01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Mania Akbari's Untitled 2008, with Footnotes, part #66

Mania Akbari (Iran, born 1974)

Untitled, c. 2008

Diptych, digital print on canvas

each panel 180 x 40cm (70 7/8 x 15 3/4in)

Private collection

Sold for US$8,400 in October 2010

Mania Akbari (September 1974) is an Iranian filmmaker, artist, writer and actress whose works explore women's rights, marriage, sexual identity, disease and body image. Her style, in contrast to the long tradition of melodrama in Iranian cinema, is rooted in the visual arts and autobiography. Because of the taboo themes frankly discussed in her films and her opposition to censorship, she is considered one of the most controversial filmmakers in Iran.[3] As an actress, she is best known for playing the lead role in Abbas Kiarostami's Ten (2002).

Akbari was born in 1974 in Tehran, Iran. Her artistic activities, as a painter, started in 1991 when she took part in various exhibitions in Iran, as well as abroad. She was later exposed to cinema, working as a cinematographer and assistant director on documentary films.

In 2007, Akbari was diagnosed with breast cancer, her struggle with the disease becoming one of the key themes of her films and art works.

From 2007 to 2010, Akbari worked on numerous photography-based works that were featured in various galleries around the world, while she kept making documentary and fiction films until 2011, when during production of her film, From Tehran to London, members of her crew were arrested by Iranian authorities for filming without official permission. Scared she too might be imprisoned, Akbari fled Tehran for London.

Since settling in London, various international retrospectives of Akbari's films have drawn attention to her cinema, among which retrospectives at the BFI, the Oldenburg International Film Festival and the Danish Film Institute are the most notable. More on Mania Akbari 

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