In this discussion Garage Assistant Curator Andrey Misiano will talk with artist Homayoun Askari Sirizi about the exhibition Extension.ir: tehran. capital in CAPITAL letters which he curated for Triumph Gallery as part of the 5th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art.
Contemporary art in Iran faces a number of challenges related to political events of the past 40 years. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, art became the key propaganda medium for political parties and religious groups. It was not until the end of the Iran–Iraq war in 1988 that art could resume its critical stance. In 2005, stricter censorship, reduced funding for the arts, and the appointment of new functionaries in the field of culture marked the beginning of an isolationist turn in Iranian cultural policy. The art world split into official and underground parts, which developed independently from each other. Sirizi and Misiano will discuss the phenomenon of art galleries taking on the role of public spaces, the Iranian art market, and art’s ability to elaborate a critique of the state, society, and itself.
