Kaveh Golestan 21.3 – 4.5.14
The Citadel For the exhibition in Foam, we have chosen Do you have any idea why Kaveh Golestan to focus on photographs taken between wanted to photograph Shahr-e No, this dif- Kaveh Golestan 1975 – 1977 in the citadel of Shahr-e No, the ficult to enter, poor and bad-smelling area? red light district of Tehran in Iran. How did The Citadel this part of the city looked liked back in the Kaveh made it his absolute responsibility to days? criticize society. He belonged to an affluent A conversation between guest curator Vali Mahlouji and educated milieu that was engaged with and Foam curator Kim Knoppers We have some descriptions of the area, but social and political issues. Kaveh’s work it is very under-documented. Kaveh’s photo- though, had a double edge. He was as critical graphs confirm the very squalid nature of the of the issues as he was of the bourgeois On a cloudy day in the fall of 2013 curator Vali in Iran. He was a celebrated filmmaker, re- area and its housing. The area consisted of intellectual attitudes that he was obviously Mahlouji and I met for the first time in person nowned for his short stories and for his several streets, some quarters were inhabited very aware of considering his family and at his home in London. It was preceded by two Persian translations of American literature. and others consisted out of working houses social connections. years of irregular email contact about the Kaveh’s mother, Fakhri Golestan, was also an ran by madams and controlled by pimps. He published some of his photographs in intriguing photographs of Iranian photogra- artist. Around the area was an urban sprawl of three photo essays in the daily newspaper pher Kaveh Golestan (Iran 1950 – Iraq 2003). In I believe his father had a number of con- cabarets and drinking houses. Ayandegan in September 1977 where he our correspondence, Vali talked about his nections in the UK. Kaveh was sent to a well- There has been an interesting evolution in exposed the plight of these working women. ambitious project ARCHEOLOGY OF THE FINAL known boarding school in Somerset. He lasted the area’s history with regard to political He set up an exhibition of his photographs at DECADE. This large project investigates the several years before escaping from the school. events. Different political eras established the university of Tehran in 1978. The exhibition artistic milieu and intellectual conditions of He hitchhiked to London and eventually all their own relationship with the area. It would was shut down, most likely by the intelligence the final decade before the fall of the Shah the way back home to Tehran where he take too long to recount the whole history, services, after just fourteen days without in 1979 – the pre-revolutionary moment – in occasionally began to work in animations but after the American-backed coup in 1953, explanation. This was only before the riots Iran. The project re-circulates and reincor and advertising. He travelled across the a wall was built around Shahr-e No, so that started against the regime of the Shah. porates historical and cultural material – country, while he was taking photographs it became a walled ghetto within the city It was typical of the era that state insti destroyed, banned or under-represented, yet and publishing them. He was then sent by itself. Access was through two gates but this tutions and individual intellectuals were historically significant – back into cultural Kayhan, an Iranian daily newspaper, on com- was later reduced to only one where only men engaged and instrumental like Kaveh while memory and discourse. For Foam, this first mission to report on Northern Ireland. After could go in. The area consisted of about 150 driving forward progressive projects and legis iteration of the project on the photographic that, Kaveh published extensively, especially houses. These were run by madams and lations, those activists were being sabotaged series entitled Prostitute (1975 – 1977) by in Ayandegan, a daily newspaper, exposing managed by other women, who were often by state control at the same time. In these Kaveh Golestan is very interesting. First of all, the life of the dispossessed and socially older and no longer working as prostitutes. It photographs, Kaveh was both a social com- the photographs themselves are simply downtrodden. This really became Kaveh’s was literally a ghetto and some women were mentator and a trangressive artist. The provo- excellent, and some are even iconic. Showing signature. born there and never really left it. cation – showing poverty and degradation as the photographs in this exhibition is the first The Vietnam War played an important role the face of a society in progress – was not step in making them part of the history of in shaping Kaveh’s own view on the world and How did Kaveh gain access to this walled welcome. For that reason, the exhibition had photography. Second of all, the exhibition will attitude to his work. This was clearly a deeply area carrying a camera? That must have been shut down. These photographs have nev- reveal a part of Iranian society that many humanistic one. He was very moved by the been difficult. er been seen again as a vintage set since 1978. people are unaware of. It gives a face to works of Don McCullin, W. Eugene Smith and However, the newspaper articles and the women who were structurally and socially Philip Jones Griffiths especially. McCullin’s Kaveh’s camera is the last, of only a few, photo exhibition were not the only purposes Kaveh marginalised. During our conversations, Vali important Vietnam photographs shaped graphy cameras that ever entered the space of used the photographs for. What do you know provided insight into the work and back- much of Kaveh’s attitude towards photo Shahr-e No. In the first instance, he hid his about the use of the photographs for a ground of Kaveh Golestan, and elaborated graphy. When he documented the citadel camera in a bag of groceries and attempted documentary by filmmaker Kamran Shirdel? on the walled neighbourhood of Shahr-e No of Shahr-e No, he was still very young and to use it as a spy camera which wasn’t a Shirdel belongs to the same strand of intel- in Tehran, where he photographed the already deeply engaged with social issues. success. It took him three years to complete lectuals as Golestan, who sees it as a respon- prostitutes who lived and worked there. Kaveh documented many other major his- the project. This involved many visits and a sibility to address social issues. This filmmaker torical events after the conflict in Northern long period of befriending the working was already commissioned to make a Kaveh Golestan (Iran, 1950 – Iraq, 2003) is Ireland, such as the Iranian revolution, the women, gaining their trust and respect. This documentary back in the 1960s by the quite unknown in Europe. Before talking Iran-Iraq War, and the Gulf Wars. On 2 April resulted in intimate, intense, respectful but Women’s Organisation that was concerned about the exhibition The Citadel, can you 2003 he stepped on a fatal land mine, while never sentimental photographs. He also with prostitution. He started to make the explain a bit about his background? he was on a BBC assignment in Iraq. He died befriended the social services agent who film, but the film was banned unfinished. in Kifri in Northern Iraq, only 52 years old. His managed the relationship sometimes. He This was the situation: official bodies block- Kaveh grew up in an environment which was photographic practices has hugely influ- wasn’t required a permit for the work and I ing the work of other official organizations. intellectually charged. His father, Ebrahim enced the work of future generations of am not aware of any official restrictions at Golestan, was an important intellectual figure Iranian artists. the time to prevent him from the project.
After the revolution of 1979, the filmmaker finger on the weakest link, on theleast loved Why do you think it is to important show While Kaveh’s photographs were intended to these photographs historical from anart the ‘cultural revolution’ of cleansingand was burnt down by orders of Ayatollah ht hy eand o ritcly under- artistically so remained they that taken bythephotographs andverysur Shahr-eNo was tragically destroyed. It was Citadel, no one said anything. He put his Khomeini, immediately after the Shah’s Khomeini ordered the destruction of the Golestan add extra to meaning what urge the state intellectuals andits to take have anyhave record of thewomen whowere resurrected hisproject with apolemical re-incorporated into our visual history. This really want to stand up and defend the mous revolutionary jurist, oversaw the fell. regime his film where footage was scarce. Thearea photographs asstills to fillout thebody of inhabitants and the area,inhabitantsand the finally whichwas areain whichthe was torched. Wenotdo inherited from the monarchy. It was now inhabitants. It was a brutal turn of events. Iranian of history photography. I was very I saw the archive of photographs some years Islamization. How the does archive of photographs by action, and to take holdof the fate of its opening statement andborrowed Kaveh’s charred to death. Shahr-e Nohadbecome a brutal act. Ayatollah Khalkhali, the infa exposed. exposed. gaze back at the camera are quite unique in strengthcompositional and the women’s ago at Kaveh’s home. I was just completely avoids pity. area, on the most indefensible. didn’tSociety exploitedmostin the tragic way toinitiate an iconic symbol of socialdegradation, point ofpoint view? in happened 1979 to the area of Shahr-e No? stunned by ofthe quality the portraits. The set onfire. Kaveh’s view human, is very but What is very interesting, is very What is that when I believed that they must absolutely be project prised prised -
Today inIran, three millionprostitutes are And now that the ghetto has been burnt What isthe relevance of the photographs transsexuals. It is a lot more dispersed now variety ofvariety forms: from the internet to curb On thewholethough, the women Kaveh’s work documents social reality, it is historical andbelongs to Tehran. political realities since the revolution. They history as insocialandwell as the shifts remains ahugeissue today. point. his distinct gaze. This was Kaveh’s starting been significant indetermining his visionand of Kaveh’spart corpushasbeenless visible it today. giving support, educationandcare provision. official organistions that doimportantin work ages attain adeeper, sadder dimension. down – it isnow apark with alake – the im are our first uniquephotographic records. eredarea’sconsidermeanings whenwe the of sight and off thesocial register. Visibility and there isalot of socialawareness about course, officially illegal. Theissues are rife and lessmanageableby the services. It is, of crawling andnow including transvestites and and lessrepresented, even though it has estimated. This prostitution comesina ing prostitution inIran? in relation to the current situationregard- The exhibition Kaveh Golestan – The Citadel Kaveh’s photographs have accrued lay Vali Mahlouji. Heisanindependent curator and writer. Kim Knoppers iscurator at Foam. There are alsoofficial andsemi- remainout is curated by - -
Foam is supported by the BankGiro Loterij, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, Design Print Delta Lloyd, Gemeente Amsterdam and the VandenEnde Foundation Vandejong robstolk® Publishing. for publicationby BlackDog Festival isscheduled Shiraz Arts new Perspectives book onthe Ville deParis inMay 2014. His d’ArtMusee dela Moderne with CatherineDavidatthe include anexhibition co-curated discourse. projects Upcoming intoback cultural and memory yet historically significant - orunder banned and cultural material – destroyed, and reincorporates historical Iran. reThe project -circulates pre-revolutionary moment – in fall of theshahin 1979 – the before the finaldecade the and intellectual conditionsof milieu investigates theartistic research entitled project of anon-goingcuratorial and writer. This isthefirst iteration curatoran independent and curated by Vali Mahlouji. Heis Kaveh Golestan – The Citadel is DECADE ARCHEOLOGY OF THE FINAL . This larger project -represented,
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