Atena Fereydouni

Atena Fereydouni (1986, Tehran, Iran) has a BFA in Painting from the Tehran University of Art. She has held one solo show and participated in several group exhibitions. Fereydouni lives and works in Tehran.


“Noble Savages”

“Noble Savages” seeks to depict the condition of contemporary man. It refers to a theory attributed to Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He wrote this theory to refute Thomas Hobbes, who believed that human life would be solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short without the presence of an absolute sovereign that could suppress everyone in favor of the public order. In his view, the monster of the state is the force needed to form social institutions with which humans can flourish and have things like culture, industry, and agriculture. For Rousseau, however, the first humans lived in a more tranquil state, free from greed, murder, and theft, because everything was available to everyone. Rousseau considered the political power that could suppress everyone to be the main cause of human misery.

Atena Fereydouni, untitled, from “Noble Savages” series, ink on cardboard, 98 x 68 cm, 2019
Atena Fereydouni, untitled, from “Noble Savages” series, ink on cardboard, 98 x 68 cm, 2018
Atena Fereydouni, untitled, from “Noble Savages” series, ink on cardboard, 68 x 98 cm, 2018
Atena Fereydouni, untitled, from “Noble Savages” series, ink on cardboard, 68 x 81 cm, 2019
Atena Fereydouni, untitled, from “Noble Savages” series, ink on cardboard, 83 x 70 cm, 2019
Atena Fereydouni, “Episode 05” a group exhibition, installation view, 2020