- Press Releases and Statements
- Image Gallery
- Corporate
- Collections
- United Colors of Benetton - FW24
- Undercolors of Benetton - FW24
- Sisley FW24
- United Colors of Benetton - SS24
- Undercolors of Benetton – SS24
- Sisley - SS24
- United Colors of Benetton – FW 2023
- Undercolors of Benetton – FW 2023
- Sisley – FW 2023
- United Colors of Benetton – SS 2023
- Undercolors of Benetton – SS 2023
- Sisley – SS 2023
- United Colors of Benetton – FW 2022
- Undercolors of Benetton – FW 2022
- Sisley – FW 2022
- Sisley Young – FW 2022
- United Colors of Benetton – SS 2022
- Undercolors of Benetton – Spring 2022
- Sisley – SS 2022
- Institutional Communication
- Historical Campaigns
- Other Campaigns
- Never Ending Wool - 50-Year Partnership with Woolmark
- The Hope Project
- Integration Project
- Naked, Just Like
- United in diversity
- Migrants Images
- Power her Choices
- United By Half
- Clothes for Humans
- SAFE BIRTH EVEN HERE
- We. Campaign
- UN Women Campaign
- #IBelong Campaign
- Unemployee of the Year
- Unhate
- It's My Time
- Victims
- Microcredit Africa Works
- James and Other Apes
- Food for Life
- Volunteers
- Brand Communication
- United Colors of Benetton – S/S 2025
- Sisley – S/S 2025
- United Colors of Benetton - FW24 - Adult
- United Colors of Benetton - FW24 - Kids
- Sisley F/W 2024
- United Colors of Benetton – S/S 2024 - Adult
- United Colors of Benetton – S/S 2024 - Kids
- Undercolors of Benetton – S/S 2024
- Sisley S/S 2024
- United Colors of Benetton – F/W 2023
- Sisley F/W 2023
- United Colors of Benetton – S/S 2023
- Sisley - S/S 2023
- United Colors of Benetton – F/W 2022 – Adult
- United Colors of Benetton – F/W 2022 – Kids
- United Colors of Benetton – S/S 2022 – Adult
- United Colors of Benetton – S/S 2022 – Kids
- Sisley – F/W 2022
- Sisley – S/S 2022
- Stores
- Austria
- Chile
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- India
- Ireland
- Italy
- Aosta - P.za Emile Chanoux
- Ancona - Corso Garibaldi
- Bari - Via Sparano
- Brescia - Corso Zanardelli
- Capri - Via Vittorio Emanuele
- Como - Via Luini
- Cortina d'Ampezzo
- Forte dei Marmi - Via Carducci
- Foggia - Corso Vittorio Emanuele
- Florence - Santa Maria Novella railway station
- Florence – Via Cerretani
- Latina - Via Armando Diaz
- Mantova - Corso Umberto
- Marghera - SC Nave de Vero
- Merano - Via Libertà
- Milan – C.so Buenos Aires, 19
- Milan – C.so Vittorio Emanuele
- Milan – P.za San Babila
- Naples – Palazzo Berio
- Novara - Corso Italia 6
- Padua – Via E. Filiberto
- Padua – Via Roma
- Palermo - Piazza Regalmici
- Pescara – C.so Vittorio Emanuele
- Rome - Fontana di Trevi
- Rome - Via del Corso
- Treviso - P.za Indipendenza
- Treviso - Via XX Settembre
- Turin - Via Roma
- Udine - C.C. Città Fiera
- Verona – Via Mazzini
- Venice - Mercerie
- Venice - Campo San Bortolomio
- Vicenza – C.so Palladio
- Viareggio
- Kosovo
- Mexico
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Russia
- Serbia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Switzerland
- Turkey
- United Kingdom
- USA
- Fabrica
- Colors Magazine
- Ponzano Children
- Events
- Video Gallery
- Corporate
- Institutional Communication
- Integration Project
- Naked, Just Like
- Power Her Choices
- UNITED BY HALF
- Clothes for Humans - Campaign
- Clothes for Humans - Manifesto
- Clothes for Humans - Manifesto (Italiano)
- Clothes for Humans - Manifesto (English)
- Clothes for Humans - Manifesto (Español)
- Clothes for Humans - Manifesto (Français)
- Clothes for Humans - Manifesto (Deutsch)
- Clothes for Humans - Manifesto (Ελληνικά)
- Clothes for Humans - Manifesto (Português)
- Clothes for Humans - Manifesto (Pусский)
- SAFE BIRTH EVEN HERE
- We. Campaign
- United Colors of Benetton in support of UN Women
- Unemployee of the Year - The film
- Unemployee of the Year - Press Meeting in London
- Unhate - The film
- Unhate - Press Meeting in Paris
- It's My Time - Teaser Video
- It's My Time - Live from NYC
- Microcredit Africa Works - Interview with Youssou N'Dour
- Microcredit Africa Works - Cartoon 'Birima Son of Africa'
- Microcredit Africa Works - Birima
- Brand Communication
- Stores
- Fabrica
- Sustainability
- Events
- Press Kit
- Events
- Contacts
Kismet by Bita Fayyazi installed at Fabrica
Acquired by Luciano Benetton, a profound reflection on the inevitability of destiny
Ponzano, 13 February 2007. The force of destiny, the inescapable forger of the future; this is the theme of Iranian artist Bita Fayyazi’s Kismet installation which Luciano Benetton has purchased. It will be permanently displayed at Fabrica, Benetton Group’s communication research centre. Bita Fayyazi herself today presents the installation to Luciano Benetton.
Kismet (the word means “fate” in Persian) is a group of golden, suspended new-born babies which, as Bita Fayyazi says, “dissociate from the reality in which they find themselves. Loosing their apparent form and solidity, spinning cocoons, contemplating their world as an impregnable castle. They realize their destiny”. Because destiny reserves a day for all of us, each and every one.
Formerly shown at the 51st International Biennale of Venice in 2005, the work is now at Fabrica in the corridor between the neo-Palladian villa and Tadao Ando’s new building: a symbolic passage between the old and the new, past and future. Between the Western world and Oriental culture, which the Benetton Group, and its president in particular, has always observed with great interest.
Artist’s Comment
I have been making sculptures of babies for some 7 years...
Returning from an exhibition in Denmark I had stepped into an airport book shop. Browsing through a book of photography on the Bosnian war, one particular image caught my attention: a tragic black and white picture depicting the burial preparation of a small baby which had been shot dead, the bullet having engraved a black hole through it's chest.
I don't unfortunately recall the photographer's name, but that haunting image has stayed with me ever since. We are surrounded with images and accounts of children being wounded, murdered, killed in wars, abused, used in hard labour, ….. .
When I resumed work at my studio in Tehran, the first thing I started making was essentially my impressions of the baby in that image. It had met it’s fate in a tragic fashion. Fate itself and the way destiny unfolds... what if the infant could somehow catch a glimpse of it’s own impending fate and the world about it?
With Kismet the whole idea started with a proposal I submitted to the selection committee for the 51st International Venice Biennale in 2005.
Kismet means fate and it was first introduced into the English language by a diffident English writer Edward Fitzgerald (1809-83) through his translation of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat stanza (Book of quatrain verses by Omar Khayyam, 11th century Persian poet).
"The Moving Finger writes; and having writ,
Moves on; nor all thy piety nor wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all thy tears wash out a word of it."
The Kismet installation is open to interpretation and can be read from any direction or angle. However, for me, the story is followed from right to left, as in the script of my native tongue, Persian.
"Golden Babies dissociating from the reality in which they find themselves. Loosing their apparent form and solidity, spinning cocoons, contemplating their world as an impregnable castle. They realize their destiny.
The source, left behind, is bereft of substance; in pieces, shattered."
Bita Fayyazi
January 2007
Bita Fayyazi
Iranian, born in 1962 in Tehran
15 years work experience in the field of ceramics and sculpture
Lived in England for a period of 7 years; returned to Iran in 1980
Currently lives, works and teaches at a private studio in Tehran
Exhibitions:
2005, When still a Child, XVA Gallery, Dubai, UAE
2005, Amazon, Rebell Minds Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2005, 51st Venice Biennial, Iran Pavilion, Venice, Italy
2004, Gardens of Iran, Ancient Wisdom/New Visions, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran
2004, A selection of Iranian contemporary Art (3 generations), National Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia
2004, Contemporary Ceramic exhibition, Isfahan Museum of Contemporary Arts, Isfahan, Iran
2003, "Iranian Contemporary Artists" at Pietro Della Valle, the Italian School of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
2002, 2nd conceptual art exhibition titled "New Art", Tehran Museum Of Contemporary Arts, Tehran, Iran
2001, The 7th International Female Artist's Art Annual, Art Addiction Virtual Gallery
2001, First Conceptual Art Exhibition, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran
2001, Iranian Contemporary Art, Barbican Center, London, UK
2001, " ±7 Ceramists, Iranian National Commission for UNESCO, Tehran, Iran
2000, Ekbatana? , Nikolaj Contemporary Art Center, Copenhagen, Denmark
2000, Falling Figures, Seyhoon gallery, Tehran, Iran
2000, Canadian Women's Club, Barg Gallery, Tehran, Iran
1999, Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran
1998, Museum of Contemporary Arts, Tehran, Iran [Winner of special exhibition prize: Cockroaches]
1996, Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran
1994, Museum of Contemporary Arts, Tehran, Iran
1993, Classic Gallery, Isfahan, Iran
1993, Embassy of the Netherlands, Tehran, Teharn
1992, Museum of Contemporary Arts, Tehran, Iran
1989, Pafar gallery, Tehran, Iran
Experience:
2004, For Bam, Tehran, Iran
2003, The Speed Bag Factory International Artists Residency Programme, Johannesburg, South Africa
2003, Lucky Charms, Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2003, On The Road, Tehran, Iran
2002, Forum on "Cultural Practices In The Region", Beirut , Lebenan.
2001, Festival of the Culture and Civilization of Persian Gulf Coastal Communities, Gheshm Island, Iran
2001, Khoj International Artists' Workshop, New Delhi, India
2000, Children of the Dark City, Tehran, Iran
1998, "Experiment 98" Conceptual Art & Installation, Tehran, Iran
1997, Road Kill, Tehran, Iran
Miscellaneous:
Correspondent Editor for the British art magazine the "Contemporary"
2001, As part of a documentary film about Iran, "Women in Black" by Sean
2001, A member of the selection committee and jury for the 7th Tehran Ceramic Arts Biennial at the Museum of Contemporary Arts
2002, As one of the participant artist in the online project "Peep Radio", based in Denmark initiated by the Danish artist Rosan Bosh, http://www.peep.dk/programmer/111100/bita.rm
For further information:
+39 0422 516349
fabrica.it