Articulating, Iranian Art

Transcription

Hamid Keshmirshekan
Fari Bradley
Malu Halasa
Tamineh Monzavi
Newsha Tavakolian
Leili S. Mohammadi
Sohrab M. Kashani
Omid Salehi
Valeria Bembry
Barbad Golshiri
Sohrab Mokhtari
Volume 1 | Issue 3
Journal #3
18 Grand Union Crescent
London E8 4TR
United Kingdom
www.journal3.org
info@journal3.org
Vol.I / No.3
2011
Editors
Neal MacInnes
Marina Khatibi
Josh McNamara (Consulting)
Design
Neal MacInnes
Hana Tanimura (Consulting)
Communications & Public Relations
Isabel Sierra y Gómez de León
Multimedia Production
Numra Siddiqui
Journal #3 is an independent, quarterly
publication.
“...more Lady Gaga than Balanciaga...”
ISSN 2045-2373
All contributor copyright remains with the
individual authors and artists. Publication
copyright varies throughout this issue.
Please contact us for more detailed
information.
The editors would like to thank all of our
contributors for being so generous with
their time and ideas.
We welcome collaborations and ideas for
content on an ongoing basis. Do get in
touch.
Submissions
Visit: www.journal3.org/about.html
r
Editorial
In this issue #3 looks at the articulation of contemporary Iranian
art. It is an articulation into an increasingly globalized art and
media landscape. The shifting contours of this landscape have
changed East-West relations and instead of seeing Iran through
the outsider’s eyes, Iranian artists, photographers and writers
reveal their own views of themselves and their society. Yet in
a globalized world of communication, it is more often than not,
miscommunication that is part of our everyday existence.
Since every artistic product emerges in a particular context
influenced, consciously and unconsciously by the dominant
and minor discourses of its time might we suggest that a piece
of art produced in a particular socio-political context, no matter
whether it openly engages with it, can be received within different
frameworks by a multitude of audiences influenced by collective
memory, media, dominant discourses and personal experience.
These are the issues integral to art criticism, and to the flow of a
greater body of (mis)communication.
In order to explore the issues at hand, #3 brings together the
sometimes disagreeing, critics, artists, and writers to provide a
conversation that originated from the question “What is Iranian
Art?” What we found, rather, is that the false simplicty of that
question only highlights the importance of the many (mis)
communications that are the sparkling facets of an otherwise dull
gem.
Hamid Keshmirshekan lays the foundation for a discussion on art
from Iran by providing a socio-political and art historical account
of the new wave of Iranian art.
Newsha Tavakolian and Tahmineh Monzavi present images about
the representation of female spaces in contemporary Iran while
Malu Halasa gives a voice to these pictures in her text about
Tehran’s Illegal Fashion Shows.
Omid Salehi’s photography series of interior car designs hints at a
human need to ornament and put one’s own stamp on commodities
that surround them.
Valeria Bembry explains the Middle Eastern art market, through
the lens of the collectors and the auction houses that sell and
consume ornamentation in a different manner.
Barbad Golshiri questions the presupposition that Iranian art is
necessarily political and criticizes the failure to subvert official
narratives and stereotypes in some contemporary work that seems
produced only to cater to an art market’s taste for the exotic Other.
Fari Bradley, a London-based sound artist working within the
Iranian Diaspora, answers questions about cultural identity, while
the Tehran-based artist and curator Sohrab M. Kashani uses
new ways of communicating across geographical and national
boundaries in order to connect multiple localities where they may
not be able otherwise.
Each of these contributors in their own way brings art into a wider
discussion of our ever-changing global context. Perhaps how this
discussion happens is less important than that it simply does. As
Sohrab M. Kashani puts it: “For me the statement is much more
important than the medium.” It should be for us all.
- MK on behalf the editors of #3, July 2011
Articulating,
Iranian Art
Contents
Hamid Keshmirshekan
8
A New Wave of Iranian Art
Fari Bradley
21
Sounds from the Diaspora
Malu Halasa
25
Tehran’s Illegal Fashion Shows
Tamineh Monzavi
29
High Fashion & Wind-up Dolls
Newsha Tavakolian
46
Listen
Sohrab M. Kashani
58
“The distance was only geographical”
Omid Salehi
66
My Car is My Love
Valeria Bembry
77
Don’t Call it Contemporary:
The Market for Iranian Art
Barbad Golshiri
82
They Know What They Do Know
Sohrab Mokhtari
Abyssus
92
Hamid
Keshmirshekan
A New Wave of Iranian Art
q
Hamid Keshmirshekan
Tradition and modernity are two of the
most defining forces in modern Iran and
this tension is no more evident than in its
contemporary art. Hamid Keshmirshekan
provides a historical perspective on the
present and highlights the role of the
sociopolitical context in which art emerges.
The late 1980s—after the Iran-Iraq war (19801988)—and early 1990s saw the second
phase of post-revolutionary art and culture.
If the first decade of the post-revolution
provoked the Islamic revolutionary and antinationalism, in opposition to the Pahlavi’s
(1925-1979) doctrine, this period saw the issue
of national and artistic identity and an art
informed by national-Islamic characteristics
as an underlying precept, still influenced by
the ontological and political underpinnings
of gharb-zadigī (Westoxication), addressed
through a critical interpretation of the works
of Iranian intellectuals1 during the 1960s
and 1970s. These decades already witnessed
conscious appreciation of national and
cultural identity coupled with the celebration
of national art: the response to the recurrent
debate on the vitality of “national heritage”
and its representation in Iranian culture and
art. The so-called Saqqā-khāneh movement2
was the main result of this preoccupation in
that period. The distinguishing features of this
9.
#3 — Vol.I No.3
This article does not aim to look at all the
varieties of artistic ideologies, but tries to
address key issues to help understand the
current situation, which is made up of a
multiplicity of sometimes contradictory ideas
in Iranian art.
New Wave of Iranian Art
Contemporary Iranian art, which on the one
hand draws heavily on a Euro-American
paradigm and on the other hand has selectively
adapted existing art forms, is structurally
heterogeneous. So in the process, like the
Iranian culture as a whole, it has incorporated
elements of Euro-American modernity, while
adapting a localized contemporaneity. The
changing socio-political dynamics of the
country present a number of unique and
interesting cases of this new situation, specific
to their particular cultural context, but also
related to other cultural norms and much
larger, global movements and institutions.
climate, now led by political elites in the 1980s
and early 1990s, were still anti-colonialism,
anti-westernism, and a desire to find one’s
authentic culture. More specifically, there
was continued preoccupation during those
decades with “the West” as a universal model
dominating a troubled Iranian “self” and a
resistance to a basically imperialist West.3
The formulated interest of officials within the
country clearly promoted particular values as
resistance against the “cultural aggression”
(and norms) of cultural globalization. Much of
what was, for example, considered local—with
reference to tradition or, as having the nature of
a localized culture—proposed against cultural
aggression as being worthy of preservation was
said to be based on “cultural essentialism.”4
This general cultural attitude explains why
in official cultural and artistic events it was
perfectly clear that encouragement was given
to taking refuge in the cultural authenticity,
historical specificities and traditional values,
particularly of Islam or the so-called IranoIslamic Shiite traditions as an integral part of
that authentic culture.5
A large body of art works created in this era—
continuing for almost a decade—shows the
characteristic uncertainty of a transitional era.
However, the post-revolutionary intellectual
discourse which was inclined to conform
to the West was a phenomenon of the late
1990s.6 Unlike their intellectual predecessors,
thinkers in the 1990s generally tended not to
have similar simplifications, i.e. ideological
views that emphasized one factor as central
to solving Iran’s problems.7 Here, we see
that the implications for the maintenance of
the idea of those cultural ideals, presented
in the ideology and works of those previous
generations, have now become problematic. 8 It
was perhaps because these cultural ideals and
their presentation carry little weight with those
who do not identify with them.
The third phase began in 1997 with the socalled reformism9 when the new movements
paved the way for developing new discourses
in Iranian art. During this period (1997-2005),
post-revolutionary Iran experienced a period of
“cultural thaw” and the relaxation of restrictions
on art led to the emergence of a generation of
artists whose main preoccupation was the idea
The third phase saw the introduction of
new means of visual expression like artphotography, video, installation, performance,
and the emergence of a generation whose
concern is less with the affirmation of
communitarian identity than with their own
biography within a society undergoing fast
and radical changes. This art could perhaps
enable these artists to forefront alternative
visions of Iranian identity in an increasingly
globalized world. For them it was a success to
have a chance to experiment new expressions
with innovative languages, which were luckily
backed by the official art establishments of
that period.12 Accordingly, on the one hand the
artist’s eagerness for experimenting with new
idioms and on the other, official promotion for
development of these new languages paved the
way for development of different modes of the
so-called “New Art.”13
Hamid Keshmirshekan
of contemporaneity.10 The postscript for the
contemporary artist was now defined by the
desire for being in the contemporary, rather
than producing a belated or elevated response
to the everyday. Although no comprehensive
study is available, it was clear that the majority
of the emergent artists belonged mostly to the
“third generation,”11 were young, were already
a majority in Iranian society, were educated
and middle class, and were mostly from central
Iranian cities, in particular the capital Tehran.
Now, an increasing flow of exhibitions testified
to the growing interest in experimenting with
the new means of art expression.15 The first
comprehensive exhibition of this kind was
held at the TMoCA in the summer 2001.16
A recurring event, it proved to be a turning
point in the formation of a movement in
contemporary Iranian art. While the sense of
experiment about New Art was intense, during
the same heady period, successive exhibitions
at the TMoCA were likewise rewarded with
increasing full attendances. New Art basked in
10.
#3 — Vol.I No.3
Enjoying government patronage, it was now
possible for the New Art artists to perform or
make their works by the support of the Tehran
Museum of Contemporary Art (Mūzeh-i hunarhay-i mu’asir-i Tihrān) (TMoCA)14 which came
to be a supportive, encouraging space and to
exhibit their works—both inside and outside
the country—with more flexibility.
a boom, and its makers found similar levels of
enthusiasm when some successfully exhibited
abroad. An appetite developed for the new,
unconventional and in a word contemporary.
Much of the dynamic driving emergent artists
in this period sprang from the urge to break
down the barriers that could so easily have
prevented them from tackling new subjects,
new materials, new ways of working and new
forms of exhibiting that had previously been
considered out of bounds.
However, since 2005 (when the reform period
ended), the governmental supports for this art
principally shifted to a different level, while
trying to re-define the same cultural policy
which had for years been experienced before
the third phase. Nevertheless, the fourth phase
still sees artists continuing the tasks that they
had already begun in the previous phase, now
through private sectors and more specifically
with foreign networks and exhibitions. The
surge of interest by the international art
market in contemporary Iranian art has played
an influential role in new developments in
the art market, which in turn has stimuated
expectations. These increasing expectations
have caused a criticism that the old cultural
marginality is no longer a problem of
“invisibility” but one of an excessive “visibility”
in terms of a reading of cultural difference that
is too readily marketable.
The fact that non-Euro-American artists are
still “expected” to produce either “ethnic” or
“political” art, whilst other positions are tacitly
ignored, suggests that “visibility” alone has
not been adequate to provide the conditions
for an independent speaking subject. What
we see in the works of particular artists by use
of ironic, sometimes humorous, language has
become also a common method to criticize
this exoticism and as a metaphorical reaction
against united sacred values defined by officials.
Hence many artists have largely showed
indifference against the idea of particularism
in the sense of imposing a fixed and formulated
mode of identity or “monolithic” or “one-view”
formulae. Barbad Golshiri’s (b.1982) works,
for example, largely represent this concern.
The artist uses his own voice in expressing
the infinite cultural aspects that he grapples
with. Golshiri’s work reveals and questions
social limitations, transforming repression
Barbad Golshiri, Vanitas, Aplastic video, 2008-10. Iron, lamp, slide, lenses, liver duration: pathetic loop. Courtesy the artist.
Jinoos Taghizadeh, Messages, 2006. C-Type Photograph. Courtesy the artist.
11.
Mehran Mohajer, The Memories of an Indolent, Fatigued, Flaneur, 2008. C-print, 77 cm x 77 cm. C-print. Courtesy the artist.
into creation, and testing the possibilities of
critically addressing social reality. Jinoos
Taghizadeh (b.1971) is another artist who
works with various media. Questioning her
own personal identity while criticizing what is
called definitive collective memory, she also
employs autobiographical images through her
works to address the situation of both gender
and cultural disorders. Mehran Mohajer’s
(b. 1964) photographs represent a world of
silent contemplation and connotations, while
addressing social sensitivities and criticizing
power relations and the homogenization of life.
The necessity for constant repositioning has
led to a dynamic development in new forms
of expression that are mainly symbolic,17
12.
metaphorical, and poetic traits. Artists respond
to the changing cultural climate of their
country by creating works that incorporate
with, yet depart from a personal or collective
past. Rokni Haerizadeh’s (b.1978) painting is
a good example. His works ironically criticize
the hypocritical aspects of Iranian culture.
His main inspiration comes from Iran’s rich
literature—such as Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh
(The Book of King), Nizami or Rumi’s poetry—
using their grand themes as allegories for
contemporary Iranian social issues. Haerizadeh
renders these scenes with a satirical taste and
caricature-like appearance.
It is not surprising that Iranian artists’
references to traditions and cultural values
Gender in a patriarchal society is a prominent
theme in Rozita Sahrafjahan’s (b. 1962)
work. She depicts despair and depression in
a way that expresses subtle social criticism.
Mostafa Darrebaghi’s (b.1966) works identify
and celebrate different possibilities for
mapping contemporary Iranian culture. These
possibilities are addressed through several
overlapping themes such as the politics of
gender and related social corruption as well
as personal narratives revolving around ideas
of isolation, memory, and nostalgia (fig.12).
Nostalgic commentary of domestic life is also
addressed in Masoumeh Mozaffari’s (b.1958)
large canvases as objects and human figures
13.
Hamid Keshmirshekan
Usually the metaphors and allegories of
the artwork, offering political irony, are
acknowledged to go beyond recognisable
forms of cultural representation. In particular,
through their artistic discourses, many young
artists seek to disengage themselves from the
nationalist agenda which has long dominated
aesthetic discussions of Iranian art; instead
invoking universalizing and cosmopolitan
discourses on web-sites and elsewhere in order
to position their art firmly within a global art
scene; something which is often justified in
terms of “becoming international or global”.
This can remarkably be seen in the works of
artists working with different media. Others
critically approach societal and political issues
such as the exploration of highly politicised
notions of public space.
Rokni Haerizadeh, Razm, 2006. Acrylic on canvas, 200 cm
x 200 cm. Courtesy the artist.
#3 — Vol.I No.3
are formed in a rather critical, satirical, and
ironic language; as in the demonstration of a
fashionable way of life, especially youth culture
from the larger sphere of popular culture.
By mixing contradictory elements both from
consumerist culture and traditional culture, the
works of Ladan Broujerdi (b. 1971) address the
inherently contradictory situation of a culture.
They aim at capturing the aesthetic nuances
that shape, reshape and reinvent the identity
of the new Iranian culture. Shirin Aliabadi’s
(b. 1973) Miss Hybrid, too, suggests the same
social commentary, although in a more popular
way. Peyman Houshmandzadeh (b.1969),
a writer and photographer, in the Banished
series criticizes differently the contradictory
elements of a culture which is still suspended
amidst true beliefs, superstitious and popular
life.
Nazgol Ansarinia, Rhyme and Logic, 2009. Handmade
carpet. Courtesy the artist.
Behdad Lahooti, from Chahanchah series, 2009. Plastic
container. Courtesy the artist.
Shirin Aliabadi, Miss Hybrid no.4, 2007. Colour Photograph. Courtesy the artist
14.
Ladan Broujerdi, Cold War, 2009. Watercolour on board, 90 cm x 120 cm. Courtesy the artist.
Peyman Houshmandzadeh, from the Banished series, 2008. C-Type Print. Courtesy of the artist.
15.
On the whole, while the work of Iranian artists
often grew dark and intensely sceptical—
concerned with isolation, fragmentation, and
dislocation—there is a frequent obsession with
the sense of being up to date and “of today”.
This obsession means living in, and with,
perpetual flux.18 It is perhaps this sense of
contemporaneity which has posed options and
challenges for Iranian society and will continue
to affect art and artistic representations.
Hamid Keshmirshekan
Asareh Akasheh, My Dear Edward after, 2010. Mixed
media, 250 cm x 200 cm. Courtesy the artist.
are all sentenced to a silenced private world;
a situation they react to violently (fig.13).
The most depressing unsympathetic faces,
thinking about a long unknown grief, are
subjects of Samira Eskandarfar’s (b.1980)
painting. She demonstrates a visual expression
of despair, yet adds some humor and a sense of
the absurd to it. From this standpoint, sociopolitical commentary is one of the inseparable
features of her paintings (fig.14). On the
other hand, Ahmad Morshedloo (b.1973),
focuses the subject of his paintings and
drawings on the obsession, the bitterness, the
contradictions, and the contemporary realities
of his society (fig.15 Amir Mobed (b. 1974), ).
using various unconventional materials, has
also concentrated on social and psychological
issues. Some pieces, for example, challenge
the clichés of sexual attraction as well as other
conventional criteria of beauty in art making
(fig.16). Mehdi Farhadian (b. 1980) chooses
his unusual themes mostly from the recent
history of Iran; romanticizing luxurious scenes
of popular places, objects, and characters, they
imply a nostalgic feeling for viewers familiar
with the history of the images (fig.17).
q
1 In his landmark book Āsīyā dar barābar-i
Gharb (Asia Facing the West), Daryoush
Shayegan, the prominent Iranian thinker
and philosopher of the 1970s, for example,
maintains that “the past is still just around
the corner. Even if it is buried, it can still be
exhumed.” (Daryoush Shayegan, Āsīyā dar
barābar-i Gharb (Tehran, 1977): 109)
16.
#3 — Vol.I No.3
ENDNOTES
Rozita Sharafjahan, Deep Depression, 2004. Still from
video. Courtesy the artist.
Hamid Keshmirshekan
2 For a comprehensive study of the Saqqākhāneh School, see the author’s article “Neotraditionalism and Modern Iranian Painting:
The Saqqa-khaneh School in the 1960s,” Iranian
Studies, vol. 38, no. IV, (December 2005): 607–
630; or the “Saqqa-khana School of Art” in
Encyclopaedia Iranica, London & New York,
Routledge & Kegan Paul, www.encyclopaedia
Iranica.mht
3 See the H. Keshmirshekan, “Discourses
on
Postrevolutionary
Iranian
Art:
Neotraditionalism
during
the
1990s,”
Muqarnas, vol. 23, 2006: 131-157.
4 Explanation in terms of cultural specificities,
sliding into cultural essentialism, are well
illustrated in the work of Bertrand Badie (1986),
Les deux etats: pouvoir et societe en Occident
et en terre d’ Islam, which presents a detailed
argument for the historical and ideational
distinction and contrast between the “two
states”, the Western and the Islamic.
6 See “The Intellectual Best-sellers of PostRevolutionary Iran: On Backwardness, Elitekilling, and Western Rationality”, Afshin
Matin-Asgari, Iranian Studies, vol. 37, no. 1
(March 2004): 87.
5 See “Discourses on Postrevolutionary Iranian
Art,” Muqarnas, vol. 23, 2006:131-157.
Mostafa Darrebaghi, Still-life,
installation. Courtesy the artist.
2008.
Painting
Massoume Mozafari, Untitled, 2009. Acrylic on canvas, 180
cm x 300 cm. Courtesy the artist.
7 See Nikki R. Keddie, Modern Iran: Roots and
Results of Revolution (New Heaven & London,
2003): 304.
17.
#3 — Vol.I No.3
8 See Ramin Jahanbagloo, “Introduction,” in
Iran Between Tradition and Modernity, ed.
Ramin Jahanbagloo (Oxford, 2004): xvii.
9 The reformist Mohammad Khatami was
elected president in the spring 1997. Strongly
popular among the both the public and the
cultural elites, he came to power with more
moderate liberal view of Islam and the Islamic
Republic with promises of more freedom and
relaxation of the press and political and cultural
reforms. His administration, in particular in
the cultural sections, was able to offer a period
of moderation within the country and more
encouragement was given to communication
with the outside world which had for long been
opposed strongly by the previous officials.
and
Samira Eskandarfar, Untitled, 2008-9. Acrylic on
canvas, 110 cm x 200 cm,. Courtesy the artist
10 See H. Keshmirshekan, “Contemporary
Iranian Art: the Emergence of New Artistic
Discourses,” Iranian Studies, vol. XL, no. iii,
(2007) pp. 335-366.
Hamid Keshmirshekan
The reform period, however, ended in 2005
with the election of the subsequent radical
president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his
administration.
11 Here the use of this term is mainly to refer
to the youth who were born in the period
after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
This
term was also used in the press and political
conversation during the 1997 General Election
and throughout the reformist mottos as to
express an emphasis on the importance of this
generation who came to be the main supporters
of the reform movement during the late 1990s
and early 2000s.
14 Established in 1977 just before the
Revolution, in the post-revolution period it was
then under the Centre of Plastic Arts (Markaz-i
hunar-hāy-i tajassumi-i kishvar) of the Ministry
of Culture and Islamic Guidance and during
the reform period played a pivotal role in
promoting various forms of contemporary
Iranian art.
15 Major exhibitions during 1998 to 2005
include the “First Conceptual Art” exhibition,
“New Art 1” exhibition, “New Art 2” exhibition,
in 2001, 2002 and 2003 respectively. Then the
18.
13 The term “New Art,” used for the first time for
the “Conceptual Art” exhibition in 2002, was
extensive because it included various forms of
fine art media such as video art, installation,
photo-art, audio art, performance etc. See N/A,
Guft-u-gū ba Hamid Severi, “agar istifādeh
nakunīm, ‘aqab mī-mānīm (if we don’t use it, we
shall straggle)”, Herfeh hunrmand, ii (1381): 131.
Also to be noted is that in this period a great
number of students entered the art institutions
and some were taught by New Art instructors
there.
#3 — Vol.I No.3
12 In my interview with the former influential
Director of the TMoCA (1998-2005), Alireza
Sami Azar in 2006, he told me that “this need
really existed and the Museum provided
the opportunity for it to happen and for this
generation of artists to be seen!”
Ahmad Morshedloo, Untitled, 2007. Pen on cardboard.
Courtesy of the artist
Amir Mobed, Virginity, 2004. Painted apple, human hair,
Courtesy of the artist.
two later were thematic exhibitions, including
“Spiritual Vision”, and “Gardens of Iran” both
in 2004. The next comprehensive one was
supposed to be entitled “One and Thousand
Nights” which never happened due to the
fundamental transformation in cultural and
artistic policy of the post-2005 Presidential
Election and above all administrative alteration
in the TMCoA. (Personal interview with Alireza
Sami Azar, 2006) It was while there were other
minor exhibitions during 1997 to 2005 by new
media artists held in various venues both
inside and outside the country. These were also
supported mainly by the Museum.
16 Also to be noted is that history of emergence
of this approach dates back to the exhibitions
of Iranian artists in the period before the
Revolution, by individuals such as Kamran
Diba in the late 1960s or in particular in the late
1970s by the Independent Group of Painters
and Sculptures (Guruh-i āzād-i naqqāshān
va mujassameh-sāzān). In these exhibitions
works by Morteza Momayyez (1935-2005) and
Hamid Keshmirshekan
Marcos Grigorian (1925-2007) were exhibited
in the forms of installations or performances.
After about two decades, however, in the
post-revolutionary period, a conceptual
experience took shape in Tehran in 1992/3. In
this project, a group of young artists worked
with a variety of material in different floors of
an old house which was supposed to be very
shortly destroyed after the works were done.
The most important event after this experience
was the project entitled “Experience of 77” by
“Contemporary Art Workshop” in 1998. This
group exhibition was held in a shabby house in
Tehran with the cooperation of the artists who
were mostly involved in the previous show.
#3 — Vol.I No.3
18 See H. Keshmirshekan, Reproducing
Modernity: Contemporary Iranian Art since
the late 1990s, in Amidst Shadow and Light:
Contemporary Iranian Art and Artist, ed.
Hamid Keshmirshekan ( 2011): 139-160
17 One of the examples of this approach towards
self was the exhibitions of “Deep Depression”
(Afsurdigī-i ‘amīq) in 2005 and then “Deeper
Depression” (Afsurdigī-i ‘amīq-tar) in 2006.
19.
Mehdi Farhadian, Liy-Liy and Majnun, 2008. Mixed media on canvas, 120 cm x 150 cm. Courtesy the artist.
20.
Fari Bradley
q
An Interview with Fari Bradley
conducted by #3 in April 2011
Fari Bradley
Sound artist Fari Bradley answers questions
about the role of sound in her artwork. She
explores themes of identity and belonging
in the Iranian diaspora. This interview was
undertaken by email in April 2011.
#3: What fascinates you about the medium of
sound and made it the focus of your work?
Fari Bradley: While I was studying journalism,
being able to edit sound creatively just came
naturally as I’d studied music all my life. Sound
is that ever-present thing, there’s no such thing
as complete silence. What’s interesting is that
hearing can be so selective, subliminal, super
perceptive... and it tells us so much about a
person, what subjective things they perceive in
a sound or even in a sentence’s meaning.
#3: How would you describe national identity?
Is it a passport, a memory, a sound?
FB: It’s a state of mind.
22.
#3 — Vol.I No.3
As people we have the capacity to use sound
to signal a plethora of emotions and needs,
and on a tribal level we identify with certain
sounds, certain instruments or rhythms.
FB: Sure, there have to be new interpretations.
It’s a mistake to be stuck in the mud about this.
I often compare our UK Iranian community to
the Indian one as they faced similar issues as we
are facing now, but back in the 60s. Because of
that time difference and because they were more
in numbers, they are light-years ahead of us in
terms of integrating, reclaiming their identity
as a community. And also in terms of second and
third generations coming up with their hybrid
blends of interests and identifications. Living
abroad, we’re either forced to question a lot of
things we do automatically, or see the wisdom
in them more keenly. That way Iranianess often
becomes more distinct abroad, either because
people gather in cliques, or they make more of
an effort to continue Iranian tradition or even
develop into a more global identity while doing
both of those. It’s complicated!
#3: A recent film on female Iranian artists,
Pearls on the Ocean Floor by Roberto Adanto,
shows some of these artists living in the
diaspora. A critic suggested that what seemed
the common thread among these women was a
sadness that each felt from being uprooted and
losing one’s homeland. Your show celebrates
being an Iranian in London. How do you feel
about this tension?
#3: What role does sound play for imagining
and (be-)longing?
FB: I think it’s to some extent an instinctive
role. Many animals use sound not only to
express themselves and communicate but
also to understand the shape and space of a
place. Those sonic signals sent out by them are
deciphered by the way the signals bounce back
to their maker. This also goes for our ancestors
in the sea, who can tell what’s coming from
miles and miles away using sound waves.
I remember going to Turkey when I was 14 and
being deeply moved by the sound of the azan.
It had a place in my unconscious. I’d not heard
the call in the UK at all, but it had been in the
background all the time during my life as a
small child and hearing it at 14 was an immense
door opening up into my past that I’d until then
forgotten.
#3: How does “Iranianess” change outside of
Iran? Can there be new interpretations of what
being Iranian means?
#3: Why did you decide to create a show about
Iranian arts and culture in London?
FB: There was nothing in the media for Iranians
who didn’t speak Persian. BBC Persian’s main
purpose is to beam back to Iran. There was also
no regular outlet for Iranian interests aimed
at English speaking people who were simply
interested in finding out more about the region.
News only told of Islamic extremism, politics
and war.
These identifications can be limiting as far
as imagination goes, but then again it is
comforting.
FB: It’s true, I loved aspects of my English
schooling — the orderliness and the green fields
of England — and I love the mix and insight the
two cultures afford me. I’ll never be completely
English, nor would I want to be (though as a
child you just want to fit in).
As for happiness and sadness, I feel in life we
only truly know one by experiencing the other.
For many women coming over here, there are
certain freedoms, perhaps to be able to perform
solo in public, dress as your mood takes you,
and make lifestyle choices, but your relatives,
the places you know, the sounds, the smells,
and the sights of the surroundings you have
defined yourself by are no longer available to
you daily. It’s natural you feel cutoff. However,
when we’re busy longing for something we
don’t have, we often miss those things that we
do have, partly because they seem too obvious
while we have them.
I think one thing Iranians can teach the English
is to be open-hearted, a characteristic that is not
part of the Northern European public persona
and whose lacking probably contributes to any
sadness that Iranians may feel living here.
For me though, extensive travelling has just
confirmed the thing that makes me completely
happy: that in fact the world is made up of one
enormous family, filled with the same variety,
even while people are people everywhere one
might go.
23.
Fari Bradley
#3 — Vol.I No.3
#3: You have met a wide range of Iranian
artists and other cultural practitioners. Is there
something that they all have in common?
FB: Yes. It would be hard to put into words
though. As human beings everyone wears the
dignity of something they have inside, some
skill or capacity, a sense of humour beneath the
sedateness! There’s also an understanding that
exists, mostly unspoken, that they demonstrate.
Aside from that, I’ve seen a lot of trauma too,
in migrants who sometimes may have been
refugees. It’s not taken into consideration
enough by society, the individual and mass
scarring that has occurred. As artists, there’s a
language that has developed and continues to
develop that is at times enlightening to engage
with.
#3: Is there an exchange taking place between
artists inside of and outside of Iran? Do you
follow the sound artists working there?
FB: There is some exchange but not enough.
The music that trickles through to Iran tends,
especially before the internet, to reach Iran
in stops and starts, which explains why many
musicians are still playing guitars and singing
rock songs that sound like 80s or 90s emulation.
The sound scene in Iran is disjointed by not
having a physical communal performance
space as such, but it exists and we’ve heard
some great pieces on the show.
Regarding the film, I feel if the common voice
of these twenty or so women unify to say that
on the whole part of them will always long to
be free to return as and when they wish, people
ought to listen and be open to what they have
to say. There is not one representation of what
an Iranian is that we couldn’t rip apart if we
wanted to as armchair critics. It’s much wiser
to look for the truth in a thing than to treat it as
an exclusive representation and say it doesn’t
match up to the whole.
#3: According to some contemporary
postcolonial cultural theorists, “we all are
multicultural”. Would you agree with this?
How does your own background play into your
work? Is music the best medium to incorporate
this notion of fluidity and hybridity inherent in
multiculturalism?
FB: Perhaps, yes. Where there is social fluidity
there will always be a flourishing culture.
I would tend to agree then that we are all
multicultural to some extent and this goes
without saying in a city. However, we tend to be
interested in some cultures more than others
and that is sometimes hard to pinpoint why.
When I meet curators and writers who are not
Iranian but who are passionate about Iranian
art or culture, I will ask them why they went in
that direction or are driven to do what they do.
Mostly this drive can be so integral to them that
it’s enough for them to answer they’ve always
been interested in these things, and they feel
confident enough to answer without a reason.
Who are we to dismiss that?
My background comes into my work in terms
of standards, but I’m talking about my English
schooling here and my mother’s own standards.
I guess I’d have to be able to say which part of
me and my family is Iranian and which isn’t
to answer this fully. Suffice to say, there are
plenty of things we did in my family which were
because we were Iranian, but I didn’t know it
at the time. I just thought everyone was as
different from each other as we were from them.
FB: Well there are plenty to choose from, one
I’ve already mentioned. Others are a metal
string, animal skin over wood... the list of
obvious sounds goes on. But most of all and
ironically, it might be the one sound we don’t
get to hear today in Iran, it is a woman’s voice
singing solo, but only in alto. Strangely though,
it also works for me in English so I surmise that
it must be the quality of an Iranian voice, not
just the language or music structure that gives
me those goosebumps, that are again and again
a measure for what is sublime.
Fari Bradley
#3: What Iranian sound is most personally
moving?
#3 — Vol.I No.3
q
24.
Malu Halasa
Tehran’s Illegal
Fashion Shows
q
These are the conceptual fashion outfits
made by students completing their final
examinations under a designer who wishes to
remain anonymous. Many more women sashay
in delightful eveningwear, some in décolleté
gowns, their high heels beating a clack-clack
rhythm on the white marble-tiled floor aisle
between the rows of seats that serves as a
catwalk. These models may not be as sickly
thin as those one finds in Paris or Milan or as
frigidly bored in their expressions, but they are
poised and unflappable. At the end, in front of
Monzavi’s camera, they stop, and pose. It’s a
fashion show like any other – except this one
is illegal.
After the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, fashion
shows were a regular occurrence yet women on
the catwalk were only allowed to model Islamic
clothing: chadors, hijabs, and manteauxs.
26.
Malu Halasa
One model, her long hair lacquered to stand
straight up, has large midnight blue sequins
travelling up the front of her dress, over her
neck and ending on the side of her cheek.
Another is conceptually made up with four
colours, including the red, green and white of
the Iranian flag dividing her entire face, lips
painted elaborately as if they had been stitched
on, a stiff cowl over a head of thick curly hair
and a knee-length dress with a decorative
appliqué in the shape of an arm and hand sewn
across the front. Still another, more Lady Gaga
than Balanciaga, is in a head-to-toe cat-suit
dotted with spiky protrusions, with splayed
capped fingers in long points, her face wrapped
and obscured except for her eyes.
#3 — Vol.I No.3
In High Fashion, a film by Tahmineh Monzavi,
50 or so women have gathered in the salon
or rented meeting hall of a swanky high-rise
tower block in Tehran. Some have kept their
chadors on, others are only wearing their less
all-concealing hijabs and a few have completely
divested themselves of the coverings they don
in public, and all have settled in rows of white
covered seats. Out of sight in a large room at
the back, organised mayhem is taking place
as designers, makeup artists, hairdressers
and stylists dress and prepare 25 models, who
greet each other, exchange gossip and pause as
they’re given one last look over before hitting
the catwalk in a dazzling array of satin, silk,
tulle and organza.
This changed “four or five years ago, when the
government refused to give permission for the
fashion shows,” explains Monzavi, a 23-yearold photographer and filmmaker on the phone
from Tehran, speaking through an interpreter.
“And not because of religious reasons. Now
that there are underground fashion shows
even religious women come to watch them. The
government just didn’t want large gatherings
of women getting together.” These motivations,
particularly since the disputed presidential
elections in 2009, have become increasingly
political. All public assemblies, large and small,
have met with tough resistance from the state
using the Basij militia, the Army and Pasderan
(the Revolutionary Guards) as crowd control.
Once official permission was withdrawn, the
fashion show producers – all women – started
to organise underground events in hired
rooms and posh renovated garages across
Tehran. They also significantly departed from
government-sanctioned shows by featuring
a wide range of apparel from wedding gowns
and sporty casual-wear to dresses, even highly
experimental conceptual fashion like that
which appears in the film High Fashion and its
accompanying black and white fashion shoot,
excerpted, here, in #3.
Monzavi’s lively 15-minute documentary
begins with quick-cut bursts of fashion
images intercut with Tehrani street scenes,
which continues in colour backstage then
switches to black and white on the catwalk. It
is also poignant. Designers become obviously
frustrated in Iran. The film doesn’t show the
face of a young woman, who talks candidly to
the camera, only her moving full red lips. On
her cheeks there is the slightest trace of wistful
glitter, remnants of the flurry backstage. Sadly
she believes that the only way she will be able
to work freely in her field is to leave the country
and, if conditions change, one day return.
In the film, the audience is attentive and
appreciative – they attend illicit fashion shows
twice or three times a year, if they are lucky.
When a dress comes by that they like or one that
surprises them, they get out their mobile phones
and take a picture. A new generation of women
designers have started designing clothes for
Iran’s female population of approximately 38
million, the median age being 26 years old.
Malu Halasa
For a while now, young Iranians have been
creative in the ways they wear the headscarf.
Now it seems many more are looking to express
themselves either underneath or in addition to
the ubiquitous Islamic uniform.
After the telephone interview, Monzavi further
expounds her views in an email:
“Fashion is very important for many of
Tehran’s girls. It is on the increase and people
like to come and see new design. Some of the
fashion shows are for wedding dresses and
they are commercial [outlets] for a designer
and makeup artist. But some of them are for art
and for designers to show their creations, like
High Fashion, but they can’t sell these dresses
because no one can wear them outside or at
their parties.”
Although strung-out male addicts are visible
on the streets of Tehran – in another of her
films Monzavi befriends one who scores and
takes drugs in front of her – women addicts
are for the most part forgotten. There is a
single safe house for homeless female addicts
in this city of over 7 million people. Like the
women addicts, the unofficial fashion shows
are rarely acknowledged by wider society. In
the beginning Monzavi was also unaware that
they existed. “I only thought there were shops
that did tailoring and made dresses. I never
knew that there were people creating fashion,
and doing it professionally.” Her entry into the
clandestine scene began when she was asked
to take portraits of women in beauty salons,
and was soon commissioned to photograph
wedding dresses. She started going to the
shows after being introduced to this world by
one of the models who also designs. Monzavi’s
27.
In addition to her obvious aesthetics, there is a
frisson to the work that comes from the inherent
daring of an unofficial fashion scene. This
gives fashion under a religious dictatorship
the power to shock and surprise, compounded
as it is by images of women in various states
of undress. We see them getting ready, having
their makeup done or generally posing in a
forthright manner – and all this in an Islamic
country that strictly regulates women and their
appearance in public.
This is the case no matter the outfits the models
wear. Some of the women, professionally
trained and ranging in age from 19 to 30, look
disarmingly into Monzavi’s photographic
camera and control their body language. When
the fashion shows were official, they had to pass
a test before they were accredited. Now the
professionals work side by side with friends of
the designers who start practicing one month
before the show.
Were the models worried about having their
photographs taken? “They are wearing so much
makeup they think they won’t be recognised
without it,” Monzavi answers. “But if their
clothes are opened and reveal too much then
they would say to me, ‘No, don’t take a picture.’”
At some of the other shows Monzavi didn’t take
their photographs if the models’ arms were
uncovered.
#3 — Vol.I No.3
Monzavi has been documenting Iran’s
unofficial fashion scene since 2007. She is
better known among the city’s predominately
male photojournalist fraternity for her gritty
social realism, particularly her stark series on
female heroin addicts among Iran’s indigent
community. She writes in the same email, “I’m
curious to know more about women in poor
areas and high society women, and show the
contrast between their classes, culture and
economic lives. These kinds of contradictions
exist in other countries but in Iran they are
more violent.”
fashion film and photographs tell the intriguing
story of a little reported, covert scene.
Like the film, Monzavi’s photographs have
a compelling fly on the wall quality that
often verges on classic fashion photography,
especially in her black and white images.
Monzavi prefers to use an analogue (nondigital) camera and incorporates black and
white in both moving and still images to “show
that it’s underground, not something official.
There is more feeling to it.”
There was obviously one exception in her
black and white photographic series, Windup Dolls, also featured here, in which a blonde
in a bra and low slung, tight fitting jeans was
perfecting her pose in front of the camera.
Monzavi quickly points out that the model is a
transvestite, “This very special person loves to
show her body.” She had even asked Monzavi
to photograph her nude, images that won’t be
Her energy and focus have brought her to the
attention of Hengameh Golestan, the doyenne
of Iranian photography and wife of the
country’s late premier photojournalist, Kaveh
Golestan. Hengameh believes that Monzavi is
“special because of her courage and her iconic
documentary style. She gets very close to her
subjects and becomes emotionally involved
with them. After seeing her work, I know
28.
Malu Halasa
Their walk was part of the photographer’s
research for her next project. “I have been
trying to find subjects which are taking place
in secret and are unofficial in Tehran. These
are the layers of the underground that not
everybody gets to see so I want the experience
of opening them up and knowing about them,”
admits Monzavi, who studied at Tehran’s
Azad Art University and has been doing
social documentary photography for the past
five years. Recently she has incorporated the
moving image into the visual diaries she has
been creating for her extended projects. She
observes, “In a photograph you only capture a
moment. These videos show more information
like dialogue, which can be important to the
atmosphere.”
#3 — Vol.I No.3
Fashion has always been a refuge for those
who find themselves out of step with the status
quo. Trans-sexuality has actually increased in
Iran, a country where relations between men
and women are highly regulated in the public
sphere and where homosexuality remains
a crime punishable by hanging. In fact the
religious establishment even encourages sex
change operations. Monzavi’s translator tells
a story about strolling with the photographer
in Charah College near Tehran University, off
Enghelab (‘Revolution’) Avenue. “I’m even so
surprised because the other night I went out
with Tahmineh and her friend. There were so
many [transvestites and transsexuals] walking
in the street. Some of them were with women’s
clothing, some of them were with men’s, but
the funny thing was: although there were two
young girls with me, none of the [straight] men
paid any attention to us and they were just
following these guys.”
these characters and like them too.” Until now
Fashion RGB (red, green and blue) has been
Monzavi’s only fashion photographic series in
colour because her analogue camera wasn’t
working the afternoon of that particular fashion
show. The majority of the images show models
in tights, again getting dressed, and when they
have finished and are waiting for their turn
out front, they pose backstage. There are no
pictures from the catwalk because the designer
was worried about the potential trouble from
the authorities. The clothes are handsome
but under the circumstances their maker will
remain unknown, a situation that would be
unthinkable in other fashion-conscious cities,
where designers routinely publicise their
successes.
Yet these fashion shows will continue, with or
without government approval. In their creativity
and inventiveness, they demonstrate the refusal
of Iran’s home-grown fashion community
to buckle under pressure from the Islamic
republic. Ironically it was the government that
forced the scene underground – where, given
the choice, observers of fashion prefer to look at
anything but religious streetwear. Through its
own actions, it undermined efforts to normalise
Islamic fashion into mainstreaming clothing
trends and effectively sabotaged the control it
once enjoyed.
q
made public considering the prohibition on
nudity, artistic or otherwise, in Iran. Since that
show, the model has had a sex change operation
and now poses for a photographic studio.
Tahmineh Monzavi
High Fashion
&
Wind-up Dolls
q
Fashion shows in Tehran are a strictly female affair, no man is allowed
to enter. Fashion is a very important part in the life of many Tehrani
girls. They study it at university and they use their friends as models
for their shows. The age of the models ranges between 19-30 years.
Fashion is increasingly gaining publicity in Iran and people like to
come and see new fashion designs ranging from wedding dresses,
commercial designs for designers and make up artists. Some fashion
shows are purely artistic and the designers simply show their
creations, as can be seen in the High Fashion series.
- Tahmineh Monzavi, 2011
30.
High Fashion
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
All images courtesy the artist
39.
Wind-up Dolls
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
Newsha Tavakolian
Listen
q
Imaging a dream
Eyes closed, mouths open, as if in a dream. Standing facing us with
their backs to the darkness, they sing, soundless; they have been
standing here, singing for themselves for a long time, imagining us,
hearing.
Standing, facing days of tedium, facing a world that has adorned them
with a false crown. Standing, waiting.
- Newsha Tavakolian
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
q
All images courtesy the artist
57.
Sohrab M. Kashani
“The distance was only
geographical.”
q
Sohrab M. Kashani was interviewed by Leili S.
Mohammadi in June 2011
Sohrab M. Kashani
How have forms of new media changed
the way that art is produced and received?
Moving beyond the oft-cited discussion on
reproduction and loss of authenticity, Leili
S. Mohammadi talks to Sohrab M. Kashani,
an artist and curator from Tehran, who uses
the potential of new media to transcend
geographical and ideological boundaries.
“The distance was only geographical.”
So, where and how might the use of technology
inside Iran marry with an artistic practice in
its vibrant artistic community? This inquiry
brought me directly to Sohrab M. Kashani.
An artist and curator, he has been working
with a variety of new media technologies at
his project space in Tehran. I discussed with
Sohrab the possibility for maneuvering within
and around political, social, and geographical
parameters and how technology can ignite new
arts practice.
59.
#3 — Vol.I No.3
Leili S. Mohammadi: You began as a visual
artist, working mainly with photography, tell
me about your practice and how it has evolved.
Sohrab M. Kashani: I was always a geek, or you
could say I am a geek, a computer geek, so I have
always done computer programming, website
design and I’ve made computer games. Then
a friend of mine got a camera and we would
go and take pictures together. Then I got my
own camera and discovered how much I liked
photography. I used digital cameras and then
started a photo-blog to keep all of my photos.
SMK: I was about 15, or 16. We all used to go
out and take pictures. I began to take pictures
of the people and the situations I was in, so
while I was doing documentary photography,
I documented things I was involved in or
thinking about.
There is an ongoing project that I am working
on called “Ghoori”1 . It is about a park close to
my house, a place where I spent a lot of my
time; everyone hangs out there, young people
of all ages. I learnt about a lot of things there
- I formed my first band, made lots of friends
and even started my first relationship there.
Now, I’m working with lots of different media to
present this series, but the point is that this is
where I started, from myself, I am part of what I
am photographing.
New Media loosely defines a nebulous mesh of
technologies for creating and communicating,
all new at some point, but losing their ‘newness’
at a staggering pace. And what might an artist
do with (not so) new media? Artist filmmakers
of the 1960’s grappled with ‘new’ media, now it
is a popular medium for artists working today.
How might the New Media of 2011 become
similarly entrenched in art practice?
During the disputed presidential elections of
June 2009, the Iranian populace, particularly
the young, demonstrated how dexterous and
determined their use of new media technologies
was. The hypothesis that Iran has one of the
most tech-savvy populations gained credence
during that hot summer.
LSM: How old were you at the time?
LSM: So did you study photography at
university?
SMK: No, I didn’t go to university. Well, it’s
complicated. I felt there was no point. I knew
some people that went to Tehran Art University,
and so I would enter the university with them,
without having to show my student card, and
then I would go to different classes - to graphic
design, to photography. It was much better
because I wasn’t forced to go to classes I didn’t
want to go to. I was doing this while I was at
high school, and then I had to sit the konkour
(the university entrance exam taken by all
Iranian high school students) and I thought,
well I don’t want to do something that I’m not
into, I don’t see a future in that. I don’t want
to get a degree in one of the subjects where I
had already attended the classes, and then be
forced to take some courses I didn’t want to do,
just to get the grades. So I preferred not to go
to university, but then decided I should chose
something that wouldn’t take up too much
time and would mean I wouldn’t have to do my
conscription. So I chose Spanish, my English
was already good, so I thought I’d learn another
language.
LSM: But you knew you wanted to be an artist?
SMK: Not really. Although I loved the arts
I always thought I was going to be an IT/
Network Security Administrator/Analyst.
SMK: Sazmanab2 began as an open studio,
everyone could just come together and work,
to just be around each other, in that space,
making work. We had some equipment; paint,
a camera, stuff that everyone could share. Then
at the beginning of 2009 it became a formal
project space. In Iran there isn’t anything
else like it, a place that is a private space, but
that isn’t a gallery, that is about running and
creating projects, and not just selling work. I’d
travelled to other places; Istanbul, for example,
where there are at least 12 project spaces, where
artists that aren’t commercial artists, or artists
interested in more experimental work, who
aren’t just interested in exhibiting their work,
come together. In the end at a gallery your work
changes, having commercial interests affects
what you do.
Having commercial interests isn’t a bad thing.
Actually, I think it is a good thing. But I think
that it takes something from the artists. I think
it changes their work. Even with Mohsen, the
gallery I am working with, that will probably
happen. But we’re trying not to get involved in
that game. The gallery was set up in honour
of my friend Mohsen, whom I mentioned
earlier. He died in a plane crash three years
60.
Sohrab M. Kashani
LSM: You work as a curator with two spaces the Sazmanab project and Mohsen Gallery.
Tell me about the differences between these
two spaces and the work you do there?
#3 — Vol.I No.3
Then my interest in computer programing
slowly shifted in to net-art so did my webgraphic design interests. But then I left that for
a while and started taking more photographs.
Then slowly I started to organise exhibitions, I
had a solo exhibition at Tarahan Azad Gallery.
Then Mohsen, my best friend and I, began to
organise exhibitions. My interest in curating
grew through him really. At the time most
things that were happening were happening
in Tehran, but we would curate exhibitions
and then tour them in other towns- like Shiraz
and Mashad - and then bring them to Tehran.
After all of this I got to know Parking Gallery
and started working with them. It was a project
space, the only one of its kind in Tehran, and
a lot of projects got off the ground there. It
was there that I really got into curating. Then
I decided to do my own thing, and so I started
Sazmanab in 2008.
ago. Mohsen and I worked together a lot and
we were thinking about getting a studio and
starting a gallery. We went to look at some
places, and the first one became Sazmanab
and the second space, the space that was going
to be our studio, became Mohsen gallery. I
work there as a curator. Actually we are very
lucky that we have patrons, because other
commercial galleries have financial pressures
and because of this they can’t take the risk of
investing in experimental works. But for the
moment we can.
Sazmanab is an independent project space and
there should be more, but sadly there aren’t. I
think it would help to balance out between the
commercial galleries and other interests. But of
course you need people that are motivated to
do this, for me, on one side it is very rewarding,
I love working with other people, to get new
things going. But at the same time opening a
project space here, in comparison to other
places, is very difficult. It is against the law, I’m
not supposed to have a private space, I can’t
have a store-front or a display window, I can’t
create relationships with the regular people on
the street, which is really something I would
like to do as most of my projects are about
social engagement. I wish this could be a real
public space, but I can’t do that.
The problem here in Iran is that there is
quite a negative view of conceptual art. Now
there is this term here, a complete misnomer,
called new media art. Something that doesn’t
exist! When people use it they are referring to
performance art, conceptual art or installation.
Because it is something that isn’t one specific
medium they put it under this label, new media
art. So what I am trying to do with Sazmanab is
to make a space for this sort of work, but to do
that without the negative connotations of this
label. We are not committed to showing work
from one particular medium, and the space is
not necessarily just an exhibition space.
For me the statement is much more important
than the medium. Now, with my own practice,
I’m no longer a photographer, I began that way
but now I work with video, installation, lots of
mediums, and the medium itself is no longer
important to me. Sometimes I will use one and
sometimes another. It is important for me to use
the medium that will get across my concept,
YouTube mix / Photo by Anita Esfandiari Kubideh kitchen / Photo by Siavash Naghshbandi. 61.
Sohrab M. Kashani
my thoughts, in the best way. The work I do
with Sazmanab is more social, but sometimes
the work I do as an artist is about my personal
feelings or opinions. In my own work I think my
duty is firstly to myself, before other people, to
be honest in what it is that I am saying.
LSM: Can you talk me through some of the
projects you and Sazmanab have been involved
in recently and how they came about?
SMK: A lot of our projects start as collaborations
between us and artists groups or project
spaces elsewhere, and yes, that contact comes,
exclusively, from the Internet.
Sazmanab TV is a new project I’m launching.
It is an Internet TV channel where anyone can
make a programme to be streamed by us.
LSM: So anyone can come and make a
programme or talk about a subject they are
interested in?
SMK: Yes, exactly, it’s like Sazmanab itself,
maybe we have some guidelines, but really it is
very easy to work with us; to give a presentation,
a workshop, to put on an exhibition, this can
happen very easily, and we are very open. And
so that is the same idea with TV, and here as a
‘TV network’ we are here to help, with editing
or cameras or I can let people use the space at
Sazmanab to make their programmes.
I think lots of good things can happen because
of this collaboration. I think working in groups
and with others is a good challenge, it can
create some competition between people and
that isn’t a bad thing.
SMK: Yes, but of course this isn’t just for
Iranians inside or outside the country. Here in
Iran you don’t see exhibitions of many foreign
artists, or projects, so it is interesting for me to
bring work from other places inside Iran. For
example, we have presentations from artists
via Skype, with Q&A. We’ve had screenings
of video work form foreign artists, as well as
Iranian artists. And the TV works this way too.
LSM: We’ve talked a bit about this, but let’s talk
62.
#3 — Vol.I No.3
LSM: So I could make something and send it to
you from London?
some more about how technology can be used
in new, engaging work?
SMK: Yes, of course Skype and ooVoo, all of
this technology opens things up. A lot of the
work that we do is facilitated by technology.
For example we did a project called Much Love
from Tehran, in collaboration with Saroseda,
based here in Tehran, and B&K Projects
Gallery from Denmark. We had five or six
Skype connections, to connect the two spaces,
and there was a live concert at Sazmanab with
three electronic music bands, and there was
one band in Denmark, Dansk Floede. This was
for the opening of the gallery in Copenhagen,
so one band would play in each location and the
sound and images would be mixed live using
special software, and then the mixed sound and
images were sent to the other location. So it was
like an interactive performance in real-time.
And imagine, all of this was going on, even with
the limited Internet speeds and capacities we
have here in Iran. It was a complicated process!
Conflict Kitchen3 was another great project I
really enjoyed doing. We had two main events
as part of that project, which is a larger project
organized by John Rubin and his at Carnegie
Mellon University in Pittsburgh. For the first
event we had dinner all together. People came
to Sazmanab here in Tehran and the café in
Pittsburgh and we all sat down and ate the
same meal and had a dicussion over Skype. The
dinner tables at each location were projected
over Skype, so that when we sat at the table,
with the projection on the wall next to us, it
looked as if we were all sat at one long table.
The next event saw John and I both curate a
series of videos from YouTube. This was a live
screening of videos that were already available
on YouTube about each of the cities we were in,
Tehran and Pittsburgh. It was responsive, so if
I posted a rap video from Tehran, John would
find one from Pittsburgh. Then we followed this
with a Q&A via Skype. It is really interesting
to me that through technology we can bring
people closer; that two places geographically
very far apart can come together.
LSM: It also seems that this work has dialogue
and interaction at its core. How important is it
to you to create dialogue and do you care where
or with whom that dialogue is taking place? Sohrab M. Kashani
SMK: Yes for me it is really important that
dialogue happens. Conflict Kitchen was exactly
that; creating dialogue. In regards to with
whom or where this dialogue takes place, or
even what it is, for me it is not important, it is
just important that it happens.
The interesting thing about this technology is
that it is so easy. And I really like that, because
I can be connected very easily to someone in
Isfahan, or London, and talk as easily to both
of them. Otherwise we only see each other
through a set of filters, particularly through
politics and the media, and think that we are
all so different, when really we are very similar.
These possibilities mean we can talk to each
other, work with each other, and become
friends.
Of course, it isn’t important that this is just
between me and someone in another country,
I mean, it is just as hard to make connections
inside the country, between us and other cities,
as it is to make them between Tehran and
London.
63.
The feedback I got here was so positive, and
I want to continue this, to make it constant.
I want there to be more dialogue, more
discussion, more questions, more answers,
to change the subject. People from Tehran
felt that the first time we did the Skype
conversation it was a bit like they were looking
down from above. The people in the States
talked very easily, with more confidence, and
here people were more interested in answering
the questions than asking them. Gradually that
lessened and we could talk more easily. Once
it became easier to talk, well, that helped to
dispel misinterpretations. The more open and
independent the dialogue, the easier this can
happen.
SMK: Well, to answer that, I think we have to
talk about everything all at once: the politics,
the media and the art world, the markets and
the sales in Dubai.
Since 2008, or whenever it was, since the
focus of all the big auction houses, things have
definitely changed. Before there were only a
few big characters, a few names, now it is so
different. In one way, it is a good thing, people
are selling their work and I think that motivates
them.
#3 — Vol.I No.3
That is why Conflict Kitchen was so good. It
wasn’t about politics. It was just social and
about people. When we were all sitting down
together, sharing a conversation anything
could happen at that point. We might discuss
the food, or the differences between us, or
literature. It’s just like sitting at a table talking
to the people around you. The distance was only
geographical. Right now I am working a lot with
this sort of technology and also because of it.
LSM: How do you view current contemporary
arts practices in Iran?
However, there are some negative effects too.
The work that gets sold, the work that gets
made, is about meeting expectations, in truth,
the expectations of the West. So when the media
is only giving reports about the politics in the
region, then people begin to expect the art work
to reflect that, so work that is not political isn’t
seen or it is misinterpreted and gets used in
the wrong way, it becomes something political
when it isn’t. It also affects the artists. There
are many who are very serious and honest in
their work, but others see this opportunity and
compromise themselves and their work for it.
You know they want things to be Iranian
so there needs to be something Iranian in
the work, an Iranian element. But if you are
European, do they expect the same? If you’re
German or if you’re Italian, do they ask why
your work doesn’t have those elements? And
so people become forced to put these elements
in their work; to use Persian text, to make work
related to politics, put a chador in it, so that
they become accepted as artists.
Of course Iran is seen through certain filters and
unfortunately this stops new things happening.
This is getting better, though; there are some
residencies, some more opportunities to open
artists up to new experiences. So Sazmanab
is at least one place that can do some other
things, at least we can try to be in touch with
other galleries, institutions, and project spaces
to open up this space for alternatives.
LSM: Do you see more possibilities or more
spaces where this could happen?
“Super Sohrab: Project Tophane” titled “Herkes Bir Kahraman Olabilir” (in Turkish. English translation: “Everyone can be a hero”),
2011, Istanbul, Turkey, Photo by Nihan Cetinkaya.
64.
SMK: Performance is of course the hardest
thing to do, because the government just
doesn’t accept it. If you do something there is
a high risk you could get arrested. This isn’t
going to change anytime soon. Whatever you
do it becomes political, from here, on the inside,
from the government who are so suspicious,
and then from the outside, too, who want to see
the political in everything. Whatever you do
you’re stuck and frustrated between these two
positions.
There are a group of people who have been
doing public performances, in the street, at a
restaurant, without permission, and it is great
this is happening, that some sort of performance
art is finding it’s way through. There is another
group who have been making public art. The
risk is less. They go and put a piece of art in
an unexpected place. It is the sort of thing that
65.
Sohrab M. Kashani
LSM: Do you think there are more possibilities
for different kinds of work, for more conceptual
or performance work?
Perhaps some of these projects are a little
superficial and are still very raw, but people
often don’t know what they want and what they
are doing with their practice. In my opinion it
is a step in the right direction for the future of
performance and public art here.
My own interest is in social practice, but if
there can be some performance in what I do, I
am really interested in doing that. But I want
that to happen somewhere publicly, not in a
gallery space, or just in front of other artists, I
want regular people to be able to see that too.
#3 — Vol.I No.3
There are more and more artist groups and
initiatives, but not project spaces. Artists work
at home and they are isolated from each other.
It would be great if there were more spaces. I
think it would balance out the debate between
social practice, performance and live art, and
the more commercial art work in most galleries.
It would balance out the work that is under the
influence of the West and artists that are just
interested in what everyone else is doing.
is quite simple and happens all over the world,
there is not necessarily a big statement behind
it, but it is just to make the work, and that is a
good thing.
q
SMK: Unfortunately I don’t see more spaces
opening up. I mean, I opened my own space and
it is very rewarding and successful, but you also
use a lot of your energy, your own money, all of
your time. At the same time my own practice
has suffered because of it. I don’t have so much
time to spend on my own work. Perhaps if I had
not spent so much time on the space I would
have been more successful as an artist? But I
think this happens to everyone who works as
a curator/artist, it is natural. Like I said, I can’t
have a store front, I can’t advertise, I can’t put
up posters, all my publicity is via Facebook.
There isn’t enough room for a lot people there,
it is an apartment, you have to be aware of
the neighbours, all of these problems exist, so
really, not everyone is going to be willing to do
this here, it is a bit of a self-sacrifice.
Endotes
1 http://www.no6gallery.com/ghoori
2 http://sazmanab.org/
3 http://www.conflictkitchen.org/
Omid Salehi
My Car is My Love
q
Omid Salehi
These days there are only a few existing
examples of commercial vehicles left whose
interiors have been elegantly and lovingly
restored by their owners. The reason being their
large size and that they are not seen in main
city traffic and are more likely to be found in
the outer town roads and motorways. However,
he owners of such vehicles are avid followers of
this particular form of personal interior design.
At the same time, other inner city vehicles
are not free from this trend and some sort of
interior decorating is also popular amongst
them. Commercial vehicle drivers elaborately
display photographs, tasbeeh (prayer beads),
prayers, mottos, names and prose on their
windscreens, doors, innerwalls and ceilings of
their automobiles or trucks; creating their own
varied but private interior space.
Images: My Car is My Love, Omid Salehi, 2009
courtesy the artist
Text: By Omid Salehi (Translated from Farsi by
#3)
67.
#3 — Vol.I No.3
Prominent in central Iran is the pictorial display
of actresses’ glamour shots on the doors and
inner walls of their vehicles. Drivers all over Iran
do not necessarily choose the same decors. For
example, in Sisstan and Baluchestan pictures
of Indian actors and actresses are widely used
whereas in other places more religious symbols
are used in interior car decorations.The drivers
themselves do not express special reasons
for what they exhibit apart from making their
cars look more beautiful. Nevertheless, the
repetition of this act of design is of important
significance to them.
Ghanei Rad explains how the common factor
shared by all the pictures of actresses displayed
in some of these cars takes into consideration
themes of beauty and innocence that feature
in Iranian culture. In his opinion, other factors
such as the age of the driver, his marital status
and his personal taste play a role for the drivers
when choosing these pictures. He believes that
In general one can not pass judgement on this
pattern of behaviour. One can conclude that the
driver wants to declare he is “complete”. He is
a complete human being and his interaction
with a piece of technology does not change his
identity.
//
My Car is My Love
The sociologist and university lecturer,
Mohammad Amin Ghanei Rad, has noted
that the interaction between Iranians with
technology and automobiles is one of the first
and most common symbols of technology
in Iran. “These Iranians simultaneously feel
alienated and in a state of nostalgia towards
their cars and in need of domesticating and
identifying themselves with this foreign
technological object. They try to introduce and
put some sort of their identifiable culture and
personal taste into their cars”.
they are also trying to open up a dialogue and
interact with others.
68.
69.
70.
71.
72.
73.
74.
75.
q
76.
Valeria Bembry
Don’t Call it
Contemporary: The
Market for Iranian Art
q
The first edition of Art Dubai in 2007 hosted
galleries from around the world, and signalled
Dubai’s ambition of becoming the global
centre of the Middle Eastern art market. The
fair opened to optimistic press attention,
with professionals and art buyers using the
opportunity to foster intercultural dialogue
among counterparts throughout the region.
Galleries from the Middle East generated most
of the sales, though Western galleries made a
strong imprint as well. The majority of art sales
are generated through two key intermediaries:
dealers and auctioneers.
Dealers account for the majority of value of
transactions in the international art market. 2
Dealers rely on relationship building with and
personal patronage by client/collectors and
artists in order to develop their businesses.
It is expected that dealers possess a certain
level of specialised expertise in order to advise
clients on acquisitions. The owner of a work of
art wishing to sell has four principal options:
sale or consignment to or private sale by, an
78.
Valeria Bembry
Don’t Call it Contemporary: The Market for Iranian Art
Since 2006 the international art world witnessed
a remarkable rise in commercial interest in the
visual arts of the Middle East, in particular
Iran. Geopolitics has played a significant role
in the region’s attraction. Iranian artists have
defined their presence as strong performers in
terms of auction sales and exhibition profiles.
Much of their success is due to the rise of
the United Arab Emirates (UAE) one of the
economic engines of the Middle East. Iranian
artists have benefited considerably from this
expanded art market as the UAE, and Dubai in
particular, served as a platform of access into
the global art world. This was seen as integral
as the political isolation and limitations of an
authoritarian government make access beyond
borders challenging for many Iranian artists.
art dealer; sale or consignment to, or private
sale by, and auction house; private sale to a
collection or museum without the use of an
intermediary.3 The auction house functions as
a market valuation system as it is through the
evaluation and appraisal by specialists that an
artwork or object is ascribed an estimate and
then tested in a public sale.
Two London-based auction houses currently
dominate the UAE market, Christie’s and
Bonhams, which, established offices in Dubai
in 2005 and 2006 respectively. 4 Sales from
the Dubai showrooms specialised in works
by Modern and Contemporary artists from
the Middle East and North Africa and are
successful in fostering a growing demand as
well as a significant price inflation.
#3 — Vol.I No.3
Recent record-breaking sales and new
openings of art institutions in the Middle
East publicly manifest a thriving art scene
and dynamic art market. How do these
developments and institutions affect Iranian
art on a global scale? Valeria M. Bembry has
tracked the emerging stages of the Middle
Eastern Art market from its beginnings and
investigates the so-called “Dubai-Effect” on
Iranian art.
Economic sanctions and a restrictive business
environment in Iran are partly responsible for
the presence of nearly half a million Iranians
currently living in the UAE. Dubai has the
largest concentration of Iranian expatriates
in the region with about 8,000 Iranian-owned
firms registered with the Dubai Chamber
of Commerce and Industry. Trade between
Iran and the UAE is estimated at $12 billion.5
The wealth generated through business
transactions have translated into business
in the auction salesrooms and commercial
galleries. The rationale behind auctions of Arab
and Iranian art in Dubai is to attract collectors
from the Middle East and establish prices for
artists. Christie’s Dubai and Sotheby’s in
London began positioning work by Middle
Eastern artists alongside established Western
artists, thus imposing an international view of
the region’s art onto neophyte collectors.6
The financial strength of the UAE attracted
a large number of Iranian nationals, who
represent the majority of collectors of Modern
and Contemporary art by artists of Iranian
heritage. Collection patterns demonstrated
an “insatiable” appetite for works by Iranian
artists, irrespective of the different styles,
mediums and prices. This was a combination
of an emotional pull of nostalgia by homesick
expatriates and the astute business acumen
that contributed to their cultural purchasing
power. In a recent interview, Alireza Sami Azar
explained that the growing market is due to
art being regarded as a means for investment,
Iran has a long history of cultural appreciation
spanning centuries, however, Dubai’s auctiongenerated cultural boom dramatically changed
Iran’s art scene. New galleries have opened
and the public are visiting in greater numbers.
Returning Iranians, many educated abroad,
bring with them a hunger for contemporary art.
Having visited museums and galleries in New
York, Paris and London, this new generation of
post-Revolutionary collectors are among the
target market for galleries and auction houses.
Since money does not automatically equal
taste, or even sense, some affluent Iranians
attempt to keep up with the Abbasis, Pahlavis
or Hosseinis, collecting whatever ‘name’ they
79.
Valeria Bembry
The auction houses made superstars out of
Iranian artists like Farhad Moshiri (b. 1963),
the first artist from the Middle East to sell a
work of art at auction for over $1 million. His
work, Eshgh (2007) sold for $1,048,000 (incl.
premium) on 3 March 2007 at Bonham’s Dubai,
a record that was surpassed by Parviz Tanavoli
(b.1937), who made his record-breaking Dubai
auction debut in April 2008 with the sale of
The Wall (Oh Persepolis) for $2.8 million (incl.
premium) at Christie’s. Christie’s initially
projected sales of $30 million in 3 years, yet in
just 24 months they surpassed that projection
by 30%. According to ArtTactic, the volume
of sale of Arab and Iranian Art has increased
from $2 million in 2006 to $35.7 million in
2008.9 Iranian artists, such as Parviz Tanavoli,
Charles Hossein Zenderoudi (b.1937, Tehran),
Farhad Moshiri, and Mohammad Ehsai (b.
1939) dominate the Modern and Contemporary
Arab and Iranian auctions (74% at Christie’s
and 64% at Bonhams) as does New York-based
Shirin Neshat (b. 1957) whose works have sold,
for up to six figures, at auctions in New York
and London.
#3 — Vol.I No.3
therefore possessing a financial aspect, rather
than being purely cultural or philanthropic.7
Though there are genuinely impassioned
collectors with a long family history of
collecting, there are a few upstarts who make
speculative purchases with the expectation of
profiting from upward changes in prices for
“hot” artists in the future by selling the work
at a later date. 8 Such activity runs the risk of
“burning” an artists’ intrinsic value and thus
cannibalising a nascent market that collectors
are purported to support.
can pull out of an auction catalogue without
developing a knowledge of the creative value
or background of the works. One such collector
admitted her disdain for some artworks she
owns, yet, since her friends collect the “same
kind of paintings”, she “had to pay a fortune”
for two similar paintings over her fireplace.10
Iran is a country divided: on the one hand most
Iranians are concerned about food security,
rising prices and unemployment, yet, record
oil prices have enhanced the spending power
of the country’s elites11, for whom even the USbacked economic sanctions appears to have
little effect as they can now chose to invest
their money in art from local galleries since
they are thwarted from investing abroad from
within Iran.
Artists have been leaving Iran for over 30 years
in either elective or imposed exile. Working
conditions for artists have deteriorated since
the 2005 election of Mahmoud Amadinejad,
who reversed the “golden age of expression”
that existed under the presidency of
Mohammed Khatami. Though it is sometimes
ignored, artists are now required to have
permits in order to make and exhibit works,
those who do try to apply notice that fewer
permits are being issued. One area of the local
art scene that appears to flourish despite (or
because of) restrictions is the contemporary
photography community. Newsha Tavakolian
(b. 1981) is a Tehran-based photojournalist who
found an outlet in fine art after, she, like many
photojournalists, experienced restrictions
on her press activities after the June 2009
elections. She chose to use photography as
a social documentary tool that highlights
critiques of contemporary Iranian society.12
The artists who chose to remain must balance
the extant restrictions with their convictions.
Rather than being repressive and stifling, some
artists find their environment to be a source
of creative inspiration as echoed by Shahpour
Pouyan, “My work is completely dependent on
Iranian and Middle Eastern cultural factors.”13
The “Dubai-Effect” of auction records have
boosted domestic interest in works by Iranian
artists. The first reaction was for less-confident
artists and gallerists to try to emulate popular
trends and raise their prices in response the
record-breaking (and skyrocketing) sales
figures achieved in Dubai. Other artist chose
Museums and public cultural institutions
provide a vital duty serving as the ‘final
repository for works with validated reputations,
some entering the primers of art history’.18 The
also provide a platform for public education,
critical analysis and reflection among the
public, academic, and artistic communities. The
Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, founded
in 1977 and currently holds one of the finest
80.
Valeria Bembry
The structure of the cultural and market value
mechanism for art in the Middle East varies
from that in Europe and America, where
museums and public arts institutions serve as
a cultural preserve with the power to validate
an artist’s creative virtuosity. In this case the
public sector provides a high symbolic value
by leveraging credibility to art and artists,
while also preventing through selection and in
conjunction with the commercial art world, the
market from becoming overloaded, a situation
that would lead to a fall in art’s economic
value.17 Conversely, one of the dangers of the
brisk activity in the Middle East is a scarcity
of institutions with the expertise and critical
professional skills and scholarship required to
maintain the viability and quality of the local
markets. This void leaves only news of auction
records, prices, parties and money.
#3 — Vol.I No.3
to reinforce the stereotype of what “Iran” is
(and sells)-chadors, gender wars and artfully
drawn letters otherwise known as “The Money
Making Persian Calligraphy”. 14 A refreshing
group of artists are leaving that trend behind
as they create ground breaking work that not
only questions the wisdom of a system that
claims divine rule (both the art market and
the Islamic republic) and deals with subjects
that go beyond longstanding clichés about the
Iranian condition.15 Iran needs Dubai, the UAE’s
most extravagant city-state has a more or less
transparent market economy and a degree of
personal freedom rarely found elsewhere in the
Middle East outside Israel and Lebanon. The
government doesn’t micromanage the personal
lives of its citizens, nor does it smother the
economy with heavy state socialism.16 This
is the environment where the auctions, art
fairs and galleries flourished and provided
a platform closer to home for Iranian artists.
However, though Dubai is the engine of the
Middle Eastern art world, it should not be the
sole conductor.
collections of Post-Impressionist, Modern and
Contemporary art and hosts exhibitions by
internationally recognised Iranian artists.
Galleries host events, talks and “meet the
artist” sessions. Tehran’s vibrant cultural
scene could hardly be called a “contemporary”
phenomenon, has weathered 30 years of
political and economic flux and still retains the
raw materials to maintain its internal creative
communities that are still in development in
the Gulf States. Mathaf is here, the Guggenheim
and Louvre are in progress as museums of the
future and time will tell how they will proceed
to contribute to the validation of contemporary
artists and maintain the legacy of the Arab and
Iranian Modern masters.
In the 2008 documentary, The Mona Lisa
Curse, critic Robert Hughes called the art
world the “second least unregulated market
after the drugs”.19 This leaves plenty of room
for ‘art experts’, ‘specialists’ and ‘consultants’
to serve as “advisors”. In the West validation
is conferred through a series of reviews, first
by peers, then writers/critics before attracting
the attention of curators, who will invite artists
to exhibit in shows that are attended by the
public (among them the art historians and
collectors who weigh their merit against an
encyclopaedic memory of experiences and
knowledge). This process is, for the most part,
independent and not governed by personal
connections. However there is a real risk that
talented artists are overlooked because they
have not tapped into one of the regional art
world gatekeeper cliques. For example, the
Cairo Biennale was criticised over its selection
process, which reflects taste of a narrow group
of individuals running the country’s major
cultural institutions.20 This is how not to
develop a strong but diverse contribution to the
cannon of global art history.
Dubai’s growth and prosperity benefited
from the contributions of the expatriate
Iranian business community. The size of this
community and the rising personal wealth
among the other foreign and royal households
in the UAE opened up opportunities for
luxury companies and high-net-worth service
providers to open up offices and boutiques.
The auction houses took advantage of this and
expanded their market to a growing group of
consumers now interested in the purchase
Valeria Bembry
of cultural commodities, many of which flow
forth from Iran. It remains to be seen whether
this boom in Iranian art is sustainable in the
commercial art world or if it is a bubble waiting
to burst under the weight of pride.
q
Endnotes
1 Also known as ‘gallerists’. ‘Art consultants’
occasionally operate in a commercial capacity
when facilitating sales between dealers and
collectors, collecting a fee from a percentage of
the transaction.
3 Ibid, p 64 Sotheby’s opened an office in Doha,
Qatar in late 2009
5 As of 2010. This figure is estimated to drop
due to the United States’ increased pressure
on Emirati authorities to adhere to sanctions
imposed on the Iranian government
6 Robertson, Iain. A New Art From Emerging
Markets. Lund Humpheries (Surrey 2011) p 111
7 Mostafavi, Ramin. Iranian painters turn
golden pages of new chapter. Reuters Life!
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/25/
us-iran-art-idUSTRE74O2I120110525 25 May
2011. Accessed 27 June 2011.
2 Robertson, Iain and Derrick Chong, eds. The
Art Business. Routledge (Abingdon 2008) p 6
12 Artist in conversation with Malu Halasa at a
Prince Claus Fund-sponsored event at Neiuwe
Kerk, Amsterdam, 24 February 2011.
8 This practice is known as ‘flipping’, a real
estate term where property is purchased and
held for a period of time to be sold for profit
during market upswings.
81.
15 Ibid.
16 Totten, Michael, J. The Dubai Effect. http://
www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2009/11/
the-dubai-effec.php 29 November 2009
Accessed 29 June 2011
17 Robertson, Iain, ed. Understanding
International Art Markets and Management.
Routledge (London 2005)
19 Broadcast date: 21 September 2008, Channel
4
20 Robertson. A New Art…p 112
#3 — Vol.I No.3
11 Iran has the world’s third largest oil reserves
(would rank second if Canada’s reserves of
unconventional oil are excluded)
14 Title of an installation piece displayed at the
Saatchi Gallery in October 2010 by Mahmoud
Bakhshi (b. 1977). Transliterated from the
original Persian
18 Robertson, Iain. The Art Business. Routledge
(Abingdon, 2005)
9 ArtTactic. Middle East Modern and
Contemporary Art. Market Update. October
2008.
10 Mostafavi.
13 Rezaian, Jason. Inside Iran: the art of
resistance- the paintings. Global Post http://
www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/
middle-east/110418/iran-protest-art-musicresistance-2 19 April 2011. Accessed 26 April
2011
Barbad Golshiri
For They Know
What They Do Know
q
Making art, as I’ve always put it, is a habit - a
poor one in my case. Making art is not initially
creation but constant repetition, salvaged by
making puny differences in certain orders on
the plane of the feasible. Art is, semiotically
speaking, purely negative; it cannot be defined
positively. And of course doing it entails not
doing something else. Like some of my Iranian
colleagues, I’m not doing it these days. We
have all seen frames that we can freeze, stick
to, and damn. Barring whatever may cross the
thresholds of our studios and whatever may
enframe and transcend what has been going
on in the streets of Iran, perhaps the same thing
crossed each of our minds: we have no future.
Certainly we are also established abroad and we
can have our own futures beyond these walls, but
I’m speaking of those like me who have refused
to leave the country and who have decided not
to become one more seated in Matisse’s easy
chair, chanting “I will rebuild you my country
with these tears,” or one more dissolved in the
out-of-context souks of the UAE. We have chosen
to breathe hatred, tear and pepper gas, instead
of hanging onto nostalgia and the myths of exile
and of “the innocent artist.” So it’s true to say
that in the eclipse of relative political freedom
and under the oligarchy and inquisitions of the
Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, we –
like millions of Iranian citizens – have planned
our to-be by abandoning “labor” and “work” in
favor of “action.”
Barbad Golshiri
Positions June 2009
The E Word
I assume that today we are all familiar with
the terms “exotic” and “exoticism.” We usually
take them to be successors to nineteenthcentury Orientalism, but exoticism today is
much more complex than Ingres’ or Renoir’s
Odalisques. There are those in my circle who
have condemned many artists by labeling them
“exotic.” And my colleagues and I have been
swearing at each other using the E word. I do
not agree that being exotic proceeds from some
sort of defect, for you may use local motifs
in your work, and that may appear exotic to
tourists or those curators who come mining.
Hence exoticism has little to do with being
exotic; it is rather a trend that operates within
an ideological apparatus.
The contemporary Iranian art scene is not to be
underestimated. Recent auction results stand
as testament to the global acknowledgement
of the vitality of Iranian art, with artists such
as Shirazeh Houshiary, Shirin Neshat, Parviz
Tanavoli and Farhad Moshiri commanding record
prices at sales around the world. 2
Maliha Al Tabari, the managing director of
ArtSpace Middle East Gallery, admits that
“typically, the people who buy from us are
the kind that can definitely afford it . . . mostly
they are people in the banking industry.” She
continues, “I’ve been in Dubai for six years
and I came when there was almost no art . . .
83.
#3 — Vol.I No.3
For They Know What They Do Know
With these words, I would also like to dedicate
this paper to all my compatriots and – for the
reasons discussed in this paper (and not to be
auctioned in October at Christie’s), and because
in a situation where even e-flux is sending a
petition to the UNO and the EU, Magic of Persia
is still financially thinking pink – I declare that
as one of the seven finalists for the Magic of
Persia Art Prize (MopCap)1 I strongly denounce
their criteria and withdraw my works, for as
they would have it:
I have participated in several events and
contributed to publications devoted to socalled contemporary Iranian art, the Tehran
contemporary art scene, or new art from the
Middle East. Today every schoolchild knows
that the recent increase in interest in the
region stems from the catastrophic geopolitical
state of affairs in my country and in those
of its neighbors, and also from the brand
new art market in the United Arab Emirates.
Bonhams Dubai, for instance, reportedly
broke thirty-three world records at their $13
million Inaugural Middle East Auction. That
was almost three times the expected result,
with a phenomenal 94% of lots sold.3 I’m not
saying Orientalism is no longer a force; on the
contrary, today the market is much more hungry
for exotic commodities and, at least in Iran,
one of the leading trends in art is decorative
calligraphy and a modernist approach to
patriarchal heritage. Parviz Tanavoli’s Oh
Persepolis, which sold at Christie’s Dubai for
$2,841,000, 3 is an example of this trend. His
works, like what was being sold at Saatchi’s gift
shop during its recent “Unveiled” Exhibition
(such as “mouse rugs”), are exotic rather than
exoticist.
Today Farhad Moshiri is the most in-demand
Iranian artist on the market. His Eshgh (love)
was auctioned by Bonhams and sold for over $1
million.
Barbad Golshiri
We were trying hard to sell pieces by Farhad
Moshiri for about $2,000 (Dh7,500) or $3,000
(Dh11,000) – now his work is worth $200,000
(Dh740,000) or $300,000 (Dh1.1 million).”5
Middle East: The Floating Signifier
The Middle East does not exist geographically
not just because it’s constructed and still seen
from a Eurocentric viewpoint – for a Chinese
person it is located to the west, for a Russian to
the south – but also because we cannot define
its borders and areas, that is to say, we cannot
designate a unified object. UN analysts often
use relatively more descriptive terms such
as “Near East.” They also refer to it using the
term “Western Asia,” but on the UN’s official
website Iran is not a part of Western Asia but
rather Southern Asia. This is not what Mahan
desired: “Western Asia” now includes Armenia
84.
The region was constructed in the nineteenth
century, the term coined in the British
India Office, the department responsible for
administering the Indian subcontinent during
the British Reign (Raj, 1757–1947), and later
popularized by Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan.
Mahan chose this geographical term for the
areas surrounding the Persian Gulf – what
Gamal Abdel Nasser later called the Arabian
Gulf: both sides are still vying for control of
the name. Mahan believed that, after the Suez
Canal, the Gulf was the most strategic route for
any British attempt to stop the Russians from
advancing towards India.
It would be intolerable if the holy places of the
Middle East should be subjected to a rule that
glorifies atheistic materialism.6
#3 — Vol.I No.3
The use of the term “Middle East” does not
date back to prehistory, and it has little to do
with the Achaemenid Persian Empire, Babylon,
or the Herat School of Painting. Like “Eastern
European Countries,” the Middle East does
not exist geographically. “West” and “East”
too are not merely geographical terms; the
Orient, for instance, has odd connotations –
“oriental martial arts” never refers to Turkish
or Iranian traditional martial arts, for example,
and the case is the same for “oriental massage.”
And in pornography “Asian teens” are neither
Lebanese, nor Iranian, nor indeed Afghan.
and Azerbaijan, both once Russian. The United
States government first used the term “Middle
East” when in their eyes an opposing force was
growing in the region, namely, Communism (or
“Atheism,” as Eisenhower put it). As the region
is the site of a large percentage of the world’s
oil production, the Eisenhower Administration
saw the growth of Communism in the region
as a serious threat towards the U.S. and its
spiritual or anti-communist allies’ “economic
life and political prospects.” Let us cite his
“Special Message to the Congress on the
Situation in the Middle East”:
In his speech Eisenhower is really concerned
with three major, interconnected matters:
oil, independence, and spirituality. These
three matters and “non-matters” meet again
in Ahmadinejad and in Iranian spiritual and
official artists.
What is this restless attempt to maintain
consistency for the Middle East, since – to
borrow Lévi-Strauss’ term – it is but a “floating
signifier”? 7 In 2004 the Bush Administration
coined the terms “Greater Middle East,” “New
Middle East,” and “Broader Middle East.”
According to U.S. administration preparatory
work for the thirtieth G8 summit, this wider
region includes “the Arab states, Israel, Turkey,
Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Some pundits
go further and include all of Central Asia or
the Caucasus.”8 Perhaps one day museums
and galleries will start vying for exhibitions
devoted to what the Bush Administration
sought to encompass.
Why do we need to keep the Name, even though
its referent has been changing geographically
ever since the day of its baptism; even though it
does not signify a cluster of descriptive features
and subsequently does not refer to an object
in reality or at minimum a geographically,
politically, socioculturally, and economically
circumscribed region – in brief, a “sense” that
does not possess an extension of descriptive
“references”? The name has not designated the
same object and the word has been transmitted
from subject to subject while the object has
been changing. Over time the signifier has
been preserved. If we try to fill the void today
Most of the exhibitions, panels, and
conferences that we find more radical than the
import/export art scene of Dubai, its related
auctions and numerous art fairs, are those
whose curators and organizers have begun by
opposing the “mainstream,” so-called “Western
media representation.” All these programmes
speak of cutting-edge works of art produced
“in the region.” The common achievement of all
these discourses – those that try to constitute
political, cultural or geographical “identity” for
the baptized object beyond its ever-changing
descriptions – is: there really is a Middle East;
that the Middle East is for real. They all try to
designate what – in their eyes – has always been
there. This is the omnipresent characteristic of
all those efforts that operate retroactively.
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Barbad Golshiri
Attributed to Shirin Negar, Khotan Khatoun or The
Dagger Dance, 1840. The Museum of Fine Arts,
Saadabad Palace, Tehran
“Arab” as the One
So what is keeping this borderless region or,
should I say, this void, full or consistent, if full
or consistent is what it is? For this we should
examine the common experience of its given
reality which, like any other historic reality,
achieves its identity and unity through the
mediation of a signifier that can symbolize our
experience of its meaning. When, from time
to time, institutions, museums, galleries and
their curators, while trying to fill this void, to
locate and determine “the region,” make grave
mistakes, they are actually symbolizing diverse
geopolitical and sociocultural experiences.
Saatchi’s newsletter for the “Unveiled”
exhibition is a good example:
On 30 January the Saatchi Gallery’s second
show, Unveiled: New Art from the Middle East,
will open, presenting the work of over 20 of the
region’s most exciting artists. Dedicated to the
flourishing contemporary Arabic art scene, the
exhibition will offer a cutting edge survey of
recent painting, sculpture and installation. 9
Rokni Haerizadeh, Dagger Dance, 2008. Acryclic on
canvas, 200 cm x 200 cm. Image courtesy of the Saatchi
Gallery, London. ©Rokni Haerizadeh, 2011
And in the exhibition’s picture by picture guide,
concerning Rokni Haerizadeh’s Dagger Dance,
it is written:
#3 — Vol.I No.3
with positive cultural or geographical realities,
we are – again – designating an empty signifier
in a “retroactive” manner, that is to say, we
constitute the name after we’re in it – after
politics has already shaped the name.
Dancing with swords is a traditional custom
throughout the Arab world, usually performed by
women as part of a wedding ceremony. Haerizadeh
delivers this scene with the vivid exoticism of
Matisse or Gauguin, his bold colours, heavy
When the holders of such discourses – those
who designate the region as the “Middle
East” by abandoning dissimilar qualities,
homogenizing and producing a unified entity
such as “Arabic” – hand on to us certain
signifiers as “the Signified,” they in fact nourish
certain systems of belief and ideological
maxims. The main achievement of all these
unavoidable gaffes, unbeknownst to their
agents, is that it is the imaginary other that
calls for “thereness” and seeks objectivity, be it
paradoxical, undemocratic, or simply bullshit.
It’s the same with our politicians: the leaders
have been speaking of “the Enemy” ever
since the revolution, and the slogan has been
“neither East, nor West, the Islamic Republic
[only].” But every day when we were at school
we had to trample something underfoot, even
if it was just an Israeli or American flag painted
on schoolyard pavement.
The ideological apparatus does not welcome
Turkish artists so often. Although Turks are
geographically represented as inhabitants
of the region, they are not that Arab or that
Muslim or that fanatic anymore (needless to say,
today “Arab” and “Muslim,” the “Arab world”
and the “Muslim world” – thanks to common
sense – refer to one another and can be used
interchangeably), even though the Ottoman
Empire was supposed to be the center of the socalled Islamic World. We do not see very many
86.
Barbad Golshiri
Turkish artists in the exhibitions devoted to
“the region,” for, since Atatürk, there are serious
social and even military forces perceived as
absolute defenders of secularism.11 Remember
that Turkey is potentially an EU member and a
NATO partner.
It’s not just unscholarly curatorial texts (such
as Saatchi’s) that permit such homogenizations;
some political analysts, in discussing “The
Greater Middle East,” refer to the Arab states
alone, and for the American government, in its
proposal presented to that G8 summit, “Arabs’”
problems are the region’s problems.12
Why is the catalogue also in Arabic? Where
does “the flourishing contemporary Arabic art
scene” come from when eleven of the twentyone artists are Iranians? Perhaps one has to be
a Panofskian iconologist to tell the differences
between Yemeni, Turkmen, and Qajar courtier
dagger dancers, but Haerizadeh has in any event
had recourse to a very illustrious hypotext,
known to anyone who has skimmed through a
concise history of Persian painting (see below).
It’s true to say that these are neither blunders
nor a matter of opinion; they derive, rather,
from certain varieties of doxa. “Arab” is there
to cut the chain of signifiers, and thus serve
as the ultimate point of reference. It operates
effectively when we say – like Tom Cruise when
he spoke about the policy of Scientology, “this
is it, this is exactly it.”
#3 — Vol.I No.3
outlines, and opulent patterning re-appropriating
the tradition of “orientalism.”10
To construct this “real” other, there is surely
a need for an “us and them,” an old discourse
to which I do not wish to reduce my theory;
that is the very discourse of otherness in
which others are simply those excluded. This
discourse assumes that cultural units, social
organizations, ethnicities, and races are
privileged and maintained through different
processes of exclusion and opposition based on
a straightforward dualism.13
“Middle East” has so often been filled with
another void, with an empty signifier which
operates as the last signified: Arab. In an
international biennial, an artist who could
only read and write in French was insistent
that he was just an Arab; seen wearing only his
undershirt, belching throughout the biennale,
his answer to each and every complaint was:
Quoi? Je suis arabe!
Being an Arab has little to do with one’s
genes, the degree of pigmentation, location
or language; and, of course, it is not about
diverse Arabic dialects and descendants; it
is neither about secular Nasserism nor about
Islam. The experiences of Arabité as historical
meaning can only take place on an ideological
plane. “Arab” does not designate a real object
and has no rigid point of reference; it is itself
the Referent, i.e., a knot that, when multiple
signifiers are floating in discursive fields,
intervenes and stops their slide. Since the
“Middle East” does not exist in a geographical
space but only on an ideological plane, and is
more concrete than the heap of its referents,
eventually it is unified and identified through
the agency of a master-signifier: “Arab” is there
to unify dissimilar historical realities through
“Arab” appears to connote a cluster of quasidescriptive features: Muslim, anti-Semite,
stinky, outlandish, undemocratic, vigorous,
rambunctious, camel-riding, bearded or
veiled, a man with a long circumcised penis:
in brief, the new Jew. It is certain politics,
migrations, terrorist activities, and the
“democracy imposing” invasions that permit
such connotations. And the reign of common
sense can be perceived in a simple tautological
assertion: we say they are as such because they
are Arabs.14 Arabité is a vacuum that gulps
down certain connotations.
Here the Middle East is the world’s most stinky
part, or the pain in the world’s arse, or, to borrow
Mohamed Sid-Ahmed’s words, “a mainstay of
world terrorism.” 15 The dark side of the globe,
like the anus, has its fabulous obscurities and
is full of mysticism, for there should be more in
it than a hole.
Today, Iran is the most strategically important
country in this region; it is the alma mater of
all the evils around it; it spreads cockroaches
(remember how the Rwandan radio station
RTLM referred to Tutsis) and embraces curators
willingly.
Barbad Golshiri
symbolization. The name “Arab” has been
extravagantly saturated not because it is the
richest word, but because it is empty. For the
Name is prerequisite: we need it to accumulate
our heap retroactively, a paradoxical heap of
others. And, in brief, we need it to unify a mass.
This does not only suggest that a social bond is
there, allowing one to refer to this full-empty
entity by uttering the Name, but beyond this, it
reveals the reign of the commonsensical.
87.
All these mechanisms have something in
common; they all create or – unbeknownst to
their agents – support the constructed mass by
attributing to it an ethnic, geographic, cultural,
or political reality to homogenize diversity and
difference. For instance, take Shirin Neshat’s
answer to why she has hung onto “Chador art”:
In Iran, the chador is reality. That’s just the way
people dress. Or at least some
people. 16
Or a curator’s note on Shirin Aliabadi’s Miss
Hybrid series:
Shirin Aliabadi’s photographs capture the desire
of today’s Iranian women to reshape their image
– transforming themselves as acts of cultural
rebellion.17
#3 — Vol.I No.3
Today it’s hard to recognize Arabs, not just
because they are everywhere, but also because
they’re like “us” – they no longer “go to school
every day by camel.”
How does art support the quasi-tautological
assertion that says “there is a Middle East
because there are Arabs living there and they
are Arabs because they live in the Middle East?”
Saatchi’s newsletter was a simple example, but
we should not overlook the fact that there are
artists supporting such claims. I have
distinguished a few dominant orientations in
Tehran’s Art scene of today (let us not call it
contemporary). Among these, the art market
has chosen a certain trend: aestheticization of
stereotypes. Many have said that this exoticism
functions as abjection. In contrast with
Catherine David, I insist that we should not call
it self-abjection or self-exoticism, for although
the subject of abjection, the exoticist, is an
inhabitant of the altered territory, and although
unanimity and hegemony have constructed
a vague, abstract, and paradoxical whole (a
“we”), the artist usually extracts himself/
herself from this mass to enframe it from afar.
This gives way to a “beautiful mind” and lets
the artist be both insider and outsider. For we
should not overlook the ambivalent nature of
abjection – abjection is letting go of something
we still keep. We recognize semen, excrement,
or dismembered organs as once being parts of
ourselves – they are dismembered bits of us.
As I have said before, the altered territory is an
unreal mass, it’s a façade. The aforementioned
trend represents this façade. Among Iranianborn artists, the pioneer, we know, is Neshat,
but today she’s important precisely because
her works have aestheticized this façade to
such an extreme degree. When I told her
this, she claimed that there’s nothing wrong
with this, for she’s an admirer of beauty and
chadors make beautiful shapes. Here we deal
with art’s oldest platitude, its ancient auxiliary
and appurtenance: beauty. In her recent
photographs – like her most famous series,
“Women of Allah” – Neshat has used Persian
writing.
Of course it’s much more difficult to analyze
serious egalitarian movements in Iran than
to add to common beliefs, and for Neshat
too it would have been an onerous task to
analyze Forough Farrokhzad’s intertextuality
and search for the roots of her poetry in
The Wasteland. I’m not saying that she has
intentionally chosen to portray the poet as a
fragile, mesmerized woman, for in The Last
Word (2003) it is not just Neshat, Barbara
Gladstone, or Shoja Azari “speaking”; it is
the common wisdom; it is platitude that calls
for delicacy and the myth of Beauty. And of
course to satisfy this need for beauty one need
not search in vain; samples are already there:
a hammam with naked women (remember
Ingres), and then we insert an anorexic naked
girl taken from the “No Anorexia” poster to
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Barbad Golshiri
The success of Ghazel, another Iranian artist
based in Paris, lies in nourishing common
sense and adopting various strands of doxa. In
her videos the chador, the most inspiring cliché,
embraces all dilemmas: for Iranian women,
feminist activities are unlikely, because the
chador will not let them climb up a standard
truck step, and Iranian activists perceive
feminism as lumpen illiterate people do, as
tantamount to manhood. But it is Ghazel’s
video which resides in an ideological field,
from where she perceives feminist activism as
exerting “manly qualities.” Let us remember
that the feminist movement in Iran has been
one of the most active movements demanding
changes to discriminatory laws. According
to the Barbican Cinema, she’s “reflecting on
social and gender issues in Iran,”20 but the way
she ridicules feminism is the same way official
agents of ideology mock these demands in Iran.
oppose Orientalist imagery! And it’s for the
sake of beautification that, for the film Munis,
she bought her cloud scene from Getty Images.
It is “Everyone” that would say, “that is beautiful
indeed.”
Unanimity
#3 — Vol.I No.3
In this piece, language has lost its function
and carries the charm of the unfamiliar, and
so becomes mere exotic ornament. What is
there for anyone who can read Persian? Neshat
has employed such an excess of superfluous
and incorrect diacritics that no one is able to
pronounce her words. These are no longer words
but ornaments, knick-knacks, and an answer to
the market’s demand for the “arabesque” and
Arabic letters without knowing what they are.18
Especially in Dubai, there is a constant call for
calligraphy, no matter what the text reads.19
The exoticist product is an ideological parole
– this is the definition of façade. An ideology
maintains its consistency when it stops
meaning from sliding about. Such paroles
impose signifieds to pin the supposedly openended meaning down. Unanimity or absolute
concord entails a belief in the naturalness of
this signification. Surprisingly exoticists are
famous for being subversive artists, but as
mentioned earlier, their products are paroles of
the same langue, the language of an ideological
regime. The way Neshat treats the chador is the
way the culture factory of the Islamic Republic
beautifies its restrictions; they too aestheticize
the veil in their murals, posters, and slogans.
For them, a woman in a veil is like a pearl in
its shell. The apparatus too is similar (compare
Ghazel’s videos with posters and slogans of the
regime: “The veil is serenity” is as ideological
as “the veil is THE problem”).
Ghadirian’s Like Everyday Series (2001–2) is
an accumulation of ideological paroles and is
an exemplar of exoticism as a trend. The Like
Everyday Series shows women in chador with
their faces veiled by domestic appliances:
one should not forget that Muslim or Iranian
women are just identical housewives. And it’s
important to repeat this in different photos
because ideological utterances resemble
moral judgments and religious prayers, for
they restlessly seek unanimous approval. Her
Qajar series embraces “our anachronistic life”
as common wisdom does: Westoxication.20
Westoxication is not a harmless theory, today,
in the Stalinist show trials of the Iranian
regime, reformists have to defend themselves
against westoxication as a charge.
The veil has become the easiest way for an
artist to promote his/her work. Another Iranian
artist has produced a film to promote her art.
After she shows an archive of her different
projects and works, she shows herself in high
heels wearing a headscarf standing by a closet.
Barbad Golshiri
She enters the chamber and frees her hair from
the scarf and the door closes dramatically.
This symbolic act has nothing to offer Iranian
society, as she never performed it within the
society. This was just marketing.
answer Dubai Tourism has given to “Why
Dubai?”: “captivating contrasts.”
Now we understand that a narrow view is not
only due to naïveté; it is also what an ideological
system has to offer. But the common result of this
trend is not only the simplification of dilemmas,
which makes people more docile and mediocre,
or the aestheticization of façades, reinforcing
the idea that there is a homogenous region
and that the mass is for real; beyond these, the
praxis of art is disturbed because refiguration
is no longer a vital issue. This is again how an
ideological utterance castrates thinking when
pinning down meaning. When foreseeable,
the “doxical” and its audience give each other
standing ovations, for they understand each
other; for “they know what they mean.” In
certain species of doxa, ideological values,
historical phenomena – which have come to
function as realities – recognize themselves.
Michael Irving Jensen has chosen one of
Aliabadi’s Miss Hybrid pieces for the website
www.middleeastawareness.dk. The answer to
the question “Why Shirin Ali-Abadi?” is the
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#3 — Vol.I No.3
Shadi Ghadirian, Farhad Moshiri, Ghazel, and
Shirin Ali-Abadi perpetuate the dominant
image in a very direct way; no pentimenti or
“curvatures” are there to be seen. They take
advantage of doxa and hegemony and submit
to it in the name of subversion.
Shadi Ghadirian, Like Everyday #2, 2000. C-print, 50 cm x
50 cm. Courtesy the artist.
Shadi Ghadirian, Untitled (Qajar Series), 1998.
Gelatin-silver bromide print, 25 cm x 20 cm.
Courtesy the artist.
The media today typically uses such contrasts
in representing Iran. In March 2006, Susan
Loehr’s reportage on ARTE television’s
“Metropolis” programme begins by showing
such captivating contrasts as veiled “chicks”
wearing extravagant makeup with dyed hair,
standing before murals of martyrs’ portraits,
or a mullah speaking on his mobile phone.
Then the narrator tells us that we’re used
to such representations, but today they are
going to show us something different. 22 Shirin
Ali-Abadi not only perpetuates the pictorial
representation served up by CNN or VOA 23 , but
also follows the Islamic Republic’s discourse
of “cultural invasion of the West”: that young
Iranian people are having an identity crisis; that
they are no longer identical with themselves;
that they cannot be themselves. Since this
series by Ali-Abadi – as an ideological and
propagandistic commodity – is produced in
order to be consumed immediately, she is not
about to content herself with the mediocre
pictorial representation of this ideology, and
so entitles the series “Miss Hybrid.” The same
can be said with regard to Shahram Entekhabi’s
Islamic Vogue.
Instead of piercing holes in the overlooked,
unsymbolized (or at least less symbolized)
realities relating to subcategories of those
ideological maxims and the commonsensical,
these artists acted unanimously and
transmitted their messages at the behest of a
closed society, a privileged and established
clan. The agents of ethnic marketing won out
over dissident narratives and became part of
the hegemonic discourse, not because their
narratives were better able to match the “facts,”
but because they were better able to fulfill the
desire for predictability and were indeed much
better able to answer the demands of a huge
number of potential customers. And that’s what
exoticism is: the representation and production
of ideological commodities and symbolizing
parts of a culture for consumption by those
consumers who wish to reinforce their identical
positive identities by way of stigmatizing
others.
Barbad Golshiri
Among Ayatollah Khomeini’s catchwords and
slogans was “unity of words” or unanimity.
With this he drew a boundary between “us”
and “them,” reined in diversity, and nipped
pluralism in the bud in the very beginning of
the Islamic Revolution. 24 Unanimity is absolute
concord and harmony. When unanimous,
everybody is believed to be of the same mind
and acting together as an undiversified whole,
as an “army of 20 million,” as Khomeini had put
it.
4 This is a record for a sculpture by an Iranian
artist, a world auction record for a work of art
by any Middle Eastern artist and the highest
price achieved for a work of art sold at auction
in Dubai. Christies, “Arab, Iranian & Turkish
Art (Modern & Contemporary): Exceptional
P r i c e s , ” h t t p : //w w w. c h r i s t i e s . c o m /d e p
artments/modern-and-contemporary-arabandiranian-art/.
5 Shehab Hamad, “Dubai Art Maket’s [sic]
Future,” S3AF: Middle East Art. News and
Commentary, January 1, 2009, http://s3af.
c o m /i n d e x . p hp/n e w s/m i d d l e - e a s t- a r tnews/134dubai-art-makets-future.
6 The American Presidency Project, “6 -Special
Message to the Congress on the Situation in
the Middle East. January 5, 1957,” University
of California, Santa Barbara, http://www.
presidency.ucsb.e du/ws/index.php?pid=11007.
#3 — Vol.I No.3
//
q
90.
1 The Magic of Persia Contemporary Art Prize
presents itself as “the first international award
devoted to contemporary art of Iran, dedicated
to the works and talents of emerging Iranian
artists”. It should be noted that, in reference
to the rest of this article, that the winner of
the prize will be offered a solo exhibition at
the Royal College of Art (RCA), at the Saatchi
gallery and two other locations in London.
The art works made available at auction at
Christie’s.
3 Bonhams, “Bonhams Dubai Breaks ThirtyThree World Records At $13M Inaugural Middle
East Auction,” no date, http://www.bonhams.
com/cgi-bin/public.sh/pubweb/publicSi te.r?s
Continent=EUR&screen=HeadlineDetails&iHe
adlineNo=3427 (accessed August 22, 2009).
All of these artists are still inhaling doxa and
are becoming more and more hegemonic, but in
contrast with official or governmental artists,
they are praised in the name of subversion.
They should fight with monsters, yet it’s true
that “whoever fights with monsters should see
to it that he does not become one himself. And
when you stare a long time into an abyss, the
abyss stares back into you.”25
This article originally appeared in e-flux
journal September, 2009. It appears here
courtesy of the author.
ENDNOTES
2 Magic of Persia Contemporary Art Prize,
“About,” http://www.mopcap.com/about.
The Abyss
7 First used in Claude Lévi-Strauss,
“Introduction à l’oeuvre de Marcel Mauss,” in
Sociologie et anthropologie, by Marcel Mauss,
(Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1950).
9 Since I was a participant myself, I received
the announcement much before the opening
via email. Here ‘the flourishing contemporary
art scene’ is quoted: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/
hi/i n_pictures/7855596.stm
Barbad Golshiri
8 Völker Perthes, “America’s ‘Greater Middle
East’ and Europe: Key Issues for Dialogue,”
Middle East Policy Council Journal XI, no. 3
(Fall 2004).
19 Agents and consultants of an auction visited
an Iranian abstract painter. They told him
“your paintings are really beautiful but we can
sell them only if you use a bit of calligraphy.”
11 Kemal Atatürk did not want to mix politics
with militarism.
14 Žižek believes such appearance of tautology
is false because “Arab” (“Jew” in his text) in
“because they are Jews” “does not connote a
series of effective properties, it refers again to
that unattainable X.” Slavoj Žižek, “Che Vuoi?,”
in The Sublime Object of Ideology (London:
Verso, 1999) 96–7.
20 See http://www.barbican.org.uk/theatre/
event-detail.asp?ID=8
162.
13 In this discourse we could have said that the
excluded are befriended only by and through
Orientalism.
21 Like any other narrative absorbed
into common sense, “westoxication” or
“Occidentosis” was once a theory. For example,
see Jalal Ale Ahmad, Occidentosis: A Plague
from the West (Gharbzadegi), trans. R. Campbell
(Berkeley, CA: Mizan Press, 1983).
22 See http://www.arte.tv/de/navigation
/1164114.html.
23 I should say that after our recent riots and
protests this imagery has changed.
24 This led to the execution of thousands in
one summer and offered up an archetypal
embodiment of Heterotopia: Khavaran
cemetery.
25 Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil,
ed. Rolf-Peter Horstmann and Judith Norman,
trans. Judith Norman (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2002) 69.
#3 — Vol.I No.3
15 Mohamed Sid-Ahmed, “On the Greater
Middle East,” Al-Ahram Weekly 679, February
26–March 3, 2004).
91.
17 “Made in Iran” exhibition flyer, 24th June
– 11th July 2009, curated by Arianne Levene
andÉglantine de Ganay, Asia House, London.
18 In 2002, when I showed What Has Befallen
Us, Barbad? in New York, it was written here
and there that the locks of hair in the piece
resemble arabesque calligraphy.
10 ‘Unveiled: New Art from the Middle
East’ Picture by Picture Guide. (no further
information was indicated)
12 The London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat
obtained a copy of the proposal and published
the document in its entirety on February
13, 2004; the English translation was later
published by Al-Hayat on its Web site, and is
available at Middle East Intelligence Bulletin,
“G-8 Greater Middle East Partnership Working
Pap e r,” ht t p : //w w w. meib . or g/do c u me nt
file/040213.htm#_ftnref1.
16 Rachel Aspden, “Living with the Monster,”
New Statesman, December 4, 2008.
Sohrab Mokhtari
Abyssus
q
93.
Abyssus
The parrot fell off the branch and was lost in the clouds. The pomegranates were hanging
on earth, in between the trees - a stone staircase was rising down into the earth. The
merchant chest-crawled to take a claw at the grass, and slithered into a passage from the
staircase.
He held on to the wall to stand up. Large clay ewers were placed on the walls. There was
an opening on top of the ewers. Behind the openings - as far as one can see, women were
sitting around fire in many circles while playing daf. The men were twirling around them
and rain could be heard from their instruments.
He passed by the openings. At the end of the passage a stone door was opening. The moon
was a circle. It was all desert on top. Shrubs of thorny twigs were grown towards the sunset,
in between each a crucifix was hanging on earth, the wind was blowing in the desert, he
stood in front of the door. Seeds of soil were raining down in the sky and were lost in the
night.
Sohrab Mokhtari
3.12.10 - 31.5.11
translated from Farsi by #3
94.
Biographies
Barbad Golshiri
for Contemporaneity in contemporary Iranian
art”, Art Tomorrow (2010); “Modern and
Contemporary Iranian Art: Developments
and Challenges”, in Different Sames: New
Perspectives in Contemporary Iranian Art
(2009); “Saqqa-khana School of Art” in The
Encyclopaedia Iranica (2007), “Contemporary
Iranian Art: The Emergence of New Artistic
Discourses” in Iranian Studies (2007);
“Discourses on Post-revolutionary Iranian
Art: Neo-traditionalism during the 1990s” in
Muqarnas (2006); “Neo-traditionalism and
Modern Iranian Painting: The Saqqa-khaneh
School in the 1960s” in Iranian Studies (2005).
Barbad Golshiri works as an artist and political
and cultural critic in Teheran. His media range
from video, installation, photography, and
documented performance to the graphic novel
and Aplastic production. He is translator and
editor of Samuel Beckett into Persian. Most of
his works are language-based and contend with
art and literature’s plane of the feasible.
Fari Bradley
Leili S. Mohammadi
Leili S. Mohammadi is a writer and researcher.
She holds a Masters in Science with Distinction
in Digital Anthropology, from University
College London. Leili has conducted research
in the fields of visual culture, media and
technology with a number of organizations
including the BBC World Service, The Open
University, and Wieden and Kennedy
Biographhies
Fari is a broadcaster and multi-disciplinary
artist working with sound, music and mixed
media sculpture. Live music performances
include venues such as ICA, Glastonbury,
Barbican and art galleries from US to UK.
Fari has composed for The World Health
Organisation, The British Council and Frieze
Projects. On radio Fari produces and presents
Six Pillars to Persia and Free Lab Radio on
arts-music radio station Resonance104.4FM,
while DJing and reviewing aspects of Iranian
culture for other media outlets. Under her full
name ‘Farnaz’, she produces sound sculpture
and other art works. Two tracks by Fari appear
on the electronics CD ‘Women Take Back the
Noise’ alongside artists such as Cosey Fanni
Tutti.
Hamid Keshmirshekan, is an art historian, critic
and Editor-in-Chief of the bilingual Quarterly,
Art Tomorrow and member of academic staff in
the Iranian Academy of Arts. He was a visiting
Associate at the Khalili Research Centre
for the Art and Material Culture, Faculty of
Oriental Studies, University of Oxford from
2004-2008. He obtained his PhD in History of
Art from SOAS, University of London in 2004
and was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship
by the British Academy, A.H.R.C and ESRC
at Oxford University in 2008 and a postdoctoral fellowship by the Barakat Trust at
the Oxford University in 2004-5. His recent
publications include: Amidst Shadow and Light:
Contemporary Iranian Art and Artists (2010);
“The Question of Identity vis-à-vis Exoticism
in Contemporary Iranian Art”, Iranian Studies
(2010); “New Wave of Iranian Art: History and
Origins”, Art Press (2010); “The Paradigms
96.
#3 — Vol.I No.3
Hamid Keshmirshekan
Malu Halasa
Malu Halasa writes and edits books about
the Middle East. Her occasional book series,
Transit, features new writing and images from
Middle Eastern cities and includes Transit
Tehran (with Maziar Bahari) and Transit
Beirut. She is coauthor of The Secret Life of
Syrian Lingerie: Intimacy and Design; Kaveh
Golestan: Recording the Truth in Iran (with
Hengameh Golestan); and Creating Spaces
of Freedom: Culture in Defiance. In 2009, she
curated the exhibition: Transit Tehran: Art and
Documentary from Iran at the LSE. Later that
year, The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie was
exhibited at the Prince Claus Fund Gallery,
Amsterdam and the Kunsthal Rotterdam. Her
lectures include Iranian and Arab photography
for the Photographers’ Gallery, London; Transit
Beirut for IFA Gallery, Stuttgart; Syria’s racy
lingerie culture for the conference “Bashar alAssad’s First Decade – A Period of Transition for
Syria?” at CMES, University of Lund, Sweden;
and contemporary photography from Iran,
featuring Newsha Tavakolian, at the “Passion
for Perfection: Islamic Art from the Khalili
Collection”, Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam. She is
the former managing editor of the Prince Claus
Sohrab M. Kashani
Fund Library and a founding editor of Tank
magazine. Her publications provide a complex
view on Middle Eastern culture, politics and
fashion.
Sohrab M. Kashani is a multidisciplinary artist
and an independent curator based in Tehran,
Iran. He has held several solo exhibitions
and has participated in more than 50 group
exhibitions and screenings worldwide. Sohrab
is the Founder and Director of Sazmanab
Project, independent artist-run space in Tehran.
Newsha Tavakolian
Newsha Tavakolian, a self-taught photographer,
began working as professional journalist in
the Iranian press at the age of 16. She started
at the women’s daily newspaper Zan and
later worked for nine other reformist dailies,
which are all banned now. At 21 she began
working internationally, covering wars, natural
disasters and social documentary stories in
Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan
and Yemen. Her work has been published by
international magazines and newspapers such
as Time Magazine, Newsweek, Stern, Le Figaro,
Colors, New York Times Magazine, Der Spiegel,
Le Monde, NRC Handelsblad and National
Geographic. Newsha is particularly known for
focussing on women’s issues. Her current works
section between documentary photography
and art.
97.
Tamineh Monzavi
Biographhies
Omid Salehi was born in Shiraz, Iran and
now lives and works in London. He studied
Photography at Azad University, Tehran and
Graphic Art at Rajaie University, Tehran. After
graduating he worked as a photojournalist
for several reformist daily newspapers,
including Asr-e-Azadegan, Tose-e Neshat
Jamejam and Bonyan, and was the photo
editor of the Gozaresh e rooz newspaper.
Selected group exhibitions include A Positive
View, Somerset House, London (2010); Photo
Quai, Quai Branly Museum, Paris (2009); 12
Photographic Journeys: Iran in the 21st century,
Brunei Gallery, London (2003). He has won
several awards, including the Kaveh Golestan
Photojournalism Award (2004, 2005) and is
a founding member of the Iranian art and
photography website, 135 Photos. Publications
include Iranian Photography Now, ed. Rose Issa
(Hatje Cantz, 2008), Transit Tehran: Young
Iran and Its Inspirations, eds. Malu Halasa and
Maziar Bahari (Garnet Publishing Ltd, 2008),
and forthcoming monograph, Omid Salehi.
Photographs of Iran 2000-2009, ed. Rose Issa
(Beyond Art Publications, 2011).
Sohrab Mokhtari was born in Tehran to his
father, a poet, and his mother, a painter. His
poems and short stories have been published
in journals inside and outside of Iran since he
was 12 years old. He has recently translated
selected poems by Paul Celan into Farsi.
Tahmineh Monzavi studied photography at
Azzad Art University in Tehran. She has been
doing social documentary photography for
5 years. She is interested in portraying the
contrasts in contemporary Iranian society,
paticularly focussing on subjects which are
essential in women’s life, such as women’s
drug addiction and underground fashion
events which are taking place in secret and are
unofficial in Tehran.
Valeria Bembry
Flâneuse, blogger and cultural worker, Valeria
M. Bembry is a graduate of the Courtauld and
Sotheby’s Institute of Art. Her interests focus
on the amalgamation of international affairs
and social documentary in artistic practice and
the influence of market forces on culture.
#3 — Vol.I No.3
Omid Salehi
Sohrab Mokhtari
Appendix
An excerpt from a Christie’s press release 19 April 2011
... A striking work Chehel Sotoun by Charles Hossein Zenderoudi (Iranian
b. 1937) is another highlight of the sale. A homage to one of Isfahan’s
architectural jewels, the Chehel Sotoun Palace also know by its literal
translation, the Palace of Forty Columns, the Palace was built in the 17th
century when Isfahan was the capital of Iran. It is located in the centre of
a park at the end of a long pool and the twenty slender columns of the
façade become forty when reflected in the pool, hence the forty columns, the
number forty also having a symbolic meaning in Persia, encompassing the
notions of both respect and admiration. The artist describes the Palace as:
“one of those fascinating and magical places which carry you away…”. He
captures the movement of the reflection of the columns in the water through
the intensity of the rich variations of cerulean, cobalt, deep sky and dark
blues, heightened with orange and red. The work is estimated at $200,000300,000 / AED 730,000-1,100,000 – shown here.
Mohammed Ehsai (Iranian, b. 1939) one of the most important master
calligraphers in Iran, often works in black and white only, as in the work
included in the sale entitled Eshgh (‘Love’), which is estimated at $180,000220,000 / AED 660,000-870,000 – Lot 24. A bronze by Parviz Tanavoli
(Iranian, b. 1937) is another highlight. Entitled The Wall and the Birds,
a pair of birds are squeezed in the middle of the wall and the surface is
highly polished with no texture or calligraphy making is as plain and pure
as possible (estimate: $120,000-180,000 / AED 440,000-650,000 – Lot 56).
The Iranian contemporary section is led by four work by Farhad Moshiri
99.
(Iraninan, b. 1963). The first two are from his Jar Series; a horizontally
striped colourful Jar (estimated at $60,000-80,000 / AED 220,000-290,000
-Lot 43) and an impressive grand Red Jar (estimate: $80,000-120,000 / AED
300,000-120,000 – Lot 44). These are followed by Choc Line (from the Sweet
Dreams series), a playful outline of a man made with 97 small acrylic ornate
paint pastries or cakes (estimated at $200,000-300,000 / AED 730,0001,100,000 – Lot 45) and finally a very large work titled 8N619VT with
both Farsi calligraphy and letters on a gold flecked background estimated at
$180,000-240,000/AED 660,000-870,000 – Lot 46.
Among the photography is a work by the female artist Shirin Neshat (Iranian,
b. 1957), Munis and Revolutionary Man (from the Women without Men series),
which uses Farsi script as a way of confronting the Western view of Islam
as both incomprehensible and dangerous. The photographic print, shows a
couple lying flat in an empty space, with hand-written Persian calligraphy
surrounding them, (estimate: $60,000-80,000 / AED 220,000-290,000 –
Lot 50).
An unusual circular work by Reza Derakshani (Iranian, b. 1952) entitled
Silent Jingle Bells (from the Mirror of Times series) in which he shows two
figures elongated against the edge of the circle depicts a dance scene from the
Safavid period of Iran (estimate: $60,000-80,000 / AED 220,000-290,000
–Lot 47)...
100.
A Christie’s press release 21 April 2011
RELEASE: TENTH SALE SEASON FOR CHRISTIE’S DUBAI
TOTALS $12 MILLION / AED 44 MILLION INCREASED
INTERESTED IN CONTEMPORARY ART FROM THE MIDDLE
EAST NEW BIDDERS MAKE UP 40% OF SALEROOM AUDIENCE
42 WORLD AUCTION RECORDS BROKEN ONE OF LARGEST
NATURAL SALTWATER PEARLS RECORDED REALISE
Christie’s celebrated its tenth sale season in Dubai with auctions of Middle
Eastern art and Jewellery totaling $ 11,905,925/ AED43,722,481. In the sale
of Modern and Contemporary Arab, Iranian and Turkish Art on Tuesday
(19 April), 42 world auction records were set and five of the top ten lots
were works of contemporary art, a clear sign of the developing taste among
collectors for these more challenging works.
Michael Jeha, Managing Director of Christie’s Middle East, commented:
“We chose to follow a slightly different course in the make-up of this, our
tenth sale season, by focusing on stellar contemporary works as much as on
the remaining modern masterpieces. With 5 of these works making it into
the top ten, it is clear that this is exactly what collectors are looking for.
The solid results for both the art and the jewellery sales are an indication
that the art market in the Middle East continues to mature and attract an
increasingly international and local following. Perhaps the most encouraging
sign that this market and the interest in it continues to grow, was the many
new faces we saw at our pre-sale exhibition and for the auctions themselves.
101.
We will build on the success of this week as we look forward to our next
sale season in October and to our busy schedule of events around the region
between now and then.”
//
102.
An Excerpt from an Email Conversation with Barbad Golshiri
The following conversation took place during April 2011
Dear Barbad,
I am interested in what you have called the “aestheticization of
stereotypes” in the global arts scene in your e-flux article “For
They Know What They Do Know”, particularly, in your critical view
of the arts. When you refer to the “ideological and commonsensical
beliefs” I assume you mean established western notions of
contemporary Iranian Art that are fed by the current geopolitical
climate, a lack of expert knowledge and a (western and Arab?)
market that feeds a taste for exoticism. Please correct me if I am
mistaken. Rather than stating what “Iranian Art” is in the chapter
for #3, I am trying to analyse, through various contributions, what
is being discussed through art that comes out of Iran and that
defines itself as “Iranian” and which other structures, political,
financial, social play a role in the articulation and manifestation of
a piece of art and its journey/reception in a global context. Because
this journey applies even more to “(new) media art” I wanted to
focus on this form, but I am open for extensions.
Would you be kindly able to tell me more about the exhibition
“Disturbing The Public Opinion” that you curated in Sweden in
March this year? I was intrigued by the short paragraph describing
the “interactive” nature of the show, engaging the (western?)
viewer and its aim to disturb the public opinion of “Iranian Art”.
103.
What kind of media/art were exhibited? Which public opinion did
you aim to disturb? And, more importantly, how did you go about
achieving this disturbance? Did your strategies work? Are there
any images of that exhibitions you could provide me with?
I am very interested in your opinion and view on this. We can then
discuss which images you would like to contribute.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Warm regards,
Marina
-Dear Marina (if I may),
I’m terribly sorry for the delay. I had isolated myself in my studio
for a while. Anyhow, I never intended to limit “ideological and
commonsensical beliefs” to western perceptions, which in my
opinion is again incorrect i.e. homogenising diverse cultures
under the name ‘West’ is as incorrect as that unified mass that
we refer to as ‘The Middle East’. It is true to say that opposing
ideologies preserve the same object, which in our case is the
doxical. The doxical nourishes both from the commonsensical and
the ideological. These two I tried to tackle in the event in Sweden.
In ‘Disturbing Public Opinion’ we had performance, action, poetry,
video, found and altered objects, theatrical play, documentary film,
short feature film, photo, satire, caricature, painting and so forth. I
104.
have attached a few photos and my curatorial text for you.You may
know that here intellectuals, activists, writers, artists and freedom
fighters are charged with ‘Disturbing Public Opinion’. Most of
those detained and exiled were charged with ‘Disturbing Public
Opinion’. Many of the works in our event had focused on this and
on ‘Disturbing Public Opinion’ as a form of paradoxa: disturbing
the commonsensical, piercing holes in unanimity, etc.
Our participants were not just artists, but also activists, see this:
h t t p : //w w w. i r a n i a n f e m i n i s t s c h o o l . i n f o/e n g l i s h /s p i p .
php?article435
With sending you my paper for the e-flux Journal and the event I
curated, I also wanted to say that now I have little to say about the
art scene here.
Tell me what you think and my best for now,
Barbad
-Dear Barbad,
Many thanks for your email. Just to clarify speaking of the “West
and the rest” I meant to refer to geopolitical structures rather than
intending to homogenize actual social, cultural and historical
diversities.
105.
I feel like I should explain a little more about the background of
this chapter so that we have a more common ground to discuss.
The idea for this chapter on Iranian Contemporary Art originated
from my temporary position working for Tate etc. magazine,
currently featuring a conversation on “Art from the Middle East.”
Being of Iranian background myself and having studied some
parts of the different cultures, politics and arts from the region and
cultural criticism at the University of Freiburg and the School of
Oriental and African Studies, I found the space given to the the
conversation in the magazine quite limiting and was astonished
about the use of some terms and underlying presuppositions
that are quite widely spread in the art world. I, therefore, wanted
to explore more of Contemporary Iranian Art as articulated not
only through established global practitioners in the arts sector,
but rather, through an interdisciplinary multitude of views and
opinions. In addition, I wanted a view from inside, if that exists per
se.
As you are able to provide that, I am grateful for your thoughts.
Having said that and referring to your last email, I would really
appreciate it, if you could write a piece for #3, about the show
“Disturbing Public Opinion” and the of interplay of politics and art
in Iran, and maybe even more interesting the interplay of art and
activism (I would have some ideas on that if your are interested).
I am very grateful for the images and the curatorial text, but I fear
the text may be a little to dense and abstract on its own, without a
106.
more editorial text. Is this something you would be able and willing
to write for us even in risk of repeating yourself, but to a different
audience/readership?
I look forward to hearing from you and all the best for your work.
Best,
Marina
-Dear Marina,
Thanks for your letter and for telling me more about the background.
I am aware of the presuppositions that you are talking about and I
am tackling them everyday. You are right about what I wrote for
‘Disturbing Public Opinion’, it is abstract, but it’s important to notice
that going any further would have jeopardised the participants. Of
course there were captions and even long texts for all works and
actions, but still I had to hold my horses. Some of the participating
artists had been interrogated, some were interrogated after the
exhibition, though astonishingly the agents didn’t know about the
event! Besides, the e-flux paper and ‘Disturbing ...’ complete each
other; they focus on doxa, ideology and commonsensical beliefs;
the latter analyzes it and the former either offers opposing ideas
or challenges them. I confess that I cannot go beyond what I have
created/curated for the time being and repeating myself, as you
wisely put it, in such times of despair is beyond my will and power.
107.
But if you see obscurity or if you find moments in the e-flux paper
that can open a dialogue, I’d be delighted to take part. As I said I
wrote what I had to write and I did what I found vital.
Yours,
Barbad
108.
r

Articulating, Iranian Art

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