[wvns] Harvard Shows Iranian Political Art
Harvard Shows Iranian Political Art
The Muslim Observer
http://muslimmedianetwork.com/mmn/?p=1017
Cambridge--May 18, 2007--TMO attended the opening reception of a photo
exhibit entitled "Walls of Martyrdom: Tehran's Propaganda Murals" at
Harvard University. To show the power of imagery in Iranian culture,
Fontini Christia displayed photographs of Tehran's public murals in an
exhibit designed by Ghazal Abbasy Asbagh.
Asbagh's husband Alireza Korangy participated in the panel, "Murals
and Martyrdom in the Islamic Republic of Iran."
Another panel, "A Comparative Perspective of Martyrdom and Propaganda
Art in Iraq, Lebanon, and the Palestinian Territories" followed.
The program claims, "The exhibit's primary objective is to document
and present images that are part of the daily urban experience in
Tehran…the exhibit also aspires to debate and deconstruct…the extent
to which they express revolutionary fervor and religious
fundamentalism or merely the regime's anxieties and insecurities."
Some felt the art expresses Iran's "death culture." Yet others found
that the smiling martyr murals clearly celebrate transcendence, like
the American "Give me liberty or give me death."
"Martyrdom is the legacy of the Prophet," an Islamic pieta, shows a
veiled, turbaned Mohammed mourning over a young martyr.
A young volunteer in the Iran-Iraq war is pictured in a field of
flowers stretching into the horizon.
Iranians remember their war heroes as beautiful souls. American war
heroes are memorialized with white crosses, but seldom remembered so
personally.
One mural demonstrates the threat of satellite TV. A hand reaches out
from a satellite dish with a match to burn Iranian culture, which is
represented by stylized flowers, as one might see in a traditional mosque.
A Palestinian female martyr is honored with a quote, "God knows I love
my children, but I love martyrdom more." The inscription reads: "22
year old Palestinian woman, Rima Saleh Ariashi, mother of two
children, who sought martyrdom in 2004 in occupied Palestine that
resulted in the death of four Zionists."
Exhibit designer Asbagh remarked to TMO that the some of the murals
have some similarity to Soviet realist posters. She said, "I am happy
to bring a little of the real Tehran to the USA."
She has long noticed a major disconnect between the reality of Iran
and the coverage of Iran in the US media. She hopes that this exhibit
can help Americans to get to know Iranians as people.
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