Tehran exhibition examines Iran’s place in modern art
More than 100 works by Iranian modern artists will go on display at Tehran’s Museum of Contemporary Art on Saturday in an exhibition examining how Iran is represented through art, memory and personal experience.
Titled ‘In Search of Iran: From the Collection of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art’, the exhibition features artworks by prominent artists including Sohrab Sepehri, Parviz Kalantari, Parviz Tanavoli, Charles Hossein Zenderoudi, Farah Osouli, Reza Mafi, Mohammad Ehsai and Bahman Mohasses.
The exhibition explores how Iran appears in artists’ work without seeking to determine which pieces are more distinctly Iranian, according to a statement from the museum.
“We do not ask which work is more Iranian; we ask how Iran has become a subject of seeing and representation, and how it has remained present in ways of seeing and making,” the statement said.
The works reflect different experiences of Iran, including memories of places, everyday life, migration and loss. These connections sometimes appear as the direct subject of a work and sometimes emerge through its form and materials.
The exhibition is arranged in seven sections, each organized around a question. The sections do not follow a chronological account of art history. Instead, they draw links between works through their visual and conceptual connections, offering visitors different ways to interpret them.
Familiar symbols do not determine a work’s meaning in advance. Their absence does not necessarily mean a break with Iranian experience, either. No single landscape, face or motif can represent that experience on its own.
The exhibition will open to the public on November 1, and run until mid-December.