Partial overview of meanings:
denoting the people of Persia; Iranians
(colloquial) short for: Persian carpet
one of the great tragedies by the Greek poet Aeschylus
Volker Renner’s most recent artist’s book “Die Perser” is the fruit of a trip to Iran. It opens with shots of Persian rugs Renner gleaned in carpet stores. Instead of the traditional motifs one might expect, they show baroque salon situations and Kinkadian landscapes that, before Renner’s lens, blur into a catalogue of absurdities. His black-and-white reproductions of the carpets, intended as wall hangings for the domestic sphere, make them look like old engravings, taking the interplay between original and counterfeit, art and kitsch, tradition and the contemporary world a notch further. From the tapestries his gaze then roams the private interior, where he discovers additional forms of simulation and simulacra such as pieces of fruit transmuted into plastic or ceramic logs of wood for the fireplace. The artist’s camera turns the decorative fake firewood into archaeological finds from the glorious era of the Persian Wars, prompting him to head out of doors, where his gaze glances off any object of interest, hitting walls or losing itself in the sky: in public settings, everything, including photography, is subject to regulation. Renner responds to the prohibition on photography by including blocked views in his book, revealing the stark contrast between interior and exterior, pictorial wall hanging and reality, comedy and tragedy.
