Ali Ettehad, a contemporary artist, performer, cultural-artistic researcher, and curator, was born in the city of Sari. He uses new media in his artistic path. He has creative experience in various fields such as video art, audio art, digital media, video installation performance, etc. In the last two decades, he has exhibited his artworks in cities such as Belgrade, Melbourne, Cairo, Berlin, etc. The central theme of his artworks is the connection of literature and language with new artistic media. Ettehad is also very active in the field of research and has authored numerous articles and books on art, culture, and wisdom.
Ettehad, in different periods, created his artworks under a general idea; "Razvarzi Collection" is the name given to the whole concept, and it is carried forward in the form of a project and season by season. The first chapter of this collection was formed between 2015 and 2014, a collection that consisted of twenty-four different parts, and since then, it has entered the second chapter of this project and has followed it.
The fourth part of the "Razvarzi Collection" was a video installation titled "Untitled," performed in 2007 at the Tarahane Zada Gallery, and then it was also shown at DesignTransfer and Typo Berlin. "Breaking the contract" was the title of the performance performed as the ninth part of this series in October 2010 in the city of Bruges. In the twenty-first part of its project, Ettehad used Pamuk's famous novel, "My Name is Red Rose," and showed an interactive video installation based on it at Khak Gallery. During the episodes of the project, he has always maintained his connection with literature and theater. A performance theater called "Elegy for book burnings" that was performed in 2013 with the presence of actors such as Babak Hamidian, Haniyeh Tavassoli, etc., is an excellent example of this interdisciplinary link in Ettehad's artworks.
As a research and theory person, Ettehad has had discussions on topics related to performance art and performance theater. He has also authored several articles on contemporary art and modern art. Ettehad, as a curator, also started the ongoing project "Self-portraits" in 2008, which is based on photo-oriented artworks of contemporary Iranian art.
The video-installation work by Ali Ettehad returned to the Tehran auction house in August 2021. The "Imagination House" piece was knocked down at 3200 dollars in the 14th Tehran auction.