Gävles welcomes sculptor Seywan Saeedian as new ICORN Artist
Seywan Saeedian is a Kurdish artist born in Iran. He is in his mid-40s and a prolific artist. He produces sculptures, paintings, photographs, illustrations and graphics, and is also a published writer and poet. With Kurdish heritage as his main inspiration, he features Kurdish traditions, life and people in his sculptures, which are mostly figurative, and many made from found metal scraps. His art is exhibited in public places, shown in numerous exhibitions in Iran, Iraq and Turkey, and on several online platforms, including this site by Kurdish students from the Jagellonian University in Krakow.
A practicing artist since the late 1990s, Saeedian gained a BA in art from Sulaimani University in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2008. While living in Turkey the past four years, he studied for an MA in Kurdish studies at Mardin University in Turkey, around 80 km from Diyarbakir, where he lived. He has also taught Kurdish language. He has also held workshops and organised events around specific Kurdish traditions
Seywan Saeedian has fled from persecution from both security forces and fundamental groups in Iran, Iraq and Turkey, for depicting nudity and representing Kurdish issues in his art. He will now be staying and working in Gävle City of Refuge for the next two years.
In the Swedish media
30 October 2018
Gävle.se: Gävle blir fristad åt hotad skulptör
Sveriges Radio: Kurdisk skulptör blir Gävles andra fristadskonstnär
SVT Nyheter: Gävle blir fristad åt hotad konstnär
31 October 2018
SVT Gävleborg: Local News
Gävle City of Refuge & ICORN
The municipality of Gävle committed to the ICORN charter in September 2015, thus becoming the world’s first city of refuge for a visual artist. The first artist hosted through the ICORN programme in Gävle was Syrian photographer Issa Touma.
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