takes us to the heart of the wanders of the Iranian metropolis. He poses through his perspective the different faces of Tehran: bright, enjoyable, nocturnal ... Like so many characters specific to a contemporary narration to better tell us PerseFornia, being 20 years old in Tehran (2017-2018), a subtle alliance that highlights protagonists halfway between Persepolis and California; torn between tradition and modernity.

We wander to the rhythm of the beating pulse of Tehran, sprawling, fascinating, carried by a youth enamoured of life which dictates its codes, its concerns and its desires for freedom. His photographs take the measure of a glimpse of everyday life in one of the most unknown regions of the planet: these young people flirt, party, practice their art and try to live fully like anywhere else.

We are at the height of the underground spirit, the emblematic margin of this youth, filled with vitality that composes, turns away the many forbidden perfumes. Rock, embodied, uninhibited, they create a lifestyle all their own. We are witnesses of this uninhibited energy, this world crossed by the fury of laughter, of living, of creating. Beyond the aesthetic dimension, this series shows that these young people are inhabited on a daily basis by the conviction of their ideals.

His salient, realistic images capture change: the movement, the cries of freedom and desires of elsewhere. Plurality of faces, movement of bodies, hands in action, these men and women, exposed in a new writing, embody part of the mirror of contemporary Iran, shown in broad daylight by a humanist artist. Youness Miloudi, shows through PerseFornia, being 20 years old in Tehran, keys to understanding at the height of human issues: animated by the authenticity of his artistic approach and an alternative narrative.

Treated with force and sincerity, "PerseFornia, being 20 years old in Tehran" revives memories, awakens consciences.