Already by choosing his artist name - it is not a pseudonym as one could presume, it is the name of the grandfather of the artist - Philippe Weber indicates some of his Persian roots, that have an impact on his personal expression in color and form. "The countless graduations and variations in the color values" says Daniel Kurjakovic, „have recently been confronted with one rather dominant form: the fragmented circle or a kind of mandala (which is more to be sensed than perceived) [...]. The persistence with which they turn up, the relative invariability of which they always give evidence, show that they stand for a certain symbolic significance." The glance on two cultural areas, introduced in this oeuvre, surmount the differences of an Islamic-ornamental and a western-constructivist language and stays nonetheless within the boarders of constructivist art in his best sense an exotic phenomenon. On one side Jahanguir adopts a comparatively strict constructive program. Jahanguir uses a simple, basically steady but open and extendable geometric-mathematical matrix, on which he invents and elaborates with the help of compasses the shape. In a second step he transfers the shape on the original format, tracing questions of coloring. On the other side this program includes a symbolic-cosmological meaning, winding lines, expanding over the edge, like ornamental-meander of an oriental cultural kind. "Jahanguir's pictures illustrate this way of thinking to the extent that they are parts, fragments, excerpts. The edges of the pictures [...] are like the sills of an opening on to another ontological plane, into another world" (Daniel Kurjakovic). Calculation and sensitivity, the constructivist color expression and the symbolic evaluation join in consistency: The interaction of two cultural areas meet in the center of occindental and oriental aesthetics. Elisabeth Grossmann, Haus für konstruktive und konkrete Kunst, Zurich (excerpt from the catalogue Regel und Abweichung: Schweiz konstruktive 1960-1997, Zurich 1998) The show will remain on view through Saturday, January 30 at the Jamileh Weber Gallery, Waldmannstrasse 6, CH-8001 Zurich. Hours: Tuesday through Friday, 11am to 6pm, Saturday 10am to 4pm and by appointment. For further information or photographs please contact the gallery: phone: +41-1-252 10 66 fax: +41-1-252 11 32 email: info@jamilehweber.ch www.jamilehweber.com