Kazemi, Babak

Iranian, b. 1983

BiographyBabak Kazemi is a self-taught photographer and multimedia artist born in Ahvaz, Iran. In Khorramshahr Number by Number (2005), Kazemi superimposes photographs of local people and scenes onto house number plates from destroyed homes in the war-torn city of Khorramshahr, located on Iran’s border with Iraq. Kazemi prints his photographs in petroleum products, openly blaming the nearby oil fields for the political upheaval he witnessed. The works symbolize the 75,000 displaced residents of the city during that time, bringing into view the human and financial costs of war.

Kazemi received a BA in Graphic Design from Ahvaz Islamic Azad University, Iran (2005). He has had exhibitions at Homa Art Gallery, Tehran (2011), Silk Road Gallery, Tehran (2008, 2009), and Mohsen Gallery, Tehran (2011) among others. He was awarded the Magic of Persian residency at the Delfina Foundation in London in 2012, and in 2015 he represented Iran at the Venice Biennale with the project 8-year-old Persian Pickle.