Posts tagged Iran

“AUTOMATIC ASSEMBLY ACTIONS” 14th of January – 14th of March 2013 Carbon 12 proudly presents Anahita Razmi’s solo exhibition ‘Automatic Assembly Actions’, opening on January 14th, 2013. Many worlds collide in Razmi’s work: cultural spheres, semantic frameworks, art history, politics, and some of them together. Through appropriation of heritage, symbols, and even other artists ideas, contexts are redefined and concepts juxtaposed. Razmi attacks these systems directly, honestly and relentlessly. Free from conceptual restraints; any surplus is discarded until only the message itself remains.

“AUTOMATIC ASSEMBLY ACTIONS”

14th of January – 14th of March 2013

Carbon 12 proudly presents Anahita Razmi’s solo exhibition ‘Automatic Assembly Actions’, opening on January 14th, 2013. Many worlds collide in Razmi’s work: cultural spheres, semantic frameworks, art history, politics, and some of them together. Through appropriation of heritage, symbols, and even other artists ideas, contexts are redefined and concepts juxtaposed. Razmi attacks these systems directly, honestly and relentlessly. Free from conceptual restraints; any surplus is discarded until only the message itself remains.

carbon12dubai.com

A groundbreaking document published by the Open Society Foundation, on Tuesday shows that 54 countries, a quarter of the world’s nations, cooperated with the CIA’s extraordinary rendition programme. (Image Credit: Huffington Post)

A groundbreaking document published by the Open Society Foundation, on Tuesday shows that 54 countries, a quarter of the world’s nations, cooperated with the CIA’s extraordinary rendition programme.

(Image Credit: Huffington Post)

huffingtonpost.co.uk

Emmy Award for ”Crisis Guide: Iran” The Council on Foreign Relations has won an Emmy Award in the category of “New Approaches to News & Documentary Programming: Current News Coverage” for its “Crisis Guide: Iran”, an interactive learning tool with timelines, maps, analysis and other resources.

Emmy Award for ”Crisis Guide: Iran”

The Council on Foreign Relations has won an Emmy Award in the category of “New Approaches to News & Documentary Programming: Current News Coverage” for its “Crisis Guide: Iran”, an interactive learning tool with timelines, maps, analysis and other resources.

cfr.org

US policymakers hope they can control the Arab Revolution The Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a US think tank is hosting a book launch for “The Arab Uprising: The Unfinished Revolutions of the New Middle East” by Dr. Marc Lynch. US policymakers hope they can control the Arab Revolution and shape the nature of change according to US interests.    In The Arab Uprising, Dr. Lynch examines the emerging regional landscape in the Middle East, one in which, he argues, the old heavyweights - Iran, al Qaeda, even Israel - have all been disempowered, and nations like Saudi Arabia are powering a new cold war. Dr. Lynch highlights the new fault lines that are forming between forces of revolution and counter-revolution and shows what it all means for the future of U.S. foreign policy. Deeply informed by inside access to the Obama administration’s decisionmaking process and first-hand interviews with protestors, politicians, diplomats and journalists, The Arab Uprising is an unprecedented and indispensible guide to the changing lay of the land in the Middle East and North Africa.

US policymakers hope they can control the Arab Revolution

The Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a US think tank is hosting a book launch for “The Arab Uprising: The Unfinished Revolutions of the New Middle East” by Dr. Marc Lynch. US policymakers hope they can control the Arab Revolution and shape the nature of change according to US interests.   

In The Arab Uprising, Dr. Lynch examines the emerging regional landscape in the Middle East, one in which, he argues, the old heavyweights - Iran, al Qaeda, even Israel - have all been disempowered, and nations like Saudi Arabia are powering a new cold war. Dr. Lynch highlights the new fault lines that are forming between forces of revolution and counter-revolution and shows what it all means for the future of U.S. foreign policy. Deeply informed by inside access to the Obama administration’s decisionmaking process and first-hand interviews with protestors, politicians, diplomats and journalists, The Arab Uprising is an unprecedented and indispensible guide to the changing lay of the land in the Middle East and North Africa.

Iranian rappers sing for people of Homs in Syria

This song is produced by Emad Ghavidel and Hamed Fard for the people of Homs in Syria. 

Taraneh Hemami’s Theory of Survival: Fabrications Theory of Survival: Fabrications makes visible the otherwise absent histories of dissent in Iran through the production and presentation of collected historical archives, hand-crafted reproductions, print and web-based materials. This work will culminate in multidisciplinary installations that include a retail shop, a library and a story booth. Since 2007, the Theory of Survival project has amassed historical archives from local communities and the web through residencies and collective efforts. This material includes decades of otherwise banned and censored printed matter belonging to the Iranian Students Association of Northern California which was active from 1964–84 and reflects the political sensibilities of its time.

Taraneh Hemami’s Theory of Survival: Fabrications

Theory of Survival: Fabrications makes visible the otherwise absent histories of dissent in Iran through the production and presentation of collected historical archives, hand-crafted reproductions, print and web-based materials. This work will culminate in multidisciplinary installations that include a retail shop, a library and a story booth. Since 2007, the Theory of Survival project has amassed historical archives from local communities and the web through residencies and collective efforts. This material includes decades of otherwise banned and censored printed matter belonging to the Iranian Students Association of Northern California which was active from 1964–84 and reflects the political sensibilities of its time.

Set in the aftermath of Iran’s fraudulent elections of 2009, Zahra’s Paradise is the fictional story of the search for Mehdi, a young protestor who has disappeared in the Islamic Republic’s gulags. Mehdi has vanished in an extrajudicial twilight zone where habeas corpus is suspended. What stops his memory from being obliterated is not the law. It is the grit and guts of a mother who refuses to surrender her son to fate and the tenacity of a brother—a blogger—who fuses culture and technology to explore and explode absence: the void in which Mehdi has vanished. Zahra’s Paradise weaves together a composite of real people and events. As the world witnessed what could no longer be kept from view, through YouTube videos, on Twitter and in blogs, so this story came to be and had to be told.

Set in the aftermath of Iran’s fraudulent elections of 2009, Zahra’s Paradise is the fictional story of the search for Mehdi, a young protestor who has disappeared in the Islamic Republic’s gulags. Mehdi has vanished in an extrajudicial twilight zone where habeas corpus is suspended. What stops his memory from being obliterated is not the law. It is the grit and guts of a mother who refuses to surrender her son to fate and the tenacity of a brother—a blogger—who fuses culture and technology to explore and explode absence: the void in which Mehdi has vanished.

Zahra’s Paradise weaves together a composite of real people and events. As the world witnessed what could no longer be kept from view, through YouTube videos, on Twitter and in blogs, so this story came to be and had to be told.

Arab Social Media Report

by the Dubai School of Government

The societal and political transformations sweeping the Arab region have empowered large segments of the region’s population. Many stereotypes have been shattered, with Arab youth, “netizens” and women becoming the main drivers for regional change. Arab women in particular have become more engaged in political and civic actions, playing a critical leading role in the rapid and historic changes that have swept the region. Meanwhile, the debate about the role of social media in these transformations has reached policy making circles at the regional and global levels.

Throughout 2011, social media usage continued to grow significantly across the Arab world, coupled with major shifts in usage trends. From merely being used as a tool for social networking and entertainment, social media now infiltrates almost every aspect of the daily lives of millions of Arabs, affecting the way they interact socially, do business, interact with government, or engage in civil society movements. By the end of 2011, Arab users’ utilization of social media had evolved to encompass civic engagement, political participation, entrepreneurial efforts, and social change.

Read more »

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aljazeera: Letters from Iran | Al Jazeera examines the aftermath of Iran’s Green Revolution and find an opposition that remains eager for change.

aljazeera:

Letters from Iran | Al Jazeera examines the aftermath of Iran’s Green Revolution and find an opposition that remains eager for change.

Roof Piece Tehran Anahita Razmi, a video and performance artist based in Stuttgart is the winner of the Emdash award 2011. Her work is being featured at London’s Frieze Art Fair. She is showing a video installation of 12 rooftop dancers in Tehran. It is a contemporary dance based upon choreographer Trisha Brown’s 1971 work Roof Piece. Roof Piece Tehran is a political piece exploring how the rooftops were used by Iranian protesters in the Green Revolution.  They were very different. Iranian people were going out on roofs at night and shouting ‘death to the dictator’ and ‘Allah Akbar’ from one roof to another and it echoed through the whole city. So, if you tell someone in Tehran you want to do something on the roofs they are apprehensive because it’s a political space in a way. After these protests people directly related the roofs to the protests. ihya

Roof Piece Tehran

Anahita Razmi, a video and performance artist based in Stuttgart is the winner of the Emdash award 2011. Her work is being featured at London’s Frieze Art Fair. She is showing a video installation of 12 rooftop dancers in Tehran. It is a contemporary dance based upon choreographer Trisha Brown’s 1971 work Roof Piece. Roof Piece Tehran is a political piece exploring how the rooftops were used by Iranian protesters in the Green Revolution. 

They were very different. Iranian people were going out on roofs at night and shouting ‘death to the dictator’ and ‘Allah Akbar’ from one roof to another and it echoed through the whole city. So, if you tell someone in Tehran you want to do something on the roofs they are apprehensive because it’s a political space in a way. After these protests people directly related the roofs to the protests.

ihya

Opensource Weapons

An intriguing video about the Stuxnet computer virus, which affected Iran’s nuclear programme. The virus is openly available online, enabling anyone to develop the virus further. The video is made by Patrick Clair and written by Scott Mitchell for the HungryBeast program on Australia’s ABC1.

ihya

The ‘Liberation’ Technology Movement

The impact of communication technologies in the Arab Revolution has encouraged the Obama administration to heavily invest in developing communication technologies that will enhance the ability of the US to influence public opinion in repressive nations around the world. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said:

We see more and more people around the globe using the Internet, mobile phones and other technologies to make their voices heard as they protest against injustice and seek to realize their aspirations…There is a historic opportunity to effect positive change, change America supports…So we’re focused on helping them do that, on helping them talk to each other, to their communities, to their governments and to the world.

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Shirin Ebadi’s recently published new book “The Golden Cage: Three Brothers, Three Choices, One Destiny” is a fascinating true story about how a family mirror the ideological conflicts in Iranian society. The memoir tells the life stories of three brothers she knew through their sister, a childhood friend: one grows up to become a general in the Shah’s army, another a high ranking official in Iran’s communist party and the third a devotee of the Ayatollah Khomeini. Their wildly divergent paths follow the three main ideological currents in Iranian politics today and serve to fill the reader in on the country’s recent history. By the end of the book, all three brothers become disillusioned and come to bad ends. There is also the sister who advocates secular democracy and comes to understand that path can only lead to prison in today’s Iran. So, she, like Ebadi, chose to live in exile. Shirin Ebadi is a human rights lawyer and is the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. ihya

Shirin Ebadi’s recently published new book “The Golden Cage: Three Brothers, Three Choices, One Destiny” is a fascinating true story about how a family mirror the ideological conflicts in Iranian society.

The memoir tells the life stories of three brothers she knew through their sister, a childhood friend: one grows up to become a general in the Shah’s army, another a high ranking official in Iran’s communist party and the third a devotee of the Ayatollah Khomeini. Their wildly divergent paths follow the three main ideological currents in Iranian politics today and serve to fill the reader in on the country’s recent history. By the end of the book, all three brothers become disillusioned and come to bad ends. There is also the sister who advocates secular democracy and comes to understand that path can only lead to prison in today’s Iran. So, she, like Ebadi, chose to live in exile.

Shirin Ebadi is a human rights lawyer and is the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

ihya

The People Reloaded The Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran’s Future Edited by Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel

The People Reloaded

The Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran’s Future

Edited by Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel

mhpbooks.com

Revolution’s Long Shadow Over the Tehran Art Scene Younger artists are especially daring. Many of them employ humor as a weapon in their work, obliquely poking fun at the ruling clique of mullahs or pointing out the absurdities and contradictions of contemporary life in Iran. It is at once heartening and unnerving to see these young people embracing art-making as a mode of protest. In April, several Tehran galleries hope to stage an impromptu joint exhibition of about 70 artists’ works devoted to flower imagery, an act of solidarity with Mehraneh Atashi, a photographer who was detained in January 2010 for documenting Tehran’s street protests. She was released on the condition that she start taking pictures of something more suitable, like the beauty of local horticulture. By BENJAMIN GENOCCHIO The above image is by Mehraneh Atashi

Revolution’s Long Shadow Over the Tehran Art Scene

Younger artists are especially daring. Many of them employ humor as a weapon in their work, obliquely poking fun at the ruling clique of mullahs or pointing out the absurdities and contradictions of contemporary life in Iran. It is at once heartening and unnerving to see these young people embracing art-making as a mode of protest.

In April, several Tehran galleries hope to stage an impromptu joint exhibition of about 70 artists’ works devoted to flower imagery, an act of solidarity with Mehraneh Atashi, a photographer who was detained in January 2010 for documenting Tehran’s street protests. She was released on the condition that she start taking pictures of something more suitable, like the beauty of local horticulture.

By BENJAMIN GENOCCHIO

The above image is by Mehraneh Atashi

The New York Times