Blue Room is an ecofeminist art & design studio located in the foothills of the French Alps. Its purpose is to both practice and promote ethical approaches to art making and cultural production, with a focus on women's empowerment, ecological sustainability and initiatives centered around the values of caring, compassion and non-violence. We believe that art plays an integral role in the ecological and cultural transformations necessary to adapt to the climate crisis and create a more equal future. Our studio practice is inspired by zero waste management, the slow food movement and the craftsman lifestyle, all of which place greater value in labor and human relationships.
Blue Room (اتاق آبی) is named after the book of Sohrab Sepehri, a notable modern Iranian poet and painter, published a decade after his death in 1990. Unlike his other books, اتاق آبی was written in prose style depicting his views during his child and adulthood often at the intersection of Eastern and Western philosophies. The term Ecofeminism was first coined by Francoise d’Eaubonne in her book Le Féminisme ou la Mort (Feminism or Death) in 1974, which combines the two domains of ecology and feminism.
Blue Room studio was established in 2019 by artists Simin Eivazi and Nicholas Morris.
Simin Eivazi is an Iranian born American feminist multidisciplinary artist working in clay, textile, performance and text. She obtained her BFA in sculpture with an emphasis in performance at California College of the Arts in San Francisco and completed her MA in art and politics at Goldsmiths, University of London as a Jack Kent Cooke scholar. Her work has been exhibited in the U.S. and U.K. including at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter. Her literary work began with small translations of the Encyclopedia of Women Culture Makers in Iran and in the World, Woman from Inscription to History written by Pouran Farrokhzad from Persian to English, which has recently grown into short story writing. These stories, written in Persian, will be published as part of a collaborative project led by the prominent Iranian writer, Shahrnush Parsipur. She currently teaches ceramics and sculpture in clay at her local community center.
Nicholas Morris is a California born artist, artisan and architect. He obtained his BFA in sculpture with a minor in visual studies at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. He has conducted research at the Institut d'Urbanisme et Géographie Alpine in geography, planning, environment and development, researching the capacity of socially engaged art practices to re-imagine and transform politics, planning and territorial development. In 2021 he will attain his diplôme d'État d’architecte from the école nationale supérieure d'architecture de Grenoble. His artistic works often take the form of pedagogical and building collaborations. He has organized projects in the U.S., U.K., India and France and has been the recipient of the Wornick Scholarship for excellence in woodworking and the IMPACT social entrepreneurship award from the Center for Art and Public Life in Oakland, California.
