enqelab street

#UrbanHegemony Project /// ZKU 13 to 27 November 2015 /// Talk about the street as public space,  everyday practice and artistic intervention with Alireza and  Dr. Kathrin Wildner /// 26th November, 6.00 pm /// “Enqelab Street” is the first exhibition in a series of Urban Hegemony project initiated by the Studio for Contemporary Creation. The Urban Hegemony project is about the rapid urban changes in Iranian cities and the socio-political implications of these transformations. It addresses the formation processes of urban spaces that possess potential for creating new ideologies and lifestyles for citizens. Urban Hegemony discusses how a city can define and subtly re-configure the narrow borders between citizenship and non-citizenship, between order and chaos, and also between the legal and the illegal.

“Urban Hegemony” begins in Tehran on one of the most important streets in the Middle East, “Enqelab”, which literary means “Revolution”. If we have Tahrir Square for Cario, and Taqsim Square for Istanbul, then for Tehran we would refer to Enqelab Square (Street). For Tehran, Enqelab represents – as Asef Bayat in his book “Life as Politics” asserts – the “street politics of exceptional junctures, the street of discontent”, but after 2009’s presidential election and the reaction of people on the streets and in public spaces, the municipality of Tehran configured Enqelab street space in such a way as to minimize the social interaction of citizens.

The “Enqelab Street” exhibition reflects the reactions of contemporary Iranian artists Majid Alimoradpour, Iman Arki, Negar Farajiani, Amir Farsijani, Milad Hooshmandzadeh, Omid Mehdizadeh, Masih Mostajeran, Seyed Ali Sharifi, Mohsen Yazdipour and Saba Zavarei to the recent urban changes in Enqelab Street. This exhibition was initiated as part of #Urban Hegemony project run by Studio of Contemporary Creation

Curator: Alireza Labeshka

Assistant Curators: Parisa Hakiminia, Amin Fakhari

Exhibition Design: Parisa Hakiminia, Mohammadreza Movvahedi

Graphic Design: Shahin Rassouli

  ZKU (Center for Art and Urbanistics) is hosting the first exhibition and the project was made possible through the kind support of Sharestan Architecture Magazine, Kunsthochschule Weissensee Berlin and IFA. ZK/U – Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik Siemensstrasse 27, 10551 Berlin. Germany www.zku-berlin.org  www.s-cc.org www.urbanhegemony.com