Public Art Fund Film Screening: Close-Up

On the occasion of Huma Bhabha: Before The End, Public Art Fund, in collaboration with Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, will host a screening of Close-Up, a cinematic masterpiece directed by revered Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami. Selected by Bhabha for its unconventional beauty and compelling power, Close-Up is widely considered Kiarostami’s most brilliant and radical work. This fiction-documentary hybrid uses a sensational real-life event—the arrest of a young man on charges that he fraudulently impersonated the well-known filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf—as the basis for a multilayered investigation into movies, identity, artistic creation, and existence, in which the real people from the case play themselves. With its captivating ambiguity and contradictions, Close-Up has resonated with viewers worldwide. The screening of this revolutionary film at Brooklyn Bridge Park provides a unique insight into Bhabha’s own themes and creative influences. 

Arrive at 7:30 pm to enjoy complimentary beverages and the Manhattan skyline view at sunset. The film will begin at sundown. We encourage the audience to bring a blanket to sit on the lawn.

Registration is suggested but not required. This event is first come, first served, and registration does not guarantee your entry. However, it allows us to send you an event reminder and share updates and alerts. The rain date for this event is Sunday, August 4th.

This program is organized by Gabriela López Dena, Associate Curator of Public Practice.

Accessibility: This film will be screened in Persian with English subtitles. Email programs@publicartfund.org with questions and requests for accessibility. Please send any needs for services or accommodations to support your participation in this program, including hearing aids, by July 15.

Youth under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. Please note that all attendees will have their bags checked. No outside alcohol or glass bottles are permitted. Water bottles and non-alcoholic drinks are allowed.

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/close-up-film-screening-tickets-926241722927 

About the Artists

Since the 1990s, Huma Bhabha (b. 1962) has become known for layered and nuanced work that centers on reinvention of the figure and its expressive possibilities. Her formally inventive practice encompasses sculpture, drawings, and photography. Born in Karachi, Pakistan, Bhabha moved to the United States in 1981 to attend Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, from which she received her BFA in 1985. She later studied at the School of the Arts at Columbia University, New York, from which she received her MFA in 1989. The artist presently lives and works in Poughkeepsie, New York. Bhabha has been the recipient of notable awards, such as The American Academy in Berlin’s Berlin Prize, the Guna S. Mundheim Fellowship (2013), and the Emerging Artist Award from The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut (2008). In 2022, Bhabha was elected as a National Academician by the The National Academy of Design, New York. In 2023, the artist was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York.  In 2023, M Leuven, Belgium, presented the solo exhibition Huma Bhabha: LIVIN’ THINGS. The show traveled to MO.CO., Montpellier, France, in November 2023, as Huma Bhabha: A fly appeared, and disappeared. A solo presentation of Bhabha’s work curated by Nicholas Baume, Touching Earth, was on view at Fundación Casa Wabi, Puerto Escondido, Mexico, from 2022 to 2023. In 2020, the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, England, presented Huma Bhabha: Against Time. The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, organized Huma Bhabha: They Live, on view in 2019, and published an accompanying catalog. An installation of the artist’s work, Huma Bhabha: We Come in Peace, was commissioned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 2018 for their roof garden.  Previous solo exhibitions have taken place at prominent institutions such as The Contemporary Austin, Texas (2018); MoMA PS1, Long Island City, New York (2012); Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy (2012); Aspen Art Museum, Colorado (2011); and The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut (2008), among others. Bhabha’s work has also been included in numerous group exhibitions internationally, including the 2019 Yorkshire Sculpture International, Wakefield, United Kingdom; the 56th Venice Biennale, All the World’s Futures (2015); and the 2010 Whitney Biennial.

Abbas Kiarostami (1940 – 2016) is internationally recognized as Iran’s finest filmmaker. He was part of the celebrated Iranian New Wave movement that started in the late 1960s. Screenings of his films, including documentaries and shorts, have appeared at numerous international festivals, and his awards and accolades include the Palme d’Or for Best Film for A Taste of Cherry, Cannes Film Festival (1997), and the prestigious Glory to the Filmmaker Award, Venice Film Festival (2008). His photographic work is held in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, LACMA in Los Angeles, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.