#persianvisualstudies

[persianatpenn]

Designing Dissidence: Instituting and Inhabiting the Iranian Underground

I found Dr. Pamela Karimi’s lecture on the underground art scene in Tehran extremely interesting. To her, the trend of utilizing spaces like parents’ basements and dilapidated houses or even the internet for the promotion of art collectives and appreciation societies that subtly buck government restrictions on expression is part of a broader process in Iranian history in which spaces are modified and reconfigured to serve the purposes of dissident citizens. Dr. Karimi demonstrated how Iranian socialists in the time of the shah managed to carry out their political missions through secret dwellings-within-dwellings in, ironically, apartments build according to an architectural style advocated by the shah.

Today, because the Islamic Republic is much more effective at rooting out groups in outright opposition to it, the spiritual descendants of those socialist movements are the “underground” art galleries, performance troupes, and architects whose works merely tweak, rather than revolt against, the government’s enforced tastes and aesthetic norms.

One of my major takeaways came from the Q&A portion of the lecture: that this underground art scene is largely conducted by youths coming from middle- and upper-class backgrounds. It appears that not only are specific architectural spaces the zones in which such activity takes place, but also specific parts of cities like Tehran, where wealth separates people who may express themselves thus and people who may not.

BW

[acollectorcollectorcollecto-blog]

Designing Dissidence: Instituting and Inhabiting the Iranian Underground

I found Dr. Pamela Karimi’s lecture on the underground art scene in Tehran extremely interesting. To her, the trend of utilizing spaces like parents’ basements and dilapidated houses or even the internet for the promotion of art collectives and appreciation societies that subtly buck government restrictions on expression is part of a broader process in Iranian history in which spaces are modified and reconfigured to serve the purposes of dissident citizens. Dr. Karimi demonstrated how Iranian socialists in the time of the shah managed to carry out their political missions through secret dwellings-within-dwellings in, ironically, apartments build according to an architectural style advocated by the shah.

Today, because the Islamic Republic is much more effective at rooting out groups in outright opposition to it, the spiritual descendants of those socialist movements are the “underground” art galleries, performance troupes, and architects whose works merely tweak, rather than revolt against, the government’s enforced tastes and aesthetic norms.

One of my major takeaways came from the Q&A portion of the lecture: that this underground art scene is largely conducted by youths coming from middle- and upper-class backgrounds. It appears that not only are specific architectural spaces the zones in which such activity takes place, but also specific parts of cities like Tehran, where wealth separates people who may express themselves thus and people who may not.

BW