Iran&co departed from a recent international phenomenon in the art world: the rise since 2005-2006 of a so-called ‘Iran Boom’, leading to hundreds of exhibitions and publications dealing with art from Iran and the Middle East, with again an emphasis on Iran.
This ‘new artistic wave’ brings to mind memories of the ‘sudden apparition’ of contemporary art from China, India or Eastern Europe, in the nineties.The curatorial team of Iran&co analysed this phenomenon, emphasizing the specific Iranian condition, both within Iran and the diaspora, and its different representations in exhibitions and publications produced for a mainly ‘western context’.
For the first exhibition stage in Bruges, ‘the Archive’ is focused on case study of over 100 exhibitions presented art from Iran to theinternational audience between the years 2000 and 2010. Catalogs, press releases, reviews, installation shots, and other documentation of anyof these shows, has been brought together gradually and progressively through online material, as well as contacting organizing institutions,curators, and artists themselves.
Along with personal narratives of contributors in the documentary part, the archive aims towards making a platform to study the underlying relations at stake in representation of Iranian contemporary art outside Iran.
Video installation in five screen, is made up of numerous interviews with artists, curators, collectors, art managers, and critics discussing their visions over the increasing attention on ‘Iranian’ art in the past decade. Talking about their experience of working under various socio-political circumstances and fluxes of art market, or in their wider cultural analysis of current situation, contributors make some historical references to the backdrops of modern and contemporary art in Iran.
In that respect, what has been proposed as the title, ‘Iran beyond borders’ (1960- 2010), is just an implication towards subjective references of contributors; Though it also indicates the massive scale of the project through the next stages.
For the first exhibition stage in Bruges, ‘the Archive’ is focused on case study of 100 exhibitions and auctions presented art from Iran to theinternational audience between the years 2000 and 2010. Catalogs, press releases, reviews, installation shots, and other documentation of anyof these shows, has been brought together gradually and progressively through online material, as well as contacting organizing institutions,curators, and artists themselves.
Along with personal narratives of contributors in the documentary part, the archive aims towards making a platform to study the underlyingrelations at stake in representation of Iranian contemporary art outside Iran.
Video installation in four screen, is made up of numerous interviews with artists, curators, collectors, art managers, and critics discussing theirvisions over the increasing attention on ‘Iranian’ art in the past decade. Talking about their experience of working under various socio-politicalcircumstances and fluxes of art market, or in their wider cultural analysis of current situation, contributors make some historical references tothe backdrops of modern and contemporary art in Iran.
In that respect, what has been proposed as the title, ‘Iran beyond borders’ (1960- 2010), is just an implication towards subjective references ofcontributors; Though it also indicates the massive scale of the project through the next stages.