CHAPTER 1: THE BEGINING
Paryn Art Group; from the beginning until now
Why Paryn Group was created
Behzad Mortazavi, founder of Paryn Art Group, has always believed that in his country, and perhaps in most other countries, the economics of the arts can become like the usual form of other economic activities if only art returns to its origin and plays a role in people's lives. That is, as in the past, when most works of art had practical applications in human life, artworks become practical again.
Behzad Mortazavi, The founder of Paryn.
Such an approach towards art has never been easy; On the one hand, today's artists have no intention and desire to abandon their position in society as a special class so they never turn to the production of artworks with functions in everyday life. On the other hand, as the price of artworks that can be used for a specific purpose is usually high and they are not produced in large quantities, people who are accustomed to buying products that are found everywhere and at a low price are not interested in purchasing such works of art.
So Behzad decided to go on this way until he reached the final destination; It was at this time (2011) that he founded the Paryn Art Group. Paryn in Persian means "attributed to the past", which was his approach to earn from art. At first, only his younger sister, Bahareh who was a student in the art field, and he were members of the group, but later more people entered the group; Mehran Zamani (painter and graphic designer), Hojjat Amani (painter and researcher), Ashkan Khatibi (actor and theater director), and Omid Sohrabi (playwright) were among them.
To begin with, Behzad thought of taking the artworks out of galleries and exhibitions. The public opinion of the Iranian people suggested that the presence of artworks in certain places, besides giving them glory, shows an inaccessible image of the works and keeps the public away from facing them. The visitors of the galleries are artists, art students, collectors and enthusiasts (in a very small proportion) respectively, so at this stage, instead of taking people to see the works of art, it is necessary to take the artworks to the people and where is better than a restaurant!
