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World Premiere of Abbas Kiarostami: Doors Without Keys

Posted on November 2, 2015 at 11:04 am

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World Premiere of Abbas Kiarostami: Doors Without Keys
Opens November 21, 2015 at the Aga Khan Museum

Toronto, November 2, 2015 – Featuring doors photographed over two decades in Iran, France, Morocco, and Italy, the evocative installation Abbas Kiarostami: Doors Without Keys takes visitors on a multi-sensory journey through memory and imagination. Arresting photographs of closed doors — printed at life size and mounted on canvas — are arranged in maze-like configurations, recalling the labyrinthine streets of an unnamed old city. What lies behind these doors? What have they witnessed, and why are they locked? Doors Without Keys poses questions whose answers are limited only by the viewer’s imagination.

The first solo artist exhibition at the Aga Khan Museum, Doors Without Keys will continue to March 27, 2016. Museum Director and CEO Henry Kim describes the installation as “an immersive experience that removes the specifics of time and place to become poetry in action.” Co-curators Amirali Alibhai, Head of Performing Arts at the Aga Khan Museum, and Peter Scarlet, veteran film curator and film festival programmer, concur. Notes Alibhai, “Each viewer will have their own valid storied experiences as they encounter this work.” Scarlet adds, “Kiarostami shows us new ways of apprehending and appreciating the world all of us live in but too rarely know how to observe. And he leaves all doors open for us to imagine.”

Examples of Kiarostami’s tremendous achievements as a filmmaker will be shown throughout the exhibition’s run. A selection of his work will be screened in a space adjacent to the installation, and in early 2016 the Aga Khan Museum and TIFF will co-present a series of Kiarostami’s films in the Aga Khan Museum Auditorium and at TIFF Bell Lightbox.

Making a rare visit from Tehran, renowned photographer-filmmaker-poet Abbas Kiarostami will be present for these public programs in November 2015:
• November 17, 7 pm, Aga Khan Museum: “Master Class for Students”
A screening of 10 On Ten (2003, 87 mins.), followed by a Q&A with Mr. Kiarostami moderated by Peter Scarlet.
• November 20, 7:30 pm, Aga Khan Museum: “An Evening with Kiarostami”
A screening of Where is the Friend’s Home? (1986, 92 mins.), followed by a conversation between Mr. Kiarostami and Peter Scarlet and a Q&A.
• November 23, 7 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox: “In Conversation With… Abbas Kiarostami”
TIFF welcomes Kiarostami for an onstage conversation about his life and career and his creative process for Doors Without Keys.
For full programming details, please visit agakhanmuseum.org.

The Aga Khan Museum gratefully acknowledges the support of the Hashoo Foundation, Greater Houston Retailers Cooperative Association, and Nadir Badruddin & Family.

The Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, Canada has been established and developed by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), which is an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN). The Museum’s mission is to foster a greater understanding and appreciation of the contribution that Muslim civilizations have made to world heritage.

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For press inquiries, please contact:
Jackie Koffman 
Holmes PR 
jkoffman@holmespr.com 
416.628.5608 

Tasleem Somji
Aga Khan Museum
press@agakhanmuseum.org
416.858.8735