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On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Iranian revolution, LE BAL presents the project of the artist Hannah Darabi around her collection of photographic and political books. Published between 1979 and 1983, short period of relative freedom between the end of the Shah’s regime and the beginnings of the Islamic government, these books are the witnesses of an intense political turmoil. This period which is fundamental to understanding this country’s history in the 21st century is decrypted by Chowra Makaremi, anthropologist and researcher at the CNRS. Hannah Darabi will create a dialogue between these books by means of her personal artistic work consisting of contemporary photographs of her native Tehran and the already existing documentary images like family photos, media images and postcards.

”THE TITLE OF RUE ENGHELAB IS A THROW-BACK TO THIS TEHRAN STREET WHICH IS BOOKSTORES AND PUBLISHERS. THE WORD ”ENGHELAB” MEANING ”REVOLUTION” IN PERSIAN WAS SELECTED TO DESIGNATE THIS STREET SHORTLY AFTER THE EVENTS OF 1979.” – HANNAH DARABI

A POLITICAL HISTORY OF BOOKS
”The period of turnoil but also of fragility of power between the end of the Shah’s regime in 1977 and the solidification of the post-revolutionary state in 1983 offers an unique context of freedom in the book production and distribution in the contemporary history of Iran. Back to the times when audiovisual technologies have nothing of the today’s flexibility, ease of use and distribution, these books become major actors of the political and social scene. This period between two regimes invites us to look at the Iranian society emancipating ourselves from the net break of the revolution marking the country’s history. Far from a posteriori readings of the history, this moment of uncertainty when everything becomes less obvious (the imminent fall of the shah, the nature of the upcoming Islamic Republic) is a laboratory where the artistic, the intellectual and the political activity are experimenting with the new ways to articulate. This prolific and anarchic activity breaks all the editorial rules and responds to censorship at the same time when it makes palpable the political climate suffocating from the amateurism and the do-it-yourself to which the opponents are forced. The reading bulimia testifies about the double sided and sometimes ambivalent movement animating a whole generation: the desire of being open to the exterior world and the desire to affirm a ”modern” Iranian identity which would be independent from imperialism. These few years occupy a special place in the country’s editorial history. The book has never been and will never be as free as it used to be during this period of time. However, at the same time, the book becomes, little by little, an instrument of political propaganda, as the publishing becomes the laboratory where all the forms of the diffusion of emotions, ideologies and opinions are experimented. After the revolution, the propaganda of the new regime gives to iconography more importance than ever. The image, now omnipresent and in colour, becomes the spearhead of the ideological construction.” – Chowra Makaremi

”THE BOOKS, TOOLS OF INTELLECTUAL RESISTANCE, ARE ALSO THE TRACE OF THE REPRESSIVE POWER THEY FIGHT AGAINST” – CHOWRA MAKAREMI

The exhibition will be accompanied by a book co-published by LE BAL and Spector Books with contributions of Hannah Darabi and Chowra Makaremi (researcher at the CNRS, specialist of the post-revolution Iran).