Art History: When and Where?
An Attempt to Re-examine Iranian Art History
Ghandriz Hall
No. 20, next to Niloofar Bookstore, Daneshgah Street, Enghelab Street, Tehran.
Historical Background
Talar-e-Iran (the Hall of Iran) was founded in July, 1964. Following the premature death of Mansour Ghandriz, one of its founding members, the other members decided to change its name to Talar Ghandriz (Ghadriz Hall). Ghandriz Hall: An Experiment in the Social Presentation of Art is a book by Ruyin Pakbaz and Hassan Mourizinejad offering an account of the gallery’s events and projects.
Presentation Approach:
Re-examining Iranian art history, this project focuses on providing a survey of the artists whose works are studies in relation to their historical context. Including objects and documents results in fueling the audience’s desire to learn more. The project is presented in the location of Ghandriz Hall whose historical resonance it aims to communicate to its present-day audience. The conversations, events, and personalities related to this place are, once again, highlighted. Through developing dialogues, the project seeks to invite the audience to participate in an archeology of art history.
Theoretical Perspective:
The project focuses on a specific epoch in the history of art – a historical epoch that offers significant contrasts to the nostalgic, memorial or scientific (object-oriented) attitudes that have become the prevailing tendency of Iranian contemporary art today. The archeological approach applied here is not intended to polish up or gloss over anything; rather, history is considered with all the existing rifts, gaps, breaches, and flaws as are those artifacts discovered in archeological excavations. What is presented is not based on an objective analysis; it is actually the result of a contemporary interpretation offered to the audience: What is the relationship between our past and our present?
Specials Thanks to MOhammad Sarvi Zargar, Javad Hasanjani, Helia Soltan Parast and Nilouar Publication
