exchanged in 1994<\/a> with the British art dealer Oliver Hoare for the text, binding and 118 miniature paintings from Shah Tahmasp\u2019s Shahnameh, a 16th-century Persian manuscript considered one of the masterpieces of Islamic art. The manuscript had been acquired in 1959 by the American industrialist and bibliophile Arthur Houghton Jr., who later dismembered it and dispersed around 140 of its folios among museums and collectors.<\/p>\nProtecting a $3bn collection<\/p>\n
It was while safeguarding the museum’s collection during the war that the programme began to take shape, Reza Dabirinezhad, the museum\u2019s director, tells The Art Newspaper from Tehran.<\/p>\n
On 28 February, the first day of the war, Dabirinezhad was in a meeting in Tehran when explosions from US-Israeli strikes rocked the city. He rushed back to the museum, sent non-essential staff home, and began securing the works with a reduced team.<\/p>\n
At the time, the museum had been preparing a major exhibition of non-Iranian photography from its collection, spanning from shortly after the invention of photography to 1980. The exhibition had to be quickly dismantled and packed. Among the first priorities was retrieving works on loan\u201420 of which were held at another museum in northern Tehran. \u201cDespite the chaos and traffic, we managed to transfer them back by the end of the day,\u201d Dabirinezhad says. The team also coordinated with Iran\u2019s National Commission for Unesco to ensure the museum was registered as a cultural site, while preparing emergency inventories.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
TMoCA’s lobby with banners for its new Art and War programme Image: \u00a9 Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art<\/p>\n
One of the most complex challenges involved Noriyuki Haraguchi\u2019s Matter and Mind (1977), an installation containing more than 4,000 litres of waste oil in a large pool. \u201cWe were worried that shockwaves from explosions could cause it to overflow or ignite,\u201d Dabirinezhad says. After much deliberation, around 80% of the oil was removed. \u201cWe wanted the work\u2019s original form to remain visible, so we kept 20% in place to preserve its appearance.\u201d<\/p>\n
With limited resources under bombardment, the team sourced pumps and barrels from outside Tehran for the operation. The filled barrels were placed next to the work\u2014where they remain\u2014so the oil can later be returned.<\/p>\n
Another challenge was protecting the museum\u2019s extensive sculpture collection, which includes works by Henry Moore, Ren\u00e9 Magritte and Max Bill, most of which are installed in its garden. \u201cWe reviewed different protection methods, but access to suitable materials was very limited during the war,\u201d Dabirinezhad says. There were also concerns that covering the works could cause damage through vibration in the event of nearby blasts. In the end, aside from two smaller portable sculptures that were moved, the rest were left in place and monitored daily.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis responsibility weighed on us constantly, even at night, when we were not at the museum,\u201d Dabirinezhad says, describing the strain of safeguarding the museum\u2019s estimated $3bn collection during the war. Staff were continually checking the news and responding to explosions and tremors, fearing damage to the museum, while maintaining an internal communication network to coordinate their response.<\/p>\n
As the number of cultural sites damaged or destroyed by the US-Israeli strikes, including museums, continued to rise across the country, Dabirinezhad says he wrote to around 40 international museums and cultural institutions, including ICOM, informing them of the situation and urging them to speak out.<\/p>\n
Responding to conflict<\/p>\n
Under constant threat of bombardments, he says, public gatherings on site were impossible and the priority for TMoCA and other museums remained protecting their collections. Yet questions about the relevance of those works lingered during the nearly 40-day war.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe kept asking: what do we have? Which works relate to these conditions?\u201d Dabirinezhad says. \u201cAs we reviewed the archive, we began to see patterns\u2014how artists have approached war and peace, directly and indirectly, as representation or as response to their social context.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a ceasefire between the US and Iran was announced on 8 April, discussions with artists and researchers led to the Art and War programme to provide a space for reflection, contemplation and emotional response for a society under sustained psychological pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur approach is socially oriented. We see artworks as cultural forms with multiple layers, capable of being reinterpreted in different contexts,\u201d Dabirinezhad says.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Eleven works by\u00a0Pablo Picasso,\u00a0Antoni T\u00e0pies, Robert Motherwell and Juan\u00a0Genov\u00e9s, addressing the Spanish Civil War, are on display at TMoCA this week as part of the museum\u2019s Art and War programme. The limited display reflects ongoing precautions in case war resumes and the collection must be moved to storage. Image: \u00a9 Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art<\/p>\n
Starting with Picasso\u2019s Weeping Woman series, developed after Guernica (1937), the team identified nearly 100 works that fitted the theme and began grouping them. This week\u2019s display brings together 11 works by four artists\u2014Picasso, Antoni T\u00e0pies, Robert Motherwell and Juan Genov\u00e9s\u2014addressing the Spanish Civil War.<\/p>\n
A message from Spain\u2019s ambassador to Iran, Antonio S\u00e1nchez Benedito Gaspar, is also included in the display, emphasising art\u2019s role in responding to conflict. \u201cArt has the capacity to preserve historical memory, to question violence, and to open spaces for reflection and shared thought,\u201d it reads.<\/p>\n
Still operating in \u201cwar mode\u201d, Dabirinezhad says the museum is balancing quality with practical constraints. \u201cWe remain in a transitional situation and must be prepared for emergencies, including the need to secure the works again if necessary. This is why the number of works is limited,\u201d he explains, adding that \u201cwhat matters is the narrative and its conceptual and social impact\u201d.<\/p>\n
The programme also includes live music, documentary screenings and talks, with plans for performances, live art production and presentations of works created during the war. \u201cThere is a clear appetite for cultural engagement\u2014people seeking reflection rather than spectacle,\u201d Dabirinezhad says.<\/p>\n
Next week, the exhibition will focus on Mexico, including artists such as Demi\u00e1n Flores, Emiliano Gironella and Adolfo Mexiac, followed by Europe and finally Iran, where Dabirinezhad says works from the Shah Tahmasp Shahnameh may also be presented.<\/p>\n
\u201cWar, by its nature, is anti-human, while art seeks to create human narratives,\u201d Dabirinezhad says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After weeks of bombardment that forced its closure and prompted emergency efforts to protect its collection, the Tehran…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[27307,34,28291,69,37992,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-113382","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tehran","8":"tag-exhibitions","9":"tag-iran","10":"tag-museums","11":"tag-tehran","12":"tag-tehran-museum-of-contemporary-art","13":"tag-war"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116572540524687488","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n