Anush is the son of an iranian refugee.
Anush was conceived in 1979, the year of the Islamic Revolution, in Tabriz during the last journey
his parents took to Iran.
In March 2014, Anush and Vittorio decided to get the closest they could to the country where everything started but where Anush can not go. They stayed one month on the narrow border between Armenia and Iran. For the first time they could see Iran everyday, its mountains, the Aras River and a road that climbs up to the city of Tabriz where everything started and where they both couldn’t go.

Vittorio Mortarotti and Anush Hamzehian have so decided to investigate the claustrophobia and violence of this border town as a metaphor of all frontiers through the story of people crossing the border to reach some freedom, of prostitutes working in night brothels along the road to Iran, of iranian truckers bringing oil to Russia, of miners working in Molibdene mines (that will be used in weapons’ factories), of Russian soldiers who still defend the armenian borders, of teenagers who dream about escaping, of people that for all life long never ever moved from there. In Agarak they realized a series of 10 big format photos, a 3 channel video installation and a single channel video which will be show at Foto-Forum in Bolzano Bozen from December 6th to January 21st.

Alongside with the exhibition, which also won the Leica Prize at the last Image Biennial of Veney,  you’ll also find the photobook, published by Skinnerboox, that is part of the project too.

Eden was shown in February 2016 at the Blueproject Foundation in Barcelona, in September at Images Vevey and the video installation was screened in October at MAXXI Rome. The production of the show was gererously supported by RPM spa and R.F. Pacini.

Eden text in Italian (by Stefano Riba) – Eden text in English (by Andrea Dìaz Mattei)
Inauguration photos by Claudia Corrent.