Revolution

Revolution

New York City — November 28th, 2022 — Iranian artists Sheida Soleimani, Aphrodite Désirée Navab, Z, Icy and Sot, Shirin Neshat, Mahvash, Sepideh Mehraban, and Shirin Towfiq, alongside artists Hank Willis Thomas and JR, activate New York’s FDR Four Freedoms State Park with a provocative multi-day and multi-media art installation facing the United Nations entitled Eyes on Iran. Timed for the U.N. Women’s initiative, 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, the arresting site-specific installations are focused on the power of collective sight, with eyes facing the UN and signifying the world’s eyes on Iran. The large-scale artworks will be unveiled on November 28th. ‘Eyes in the Sky’ flying billboards featuring artworks by Hank Willis Thomas and Mahvash will fly on 12/3 in NYC and in Miami on 11/28 and 11/30. In addition, an interactive installation by artist JR with over 500 participants will take place on December 4th at FDR Four Freedoms State Park. Eyes on Iran aims to amplify the mission of Woman, Life, Freedom, a campaign demanding that the Islamic Republic of Iran is removed from the Commission on the Status of Women.

On November 28th at 11:00 AM, an event to mark the unveiling will be held featuring former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Human Rights Lawyer and director of the Strategic Litigation Project at the Atlantic Council Gissou Nia, artists Sheida Soleimani and Shirin Neshat, actor and singer Sepideh Moafi and more at FDR Four Freedoms State Park with a performance by Jon Batiste.

‘’We are calling on the world to take more action, starting at the United Nations. We must remove Iran from the U.N.’s Commission on the Status of Women. The fact that Iran is a member is a bitter irony,” says Clinton. “What we are seeing is a revolution led by young women who are just not willing to live with the loss of freedom being imposed upon them.”

November 28th, which marks the activation at FDR Four Freedoms State Park, is also the anniversary of the 1943 Tehran Conference where Allied leaders, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin met in Tehran to coordinate the Allied military strategy and also significantly stated a shared desire for the maintenance of the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Iran. Today, Woman, Life, Freedom shares a similar call for human rights for the women and people of Iran.