into the pill - Issue 7

Tehran Lust* by Alexandros Georgiou

I was traveling, “Without my own vehicle”, through Turkey, Iran and Pakistan with Varanasi (Benares), India as my final destination.

I used to live in New York, and in seven years the only things I ever heard about Iranwere news fragments describing the cruelty of the Islamic Republic. You never heard the whole story, just how a journalist was put into prison, or some Mullah had ordered a adulterer to be stoned to death, or how they hanged two young men because they were caught having sex. All these are true but they do not describe the culture of Iran. Instead they generate fear and mistrust and augment a false sense of self righteousness held by the west.  They are part of a well orchestrated propaganda.

In the two and a half months that I spent in Iran in 2005, I came to admire and love their culture, and although I could see several negative traits as well, they seemed less significant compared to the positive. Either because I was a visitor and was given special treatment or, because I had lived in New York pre and post 9/11, to me, even the negative in Iran appeared wonderful compared to the western equivalent. The people seemed more kind and civilized, more refined in their manners, less vulgar and neurotic. Happier I thought, although all my Iranian friends complain all the time about how sad they are and how difficult life is (which is true). To me, the people in Iran are not even close to the extreme degree of inhumanity and despair that we have reached in the west.

Art in Tehran, where I stayed longer, surprised me as well, since it was not just copies of western art; instead the works that I saw, offered different views on similar subjects that contemporary artists deal with. I went back this summer and did some research in order to organize an exhibition here in Athens with art from Tehran. During my stay I put together a collection of videos for Into the Pill. I find they represent different approaches, that when seen together comprise an adequate effort to show a fraction of the complexity and variety of contemporary video art, by artists who live and work in Tehran.

*Lust in Tehran is heavy in the air, due to the Islamic strict rules against physical pleasure. But  this feeling of lust goes beyond carnal desire. It is a lust for freedom and life. A desire so strong that it hurts.

al.georgiou@gmail.com

 

First issue | Second issue | Third issue | Fourth issue | Fifth issue | Sixth issue | Eighth issue