Postrevolutionary Retrojection Azadeh Akhlaghi Stages 17 Deaths in Iran Sareh Z Afshar

Figure 1. On 7 December 1953, University of Tehran students Azar (Mehdi) Shariat Razavi, Ahmad Ghandchi, and Mostafa Bozorgnia were brutally murdered by the Shah’s police inside the Faculty of Engineering. In this staging of the frenzied scene, Akhlaghi is seen scrambling down the stairs in her red scarf amid the smoke. By an Eye-Witness, 2013. (Photo by Azadeh Akhlaghi)

To imagine and practice another future, critical and historical resources are needed. One such resource for Iranians is to be found in the work of Azadeh Akhlaghi (b. 1978), specifically in her 2013 series, By an Eye-Witness. A collection of photographic reconstructions of the visually undocumented deaths of historic 20th-century figures in Iran,By an Eye-Witness offers imagery previously unavailable to Iranians. In her “performances of death” (PoD), the conceptual artist flirts with the documented and undocumented to create pensive images that evoke the intolera- bility of collective trauma. Such hypervisual performances that materialize around death and its commemoration — or lack thereof — interrogate how commemorative practices shape the socio- political agency of the Iranian “war generation” born at the height of the revolution (1978–79) and during the ensuing war with neighboring Iraq (1980–88); and help demystify the relation- ship between destiny, death, and procedures of power in the social imaginary of postrevolu- tionary Iran and alleviate the deep-rooted fatalism that permeates the Iranian collective psyche, rendering possible alternative collective destinies.1

1. Other artists whose work I engage with as PoD include Gohar Dashti (b. 1980), Barbad Golshiri (b. 1982), and Sahba Aminikia (b. 1981). PoD are also used by the state in its development of what I theorize as the “necropti- con” using the images of the war’s martyrs.

TDR 64:1 (T245) 2020 https://doi.org/10.1162/dram_a_00895 36 ©2020 New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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- –31 August 2015; twice twice 2015; August –31 and Editor of the Thought of the Thought and Editor

has traveled to London, Delhi, Calgary, Calgary, Delhi, has traveled to London, Burnt Generation: Contemporary Iranian Photography Iranian Contemporary Generation: Burnt — If not the actual historical events, then at least If not the actual historical events, 2 which involved a production team of over which involved a production team of over — , Assistant to TDR, e-misférica Editor (in Persian). Currently, she is compiling contributions for a bilingual edited volume she is compiling contributions for a bilingual edited volume Currently, (in Persian).

The work continues to travel as part of the group exhibition part exhibition as group travel the to of continues work The was and artsUK-based the of Candlestar, organization education and director Farshad, Fariba by curated Founders’ Calgary’s of University the 2014; June April–1 10 from London in House Somerset at shown Contemporaryof Photography Museum the at 2015; April February–12 5 GalleryMilitarythe at Museums, Gallery, Polk/Wilson University’s State Wichita at 2016; July April–10 21 Chicago, College Columbia at Projective Charlotte’s Carolina North of University the at 8 September–9 Decemberrecently, most and 2018; exhi- group aforementioned the of outside shown been also has It 2019. December October–10 10 Gallery, Eye 14 festival, photography premier Malaysia’s part as Penang, OBSCURA, of in first bition, partas and 2016, Artof February Heritage’s January–1 28 Art Fair, India the at year, following the Delhi in her paired which 2016, November October–2 12 Gallery, Shridharani at display on Past,” the “Staging show Biennale, Shanghai 11th the at year that later and Kazemi; Babak photographer Iranian fellow of that with work 2017. March 2016–12 12 November - truth and aggran and historical matters of representation problematizing By simultaneously Akhlaghi’s artistic intervention in the lineup between past and future is a window into how in the lineup between past and Akhlaghi’s artistic intervention By an Akhlaghi’s multi-space Mohsen Gallery in March 2013, Tehran’s First displayed in 2. evokes the important paradox at the important paradox at evokes the By an Eye-Witness failure in representation, dizing its own has elsewhere preoccupied This paradox its impossibility. i.e., the human, heart of representing human] that we [of the “something unrepresentable notes how there resides who Judith Butler, rep- is to an extent the of the human that the representation seek to represent,” nevertheless a fatalistic positionality the boundaries of Delineating of paradox itself (2004:144). resentation and history fail and yet even in these images indicate that if representation toward the everyday, then perhaps so too in new forms, and continuously perpetuate themselves survive their failure, The fated-ness in this reformation. shirking their fail and form anew, can fated life trajectories but as a stor of the past, up the task of the archive not as a repository work does this by taking age house for the future: changing the archive amounts to changing the future. the future. changing the archive amounts to changing age house for the future: has that while often discussed, go about reconciling with a recent past Iran’s war generation to national legends: clichéd in the mythologies of greatness attributed always remained eclipsed notes of patriotism and religios- themselves in hitting all the similar high narratives that repeat favor with the current ruling regime. the low notes of dissent that fall out of while evading ity, a simultaneous question of pres- This, story of a nation’s treasured dead? Who gets to tell the a memory is what the series addresses by approaching history as always ence and representation, constructed as such. a reordering of the temporality is an imaginative exercise in belated witnessing, Eye-Witness in the series The images and testimony. photographic evidence, ascribed to traumatic event, national figures whom the artist considers major con- showcase the scenes of death or dying of deaths went and whose in space and time, tributors to Iran’s arrival at its current coordinates The artist herself appears in every photo: having exca- visually unrecorded when they occurred. amassed firsthand witness accounts for details of the vated official and unofficial archives and has since The series she poses as an eyewitness to each death from inside the frame. events, of this writ- and is as Gallery in December 2015, been revived for a second exhibit at Mohsen Projective Eye Gallery at the University of North on display at the in October 2019, ing, work the In between, Carolina at Charlotte. 60 people 200 actors (Akhlaghi [2013a?]) and some Pulau Pinang, Shanghai, Chicago, and Wichita. and Chicago, Shanghai, Pulau Pinang, devoted to stories of the Iranian war generation in diaspora, “Raw Clay.” [email protected] war generation in diaspora, “Raw Clay.” to stories of the Iranian devoted Ravagh section at Ravagh R. Kamalipour, 2010) 2010) R. Kamalipour, Yahya Iran edited by in Uprising Election Presidential Age: The 2009 in the Digital and has served to Editor as Managing Sareh Z Afshar is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Performance Studies at NYU. She is the author is the author at NYU. She Studies Z Afshar is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Performance Sareh and Politics Power, (in Media, Media” and International the Election, Women, Iranian Neda? We of “Are

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_a_00895 by guest on 29 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_a_00895 by guest on29 September 2021 visit and the Shah’s of (Photo courtesy corruption. Wikimedia Commons) sentiment, recalling the protests in response to US Vice President Nixon’s 1953 Figure 2. A 2008 state-sponsored poster that clearly expresses anti-American 38 Sareh Z Afshar granted basedonprospectivestudents’ rankingintheannualuniversityexam, locally known as ulation, especiallythoseatUT, apublic(tuition-free) schoolwhereadmissionhasalwaysbeen of “black gold.” HisremovalfrompowerdidnotbodewellforIran’spoliticized studentpop- movement, hestrivedtonationalizeoilandlimitforeign controloverthecountry’svastreserves sented aproblemtotheimperialforcesin West: spearheadingIran’s anticolonialnationalist minister, mere monthsaftertheUS-backedcoupd’étatthatdeposed democraticallyelectedprime ceding day’sstudentprotestsagainstthenUS Vice PresidentRichardNixon’svisittoIran, and

(The Memoriesofa Twisted Physician; ply asFanni(Tech). ShariatRazavi’sbrotherwroteinhismemoir, Khaterat-e yek pezeshk-eavazi on studentscrowdingthesecond-floorcorridorofFaculty ofEngineering, knownsim- 4. 3. Known in Iran as Coup d’Etat-ye 28-e Mordad. indicated. All translations are mine, unless otherwise 4 MohammadMosaddegh, andreinforcedPahlavi’smonarchial power. Mosaddeghpre- 2005), 3 thattheassaultarrivedonheelsofpre- one of Akhlaghi’s photo series, thehistoricaltalebehind their griefwithpolitics. day, Iraniansseamlesslyinterlace retold andelucidateshow, tothis daneshjoo Day” “Student marker the storybehindcalendar tale, This haunting. unfolded —is shooting andsceneofdeath halls inwhichtheviolentstate me reality tothepicturethatfor pass. Akhlaghi lendsavisual 60-plus yearssinceitcameto on mythicdimensionsoverthe graphic recreationshastaken Iran’s borders. onate withgallery-goersbeyond its fictioncertainlyseemstores- Shah’s policeforceopenedfire when MohammadRezaPahlavi shot downon7December1953, Iranian historyaftertheywere written intocontemporary of Tehran (UT)students were (fig. 1). ThesethreeUniversity Bozorgnia.Ghandchi Ahmad Azar ShariatRazavi. Mostafa Deaths of Their Image oftheMoment The Archive HoldsNo Politics ofMourning Of the17imagesin — a 2008alumnaofthevery — inIran, clamorstobe —rooz-e -

Postrevolutionary Retrojection 39 - interpreted by the — long live Mosaddegh!” (Shariat long live Mosaddegh!” 5 that of discontented clergymen who believed — if not entirely separate from —

. Located right off of Revolution Square, the university has long been known as a has long been the university Square, right off of Revolution Located . concours General Fazlollah Zahedi was chosen by the UK and the US and decreed by the Shah as the deposed Mosaddegh’s Mosaddegh’s deposed the as Shah the by decreed and US the and UK the by chosen was Zahedi Fazlollah General Iran. of minister prime time the at was and replacement, In his memoir, Gholamreza Shariat Razavi conjures the same sense of chaos that Akhlaghi’s sense of chaos that conjures the same Shariat Razavi Gholamreza In his memoir, The story quickly unravels from this point forward: The story quickly unravels from this point and although the military chief guns, The building was full of soldiers armed with the students building over a megaphone, ordered the student protestors to leave the to “Death to the Shah! Death chants of paid him no attention and kept on with their to open fire on them but no one believed that The chief then threatened the Shah!” faculty. especially in the indoor space of the they would shoot down students on campus, (Shariat Razavi 2005:25) For This terrifying tableau is considered a turning point in contemporary Iranian history. 5. the Shah to be morally bankrupt and therefore unsuitable to rule. Of the three dead students, Of the three dead students, the Shah to be morally bankrupt and therefore unsuitable to rule. (Iran of Front National the of member a was Ghandchi other the while Iran), Melli-ye Jebhe-ye The lat- Tudeh). Party (Hezb-e Tudeh aka the two belonged to the Party of the Masses of Iran, popular among radical communist party, ter of these political opposition parties was a left-wing, called for overturning Iran’s constitutional monarchy in that intellectuals and the working class, started by Mosaddegh, headed The former, favor of a democratic republic (Keddie 1978:319).

font of political dissent. font of political - his murdered broth according to brother’s death conveys: of the scene of his reconstruction in the middle of the rings unexpectedly the bell 10:00 a.m., around and friend, er’s classmate as to the early termination. curious hallway, spill out into the session and students day’s second chief have just rudely inter two armed soldiers and their attending They quickly learn that point out two students near a win- the soldiers Upon entering, class. rupted a civil engineering faces at and mocking them”; “making who had been “the ones” were dow and claim that they the dragged out against their will, As the students are being their arrest. the chief commands gets one student Back in the classroom, sends word to the dean. Shams Malek-Ara, professor, - “it’s impos adding that “death to the military government,” chanting up on his desk and starts environment ruling over the boots of armed soldiers and the suffocating sible to study under of then jumps down and runs out to toss his books up into the air, He proceeds the university.” behest bell starts its untimely ringing at the dean’s the classroom as the The presence on campus. administration’s protest against military memoirist as the university chants that would resonate for its midmorning silence with the same corridor is roused from “Death to the military government!”; of 1979: the next 25 years leading up to the revolution “Death to Zahedi the dictator, “Death to the Shah!”; and the Razavi 2005:24–25). to the military chief had been cleared beforehand As the Fanni students would come to realize, “suddenly the students’ chants Shariat Razavi retells how use violent force against the students. was his Among those hit ‘Death to the Shah’ were clashing with the sound of bullets [...].” of following a gunshot to his chest and was one of the students who, “Azar Azar: younger brother, leav- who in turn ripped through his right thigh with a spear, struggled with a soldier shoulder, ‘Death to the Shah’ his shouts of his heavy bleeding, ing him to tumble to the ground; despite Shariat Razavi ends by painting a horrifying picture, (2005:25). were hushed but not silenced” of the wounded mixed with the scalding water run- the blood “on the ground, describing how and cascaded down the stairs to create a terrifying ning from the radiators punctured by bullets (26). tableau” event marked the beginning of public dissent that was this Iranians under the reign of the Shah, different than Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_a_00895 by guest on 29 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_a_00895 by guest on29 September 2021

40 Sareh Z Afshar of Tehran, 2016. (Photo by Sareh Z Afshar) down on 7 December 1953. Main lobby of the Faculty of Engineering, University Bozorgnia, and Ahmad Ghandchi, the three University of Tehran students shot Figure 3. Commemorative Shariat plaque honoring Azar Mostafa Razavi, ize hiscalltonationalizethe Anglo-Iranian OilCompany(AIOC)in1951. resources andrevenue(Keddie1979:17–18). Together thesepartieshelpedMosaddeghreal- nationalist partythatsoughttoproblematizeBritain’sdominationoverthecountry’snatural the antiforeignreligiousright, andeventuallycoalescedasa “secular,” left-leaninganticolonial out asacoalitionofparties, rangingfromleftistliberalstothenationalistmiddleclasses

tion ofworkers, thinkers, andartists power, anindicationthattheemergingmovementofyouthfuldissenters active inthesepartiesevenafterthe August 1953militarycoupthatexpelledMosaddeghfrom timent onStudentDayisanti-Americanism. matter, makingitabundantly clearthattothepostrevolutionarystateonlyacceptablesen- not fortheShah’sincompetenceandinvolvementof “criminal America’s agents” inthe students, orderedbythegovernmentandfacilitatededucationalinstitutions. activities onStudentDaywereoftenmetwithviolentencountersbetweenlawenforcementand of RamadanandMuharram, respectively(seeDabashi2011a:73–100). The prerevolutionary died unjustly, astheydowiththeirShi’aImams Ali andHosseinduringthe Arabic lunarmonths ing Iranians’longstandingtraditionofcommemorativepracticesvalorizingtheinnocentwho Shah byhisforeignallies, renderinghisowndepositionimminent. 7. 6. marg (death), are engraved in red. Association of the Students of Fanni College.” The names of the students, along with the words bread, be revered death would be the end / May their memory and their path be rich with travelers / The Islamic hands of criminal America’s agents in this location / Their creed was that life is not merely bread, that if it were of Fanni College / Shariat Razavi, Ghandchi, Bozorgnia / Freemen 1332 were who on 16 Azar martyred at the The plaque reads: “In of the martyred students the name of his eminency [god] / The memorial of the anniversary (2011a:267). For more on Mosaddegh as the champion of the Iranian nationalist resurgence see Hamid Dabashi, The bloodydayatUTwasthusaddedtoIran’ssociopoliticalcalendarasStudentDay, join- — would ultimatelyjeopardizethecontinuedsupportof 7 However, although the prerevolutionarystate not havecomeaboutifitwere readers thatthetragedywould The mirroredtabletinforms ground floorofFanni(fig. 3). displayed tothateffectonthe memorative plaqueisproudly “martyrs” olutionary the threestudentvictimsasrev- interest, officiallyrecognizing appropriate thedayinitsown the Islamicregimeattemptedto college. Followingitsinception, were makingtheirwaythrough the eldestofwargeneration student uprisingof1999, when lated almostyearlysincetheUT expected, andinfacthaveesca- revolution, asonemighthave encounters didnotstopwiththe Student Day:theaggressive commemorative traditionsof conflict itselfisapartofthe would appearasthoughsuch postrevolutionary observer, it More recentlyandtothe — 6 Iran’s futuregenera- Studentsremained (life) and zendegi com- —a Shi’ism Postrevolutionary Retrojection 41 - - - - sport- 9 university stu- — which Muslims 10 in Iran, ghadr 2011b; Mottahedeh 2015). Mottahedeh 2011b; 8 Dabashi 2010; here has been interpreted to mean either divine decree and predestination or value and and value or predestination and decree divine either mean to interpreted been has here

“ghadr” Iranians, For one’s determining night, this on weighed are future and past the how to pointing definitions these of both merit; ahead. year the in destiny For more on the resurfacing of the oppositional student movement in July 1999, see Mehrdad Mashayekhi’s “The “The Mashayekhi’s Mehrdad see 1999, July in movement student oppositional the of resurfacing the on more For (2001). Iran” Post-Revolutionary in Movement Student the of Revival widely known was of 2009 results electoral the of the credibility challenged that protests opposition of series The Kamalipour (see Movement Green the as The university closures are evidence that the state fears the potential of this day. It has little the state fears the potential of this day. The university closures are evidence that The attempts of both the pre- and postrevolutionary state have thus proved fruitless as dis- state have thus proved and postrevolutionary of both the pre- The attempts 8. 9. sent continues to be enacted on this day, regardless of who is policing and what they are watch- regardless of who enacted on this day, sent continues to be decades after the first resurgence of the four decades after the revolution and two Currently, ing. of the continued tensions between Student Day serves as an annual marker student movement, citizenry of the country and its most socially influential the Islamic leadership dents. The protests are still highly charged and met with resistance from the campus disci- are still highly charged and met with The protests dents. the terror described by Shariat students have not yet again experienced While plinary guards. broken tree shattered glass, annual reminders of oppression: there are predictable Razavi, and outside the building are a famil- bulletin boards and benches inside and damaged branches, many college-aged students with For midterm season at Fanni. iar sight during the December participation in the whether pro- or antigovernment, awareness, even the slightest political passage: occupying the spaceof the original murder constitutes a rite of protests at the scene upset- portal to becoming a part of this history, where history happened affords them a personal UT main cam- disrupting linear time. and future, ting the present and its relation to the past ID cards are checked diligently before entry onto thepus security tightens around this day and Azar [7 December, Protestors gather on both sides of the main gate on 16 grounds is granted. [Granville] a few meters north of its three-way intersection with Edward Student Day] Street, especially detained fel- Signs that call for the freedom of political prisoners, Browne Street. and proclaim “Either Freedom or Death,” signs call for Other are common sights. low students, today known as the Green Movement, Since the 2009 uprising, “Live Free Or Die!” 10.

ful role in helping the state maintain its ruling hegemony in a less discernably coercive manner. hegemony in a less discernably coercive manner. ful role in helping the state maintain its ruling plays out during shab-e we can consider how this For example, giosity into Iranian nationalism. This conflation of religiosity and nationalism plays a power This giosity into Iranian nationalism. pose of the movement was against socioeconomic injustice and political oppression. By 1999, By 1999, oppression. and political socioeconomic injustice movement was against pose of the by them not so much committed against offences were being felt that these student protestors own government. as by their America” “criminal murder of the students was in retaliation for the protests against US interventionism held by held by against US interventionism for the protests the students was in retaliation ­murder of the broader pur spectacles of dissent, to prevent future and a desperate attempt the students believe to have been the night in which Jibril (the angel Gabriel) first revealed the Quran to believe to have been the night in which Jibril (the angel Gabriel) first revealed the both claim that this night occurs during the last third Shi’a hadith and tradition Mohammad. popular historical consensus has been that the night falls on and in Iran, of Ramadan each year, ing the color green at demonstrations has been a performative stand-in that designates cer ing the color green at demonstrations has nationwide Scheduled events are held across many universities tain general demands for reform. Amir Kabir University (or Polytechnic, Tehran: especially other public universities in as well, draw Technology) of Elm o San’at (Science and as it is commonly called) and the University deep-seated anxiety over a potential capital-wide pro- With eye-catching crowds of their own. their meth- authorities have become increasingly creative in test masked as commemoration, under Tehran closure of universities across going as far as bracketing a four-day ods of control, Ahmadinejad’s first year as president (see during Mahmoud in 2005, “air pollution” the guise of ISNA 2005). (if any) recourse for suppressing events honoring the day without destabilizing the operational (if any) recourse for suppressing events honoring rituals of mourning that manipulatively fold Shi’a reli efficacy of other similar commemorative Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_a_00895 by guest on 29 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_a_00895 by guest on29 September 2021

42 Sareh Z Afshar preceding dawntopubliclyandcollectivelymourn. The tearfullamentsdeliveredbytheprofes in thecomingyear, buttheyarealsoaskedtoemergefromtheirprivatespacesinthelatehours of themonthRamadan, notonlyareIranianscalledupontoholdvigilandprayfortheirfate excitement ofthelatentpotentialityevent. And soeveryyearduringthesethreenights ing intoexistenceabetterfatefortheyearahead caliphate torightfullysucceedhim. Thus, aseriesofotherwisehopefulnights assassination oftheprophet’sson-in-law, Imam Ali, whoisconsideredbyShi’itestobethefirst to beadditionallycrucialIranianMuslims, astheyoverlapwiththeeventssurrounding confirmed onthe21st, andsignedintofinalityonthe23rd. Twoofthesethreenightshappen Islamic scholarshaveclaimedthatfatesforthecomingyeararedecidedandwrittenon19th, either the19th, 21st, and23rdofthemonth. Overnightvigilsareheldonallthreenights, and 11. pensable meansofpatrioticrevivalpracticedannuallybytheregime. through its(ab)useofthecirculatinggriefandhumanvulnerabilityinfaceloss, isanindis against suchunjustactors, lesthistoryrepeatitself. This foundationalothering, deeplyrooted scorn toallotherpower-hungry domesticandforeignagents ers sharingintheirtearsandoftentimesrhythmicbeatinguponchests(sineh-zani)toextend this ritualwhilesymbolscoalesce: The oratorsturnthestorytopresent, invitingthemourn Ali ashestoodinprayerdonotstopatcallingoutthehistoricalinjustice. Historycollapsesin sional oratorswhonarratethestoryofdeadlystrikeapoison-coatedswordinflictedupon lence itbothbringstolightandbreeds. Ifpoliticsisdefined as “thedebateorconflictbetween be inferredfromthisambiguitythatifthedateweighsheavy, itisprimarilyduetotheambiva- not especiallyopentoanotherhastyoverthrowofpowerwith anunpredictableoutcome. Itcan still livingouttheramificationsofrevolutionandwar students caninciterageandactioninawidercircumferenceof society, wearyIranianswhoare whether thispipedreamcastsbrutalityinadesirableordetestable role:whileviolenceagainst opposition holdstenuouslytothechimeraofovernightprogressive reform. Itremainsunclear (see Rancière2010). “dissensus” thatchallengesthestatusquo are offered;carriedoutpublicly, thispracticecreates aplaceforrealpolitics, onerootedinthe both thestateandstudents. Castindoubt, mourningbecomesaspaceinwhichnewvisibilities is accountableforthelossesafterregimechange, causesglitchesintheworkofmourningfor state. Doubtastowhythestateconfersvalueoncertainlivesanddeaths, andaboutwho deep complexityofmourning, specificallywhenmourningisusedasanideologicaltoolbythe with littlecontrolovertheenactmentofcommemorativepracticesbringstofore with itsinabilitytofullycorralthenarrativeofthesedeaths. acceptance ofthethreedeadstudentsasmartyrs, itcannotrevoketheappellationandmustlive that StudentDayposestothestate, then, arisesfromthefactthathavingalreadysignaledits lutes, andstandstolosethemostifthisnormalizedmentalitywerebeshaken. The problem vice ofobscuringitsroleindeterminingwhatisjust, presentingjusticeandinjusticeasabso- found unjustbythestate. The statehasdevotedconsiderableenergyandresourcesintheser khoda is theonlyjurydeemedfittomakefinaldecisiononthatdesignation:margdarraahe but absolutelynecessarytothecontinuityandspiritofpostrevolutionarystate. The state lost intheirfightforwhatis “ingod’sway” isnotjustconsideredamatterof­ The statethusfindsitselfoverseeingnarrativedoubtinorder tocurtailit. Ontheirend, the in the aughts with the spread of social media usage in Iran. state hasn’t been able to manipulate in its favor To which we narratives abuse can sufferedadd of the postrevolutionary unruly by students The commemorationofImam Ali exemplifieswhymourningthedeathof­ — “dying ingod’sway,” ormartyrdom — — which have garnered more visibility since 1999, and especially a threateningprospectforanyauthoritarianregime — is notachievedthroughunjustdeath, butdeath — are infusedwithgriefthatovershadowsthe 11 — Havingbestowedthistitlebut — encouraging preventiveactions some 30–40 yearslater some 30–40 — respectability, — nights ofpray narratives that the innocent — are - - - - - Postrevolutionary Retrojection 43 these deaths is worked into the project rather Azadeh Akhlaghi (in Stoughton 2014) AzadehStoughton (in Akhlaghi — —

12 prioritizing “the spirit of the moment” over factuality and historical precision “the spirit of the moment” prioritizing i.e., such limits determine which lives count as lives and whose deaths matter. Upon deaths matter. which lives count as lives and whose such limits determine i.e., —

— faulty memories confused further by embellishments such as the weather and mood at the death sites, and the trending dialogues and debates such as the weather and mood at the death sites, — —

This structure is what Akhlaghi attempted to chart and work through in visually recon- and work through in attempted to chart Akhlaghi is what This structure This seeming paradox of mending the archive by puncturing it anew with even more ambi- This seeming paradox of mending the archive by puncturing it anew with even more series. The artist believes The series. at Fanni in her By an Eye-Witness murderous incident structing the an claiming in formative trajectory, point in the country’s deaths was a turning each of these died at that partic- “if any of them hadn’t Rex Butler that Australian art critic interview with Looking see also Severi 2015). (2014; history would have been different” our ular moment, to Iran’s history is the quality of it is not always clear if what is critical through the photographs artist’s imagination goes to work in As the figures or their lived lives. the deaths of these iconic so too the fic- into each scene, inserting herself of the history she depicts, making herself a part In and mourn. say, for all to see, down to her generation is imaged tion of the history handed versus the ungrievability of others, of the grievability of some losses of life her own examination “circumscribe the sayable that that it’s the limits of the seeable and the Judith Butler contends subjects appear as viable actors” speech operates and certain kinds of domain in which political (2004:xv) these very limits by infusing the tales helps us interrogate By an Eye-Witness closer inspection, us to revisit why which in turn enables with narrative doubt, of her subjects’ deaths mattered. By highlighting the power struggle around the official accounts of these deaths, the deaths, By highlighting the power struggle around the official accounts of these mattered. to thrive. the political regime of mourning continues series illuminates how it is that in Iran, It was full of passion and sorrow. It was like revealing a very old public secret, because many of those people people those of because many verya secret, public old revealing like was It sorrow. and passion of full was It mournto and memories those for share to chance a had haven’t we but memory, public our in alive are them collectively. Paradoxicality Why stage all this death? Why regenerate the mourning machine? When asked about what Why regenerate the mourning machine? Why stage all this death? the violent aftermath of Iran’s contested June 2009 Akhlaghi has cited prompted her project, of many vic- Mindful that the deaths 2014). presidential election (see for example Stoughton digitally captured and then shared and discussed via tims of state brutality that summer were how their she grew preoccupied with state censorship, social media platforms unencumbered by public mourn- were also deprived of deprived of such technologies of visibility, predecessors, share those memories and to mourn for them collec- “a chance to Iranians were denied ing. “the idea of to Akhlaghi’s search for a mournable history led her (in Stoughton 2014). tively” For three years, (in Butler 2014; see also Eiferman 2014). seeing history rather than knowing it” and interviews memoirs, out eyewitness accounts, she dug beyond official sources as she sought These unoffi- to patch the holes in the historical archive. alongside news articles of the events, that could tap into the immediacy of the experi- cial sources helped her unearth sensory details ence of the day The patch itself is Akhlaghi’s patch of the archive is also incomplete. But (in Eiferman 2014). even as it is stitched over the torn fabric of historical leaving gaps and can only ever be partial, fol- Deleuze held, the audiovisual,” “The archive, This should come as no surprise: memories. can only hap- Expansion of the archive then ([1986] 1988:64). “is disjunctive” lowing Foucault, pen if we are to accept the lacuna that come with the stories. guity “ocular hege- to “cultural habituation” a reinforcement of the at first glance, So is, than against it. who cites Kobena Mercer’s work a privileging of vision critiqued by Rebecca Schneider, mony,” Contesting line of thought that equates the visual and the knowable. to underscore this (Western) the archival logic that characterizes performance as impermanent and undocumentable, individuals or parties hoping to achieve power,” then in Iran the political is mapped onto the in Iran the political is then achieve power,” or parties hoping to individuals mourning. structure of Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_a_00895 by guest on 29 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_a_00895 by guest on29 September 2021

44 Sareh Z Afshar the needtoabandonlibidinalpositionvis-à-visanowlostobject? [1993] 1994:9):Howdoesonenegotiatetheneedtomaintainarelationshipwithdeadand failure toconsiderthemodesinwhichperformanceremains, albeitdifferently(2011:98). Schneider alsoteasesouttheotherwaysofknowingandrememberingoverlookedinMercer’s 13. 12. grief, notnecessarilyfeltforthelossofall, butfeltatsomepointbyall. geared towards “revealing averyoldpublicsecret” (inStoughton2014) remains universal. Perhapsthisisthesecretshe’shintingatinrecognizingherworkasbeing universality ofgrief:whileitisdifferentinexperienceanddurationforeachindividual, griefstill and non-art(Rancière2009:107). This historicalsensealsoexploitstheparadoxelementalto “paradigmatically ambivalent” practicesituatedwithinthezoneofindeterminacybetweenart image to fillholesintheaudiovisualarchive, italsoforcesdoubtontotheaccuracyofanypictured holders; ifanything, thehistoricalsensepromptedbyherworkisuniqueinthatwhileitattempts which milieuandviamedium? Akhlaghi’s photographsuseactorsandmodelsasplace ment onthedifferencesthatderivefromwhenandhowweexperiencehistoricaldetails, in placed inopposition, doesthisseeingletussensehistorythen?Issensorydistinctionacom to “know” historythatwehavenot “seen.” Ifseeingisdecoupledfromknowing, ifthetwoare tory, askingwhatthelimitsofthisknowledgeareandforcingustomuseoveritmeans the equationbetweenocularandknowledgebyproblematizingwhatitmeanstoknowhis side ofdominantformsknowledgeproductionandtransmission. That is, herprojectdisrupts ing “the ideaofseeinghistoryrather thanknowingit” seeing itselfshouldbeseendifferently: bydifferentiatingbetweenknowingandseeing Western epistemological canon. A differentreadingoftheprojectasksustoconsiderwhether The artist’sconceptualapproachactuallyrevealsthedepthofourafflictionprivileging its performativerepetition, aqueerkindofevidence” (2011:104, 101). Schneider wouldterma “reparticipation” inhistorybymeans ofanaffectiveremain: “itself, in history asbody-to-body[affective]transmission” ofshowing andtelling([1993]1994:56);what call, afterDerrida, aspectropoeticprocessthatrethinksandresituates “the siteofanyknowing sensible, andthusintotheaffective. Seeingbecomesa collaborativeperformance, whatwemay to anunderstandingofhistorynotthroughknowledge, butratherwithsightasaguidetothe nection hereseemstobebetweenseeinghistoryandsharingmemoriesmourning:coming present, inthefirstplacebyidentifying of mourning, theactthat “consists alwaysinattemptingtoontologizeremains, tomakethem so? Howcanthefailuretomourntakeoncollectiveform?Finally, theparadoxicalquestion pare forthepromiseddeathofothers?Howdoesonedocumentit, ormournthefailuretodo adoxical elementsraisequestionsaswemakeourwaythroughtheseries. Howdoesonepre- by-products ofdeath: “disappearance andremains” (Schneider2011:102). Together, thesepar to thesurfaceandframedtogetherinuneasyproximity, asaretheapparentlyparadoxical tos, thecontradictoryconditionsofdeath Initially even, indeed, when a substitute is already beckoning to them,” see Lauren Berlant (2011:1–23). critical cultural studies. To read more on how and why “people never willingly abandon a libidinal position, not mental one to psychoanalytical studies of mourning and melancholia; it has also been a recent preoccupation in dead while following through with the work of mourning rather than falling into melancholic despair is a funda- Freud’s “Mourning andMelancholia” ([1917] 1957:243– On between the subject of reality-testingthe struggle and releasing libidinal attachments following loss, see /10.1093/acref/9780195392883.001.0001/m_en_us1279217. New Oxford American, s.v. Dictionary “politics,” accessed 15 October 2017, www.oxfordreference.com/view And still, theparadoxicalnatureofprojectdoesnotstopat “public secrets.” Inherpho- — be itaduplicationoranartisticrendering By anEye-Witness appearstoprivilegevision, butacarefullooktellsusotherwise. the bodilyremainsandbylocalizing — its inevitabilityandunpredictability 44). Thisquestionofmaintainingaconnection withour — reaffirming photography’spositionasa

— the artisthereassumesapositionout- 13 For Akhlaghi, thecon- — the universalityof the dead” (Derrida — are brought — advanc-

- - - - Postrevolutionary Retrojection 45 - - ] evidence, ] evidence, and its place in — and the archive excavator and the archive — moving in and out of the shadows in — Akhlaghi opens up a path, albeit narrow, out of albeit narrow, Akhlaghi opens up a path, an exchange of love for death — — the one who sees history the one who —

. Now in its 11th year of operation, the gallery was established by Now in its 11th year of operation, . As the Other Prefers Me,

For gallery-goers making the rounds of the historical displays, the difficult questions posed questions posed the difficult displays, of the historical making the rounds For gallery-goers By following Akhlaghi’s own fleshy flight across the 17 recreated scenes, it becomes evi- Akhlaghi’s own fleshy flight across the 17 recreated scenes, By following Akhlaghi’s project was funded by one of Tehran’s leading art spaces, Mohsen Gallery, as part Mohsen Gallery, leading art spaces, Tehran’s Akhlaghi’s project was funded by one of the Iranian imaginary. the Iranian imaginary. her imagery (figs. 4–6), becoming a reflection in a mirror (fig. 9), and finally, becoming noth- becoming 9), and finally, becoming a reflection in a mirror (fig. her imagery (figs. 4–6), 7) ing more than a red scarf left behind (fig. above press on. There is something else that adds to their discomfort: the eerie bystander pres- the eerie bystander to their discomfort: else that adds There is something on. above press as undermining deaths, poses as witness to the Akhlaghi scarf. marked by a red shot, ent in each to in addition linear temporality, recreations and disrupting research backing her she does the as herself in the frame By placing evidentiary instrument. of the camera as a neutral the notion events who details the both the witness who uncovers and then recovers the details in a graphic reenactment, Akhlaghi gets to the heart recovers the details in a graphic reenactment, who uncovers and then of its experience as the very reason the singularity and specificity of one of trauma’s paradoxes: “a jour this paradox by taking She invites us to resolve documentation. it exceeds conventional but through our or writing, memory or mind or analysis or reading not through ney backward, In (Akhlaghi 2013b). moment” which seems profoundly attached to the very flesh and blood, held logic of the archive, her project yet again defies the conventionally making this invitation, thus] can house no memory of bone. and given to be that which slips away [... “flesh is in which Dissimulating and dis- blind spot. Flesh is a bone speaks memory of flesh. only In the archive, “those who thinking is familiar to This challenge to archival 2011:100). (Schneider appearing” ritual practice as history or embodied ”; improvisation, visitation, storytelling, claim orature, Akhlaghi’s artistic Akin to ‘residue.’” does leave does remain, “performance those for whom “in a network of body-to-body transmission of affect Schneider argues that conceptualization, as the bearer of “flesh [... this performance residue is to be found in and enactment,” (100). of impact” across generations, to violent deaths in the recent history of Iran and dent that in embodying the role of witness nar the artist visually 2006:62–65), Varzi (see participating in its economy of hypervisuality her generation: a people destined to relive these trau- rates the collective memories that entrap calls in his essay in the exhibition catalog, to suffer for what Hamid Dabashi, matic experiences, does not stop at “journey” her self-proclaimed However, (Dabashi [2013?]). “Shi’a sin” their narration: by enacting her own gradual disappearance becom- By ghosting herself, Iranian sociality. the space of fatalism so ubiquitous in everyday image and makes her apparitional debut in different ing the one who at once returns in every the reve- the artist inhabits the paradoxical temporality of moments of the historical past, inter- merges the past and present in queer fashion, nant and steps into a fleshy spectrality that This escape is the future (see Buse and Stott 1999). implicating these historical moments with made possible through collective mourning of the gallery’s initiative to subsidize emerging artists and create new trends in the country’s art of the gallery’s initiative to subsidize emerging artists and create new trends in the following another photographic series in Akhlaghi’s second showing in the space, It was scene. 2010, a young photographer and Mohsen, Ehsan Rasoulof in 2008 in memory of his deceased brother, art gallery is in one Tehran This leading illustrator who died in a plane crash (Erdbrink 2015). and boasts a reputation for lend- near Zafar Street, of the city’s most affluent neighborhoods, business ing support to budding artists and embracing subcultural ingenuity despite the risky imposed by The precarity underlying artistic practice in Iran, that is Iranian contemporary arts. Revolutionaries; a military leader; poets; playwrights; journalists; writers; translators; intellectu- Revolutionaries; a military leader; poets; a war als; ideologues; guerillas; activists; students; a national athlete; a film director; a teacher; back to life hero; and a deposed prime minister: these are the idealists and ideologists charmed only to die again in an image. Akhlaghi, by Interrupting the Dead Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_a_00895 by guest on 29 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_a_00895 by guest on29 September 2021

46 Sareh Z Afshar Postrevolutionary Retrojection 47 that showcases an Iran not found in an Iran not found that showcases — , 2013. (Photo by Azadeh by (Photo 2013. , Eye-Witness an By , 2013. (Photo by Azadeh Akhlaghi) by (Photo 2013. , Eye-Witness an By (2019). Republic Islamic the in Power of Anxieties Reframed: Iran digital, visual, installation, and multimedia installation, visual, digital, — , 2013. (Photo by Azadeh Akhlaghi) by (Photo 2013. , Eye-Witness an By 45 years prior to and after the 1953 shooting of the UT students. This 90-year after the 1953 shooting of the UT students. 45 years prior to and

Yet there is still no guarantee that artwork will be permitted a public showing, that an permitted a public showing, that artwork will be is still no guarantee there Yet 14 —

For a detailed analysis of the latter, state-approved representations and Iran’s postrevolutionary media landscape, postrevolutionary landscape, media Iran’s and representations state-approved latter, the of analysis detailed a For Bajoghli’s Narges see The first of the 17 scenes of death depicted in Akhlaghi’s series occurred in 1908, the last occurred in 1908, Akhlaghi’s series of death depicted in The first of the 17 scenes Is it possible for a moment in present time to become so tumultuous and critical [as] to Is it possible for a moment in present time of the bring the past to the present and thrust the dwellers break the linearity of time, come upon a radical opening in the course of present to the past? Is it possible that we who fought and died tragically for a common through which the spirit of those history, cit- in the streets of our contemporary walk alongside us shoulder-to-shoulder cause, takes the spirits of his doomed to the present time, ies? Is it viable that a human being, those representations produced solely in the service of the current regime has been steadily on has been steadily of the current regime solely in the service produced those representations the rise. in 1998 was who minister prime (4. Figure Iran’s Mosaddegh, Mohammad 1967, March 5 On top) page facing he where Ahmadabad, in home his at unceremoniously died 1953, in coup CIA-orchestrated a by deposed doorwaythe in standing seen is Akhlaghi death. his to up leading decade the for arrest house under lived had house. his to exhibition will not be taken down suddenly after its opening, or even that the gallery space will taken down suddenly after its opening, exhibition will not be (most likely) preapproved work. warning for its choice in displaying not be shut down without Akhlaghi in liberty allowed leave room to question the extent of artistic These factors certainly it covers. especially in regard to the time span a gallery-funded project, death 5. (Saless died a tragic Shahid Figure Sohrab 1998, famed film director 1 July facing page middle) On disease. liver apartment,Chicago his chronic in alone from time span leaves out the postrevolutionary state brutality that resulted in the death of citizens, resulted in the death of citizens, the postrevolutionary state brutality that time span leaves out Akhlaghi has commented that belonged to the 1999 student uprising. including victims that her to both exhibit the project allowing her safest bet, choice, this exclusion was a conscious her work has been summarily criti- And work inside Iran (Off 2014). and continue to produce rigid state control over any form In a country where playing it safe. cized for this very reason: powerful upper hand in manipulating public opinion of representation has given the regime a Those who to be a service in combatting this monopoly. art is popularly considered in its favor, question Akhlaghi’s work avoids the current political situation subscribe to the criticism that the pres- doubting whether images that obliquely disavow the ethical efficacy of her project, These critics contend for sociopolitical change. ent moment can mobilize Iranians in a demand determines Akhlaghi’s intention is in fact to challenge the current power hierarchy that that if to spectators. it is imperceptible invisibility of others, the visibility of certain subjects versus the comprehension and affection, line between perception, “straight to believe that there is a But, of any image” “political capacity skepticism regarding the can lead to Rancière warns, action,” misinterprets Akhlaghi’s intention, in its assumptions of I propose that this critique, (2009:103). extrapo- which can be more realistically her project, the inceptive conceptual thought behind In her in Iran. “political art” presumptions plaguing lated from her artist statement than via the muses: Akhlaghi statement framing the series, Akhlaghi) (6. Figure his at gunmen unknown two by shot writer, political a Mirzadehbottom) page facing Eshghi, 1924. July 3 on Tehran old in home 14. strict and severe state control over cultural production, is sometimes an unbearable burden for unbearable burden is sometimes an cultural production, state control over strict and severe - occupational vola also deal with their global counterparts, like and curators who, art makers thirst Public conditions. and labor mobility, international insurance, to income, tility in regard for new art Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_a_00895 by guest on 29 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_a_00895 by guest on29 September 2021

48 Sareh Z Afshar edge (2011:104). transmissions ofshowingandtelling,” alteringourexperientialrelationsto(historical)knowl both consciouslyandunconsciously” [...], ortheoraltalesoffamilylineage[...], orthemyriadtraumaticreenactmentsengagedin tory asritualrepetition reminiscent oftherepetitivetimetraumaandechoesSchneider’srethinkingsitehis ways inwhichweareimplicatedbythetraumasofothers(1996:23–24). This loopingretellingis photos evokeCathyCaruth’sargumentthatahistoryisinsofarasitrecallsforusthe more concernedwithhowtheshockofpresentinter-implicates thepastandfuture. The eration’s historicaltrajectory, atrajectorysteepedinfalsestartsandlostposterity, onethatis By anEye-Witness isapictorialnarrativeoftrauma. Itisaretrofuturisticretellingofthewargen past these approacheshelpsustain “a futureforpaststhathave[...]notyet in thesamewaythataplayscriptispennedandkeptforpotentialfuturedramatization;bothof Schneider, isitstendencytowardstoringmaterials “for thefuture oftheir(re)enactment,” much 2011:108). The archive’sbiggestsecret, suggestedinthisDerrideanapproachascalledoutby of acontractacrosstime, [... callsinto]questionthecomingoffutureasfuture” (Schneider and past, memory’that, thearchivebecomesplacethathouses byvirtue “‘transgenerational In thisnewtemporalconfiguration, wherethefuturefunctionsasgo-betweenforpresent expressed inherartiststatementas “an essentiallydifferenttime, thetimethatisyettocome.” as past;thepastinsteadencounterspresentinaninterfacethathappenstobefuture, certainly takeupthisfeat. The seriesperformsaDerrideanarchivethatrefusestopositthepast tectures ofaccess” dislodgethetemporalitiesofourarchives; Akhlaghi’s performancesofdeath would beremissnottoconsiderhowthisreorientationtowardhistoryanditsalternative “archi- just aspiritualconnection: thetangibilityof imagerymaterializedbythe artist showsthat be invain. The “precious support” ofthe “dead weadmire” that Akhlaghi cites ismorethan promise thatthisgenerationwill notallowtheirlabor, their suffering, oreventheirdeathsto Akhlaghi’s photographicseries isagrandpromisetothismobilizedunitandthestatealike; a decided bythe “whims andloyalties ofthediversecommunitiesthathaveuseforit” (2003:39). ing ofphotographsisneverdetermined byaphotographer’sintentions;it’sinsteadguidedand getting beaten, sometimes arrested, andevendying. And asSusanSontag proclaimed, themean- ingly takenontheweightofpoliticaldissent because thecollective Akhlaghi isinterestedinaddressing potential inmobilizingthecollectivetobringaboutpolitical change. Itneversetsouttodoso By anEye-Witness, Ipurport, isimpervioustotheimpertinentcritiques that questiontheseries’ ask, withaprojectsuchasthis, howandwheretolead thewargeneration’shistoricaltrajectory. Derrida interruption isfirstandforemostaperformativeinterpretation owed tothefuturebyarchive, isaddressedby Akhlaghi’s interruptionofthedead. This and ofaresponsibilityfortomorrow” (1995:27). question ofthefuture, thequestionoffutureitself, thequestionofaresponse, orapromise “what willhavebeen” shock ishes theirprecioussupport?[...] The pointofdeparturethisprojectderivesfromthe precursors outofthemassiveruinshistory, call[s]themontothepresent, andrel- If thearchiveisstoragehouseofhistory, asit’sconventionallythoughttobe, thenwe (Akhlaghi 2013b) us andthedeadweadmireinanessentiallydifferenttime, thetimethatisyettocome. abrupt socialcracksandcollectivehopes. This isperhapsimagining[the]simultaneityof utopic daydreaming, oneofthosecandidoptimisticmomentsthatcomesaroundduring is ameditationonthosepossibilities. PerhapswhatIbringtotheforeisnothingbut This questionofthefuture, ofanaccountability as past isupendedratherthanpreserved, andasitfoldsinsteadintoadeferredfuture — — which “transforms theverythingitinterprets” ([1993]1994:63). It’simperativeto a collectiveshock

— — the questionofarchiveshouldberewritten, asDerridanotes, as “a whether thisrepetitionbe “the attendancetodocumentsinthelibrary — of thepresent, ratherthanahistoricalpreoccupationand

— which letsus “refigure ‘history’ontobodies, theaffective — are alreadymobilized:onthestreets, protesting, — to respond, ortopromisearesponse — the wargenerationwhohavewill- — an “hauntology,” following taken place” (109). The — — - the

- - Postrevolutionary Retrojection 49 is for for is and in — — an approach that aspires — and inevitably, with the and inevitably, — often of a small unit such as a vil- in lieu of doing away with them, as in lieu of doing away with them, — —

entirely it removing sans gap the bridging of — (1869). What Ginzburg maintains above all is a need to What Ginzburg maintains above all is a can be told about the past, that unlived pasts can that about the past, can be told 15 — War and Peace Peace and War and so access to the worlds of their subjects is usually limited to and so access to the worlds of their subjects microhistories — dead or dying, and rather than use them to rehash the overarch- and rather than use them dead or dying, — by employing “narrative elements” by employing — ([1976] 1980)

Ginzburg found in Leo Tolstoy’s fiction, Tolstoy’s Leo in found Ginzburg invention of method this of example quintessential The In this respect, Akhlaghi’s photoset and the “historical narrative” it puts on view, the gray it puts on view, “historical narrative” photoset and the Akhlaghi’s In this respect, investigations Microhistories are considered small-scale Akhlaghi’s subjects are bridge over the gaps 15. To be certain, deciphering Akhlaghi’s “intention” would only go so far in determining the effi- only go so far in determining would “intention” Akhlaghi’s deciphering be certain, To intervenes in the regu- The work carried out by the photographs cacy of her project anyway. the enactment of politics on a appearance to proffer an opportunity for lation of the sphere of sense of community for mourning The images in this series create a broader societal platform. very present they avoid while also touching on the lost futures, both injustices past and Microhistories of Doubt Microhistories manner at that. an efficacious and generous On on two different levels. performs between fiction and nonfiction, narrative area that falls it floats in fiction; and in this way, while on another it deals in reality, one level this narrative in the politics of religio- and grapple with a social imaginary rooted manages to reach into This duality inheres within by the necrolatry of Persian poetry. national myth and fertilized dubs the microhistorical what the Italian tradition of historiography phenomenon can become comprehensible only “a historical conviction that Tolstovian to the - all the while con by reconstructing the activities of all the persons who participated in it,” Ginzburg, For Carlo a project (Ginzburg 1993:24). scious of the unrealizable nature of such had a hand in the development of the field of micro- an early and well-known proponent who out of the traditionalist tendency of historians to set the need for this technique arose history, in order to construct a docu- aside (that which is documentarily unique)” the “hapax legomenon Those in Ginzburg’s camp argue historical knowledge. mentary series for the sake of producing the most anoma- even Any document, “does not exist. instead that the so-called hapax legomenon on still-broader shed light if properly analyzed, can be inserted into a series [...and] it can, lous, “the obstacles interfering with research in the form of In other words, (21). documentary series” and microhistory must become part of the account,” lacunae or misrepresentations in the source gnoseologi- “limitations while exploring their accomplishes this by accepting these constituent (28). a narrative element” cal implications and transforming them into disconnection, the doubts often referred to as narrative gaps, can be opened wide and entered wide and entered can be opened gaps, referred to as narrative the doubts often ­disconnection, new stories to ensure that have their futures, and new monuments can be built for this future of the past. for this future of can be built and new monuments futures, have their lage, sometimes even of an individual such as the contended heretic in Ginzburg’s The Cheese sometimes even of an individual such as the contended heretic in Ginzburg’s lage, and Worms the reconstruc- rendering the opposition to their cause, sources generated by people who stood in The task of the micro- ways a paradoxical project. tion of their lives as narrative history in some to form a “the gaps in the documentation to resist filling is as set forth by Ginzburg, historian, as constituent elements of the documentation and These gaps are to be taken polished surface.” protag- along with the hesitations and silences of the historical to be folded into the account, In Ginzburg’s account of the 16th-century that microhistory embraces. the underdogs, onists, the uncertainties the doubts, “the hypotheses, stake, who was burnt at the miller Menocchio, the (neces- became part of the narration; the search for truth became part of the exposition of (1993:23–24). sarily incomplete) truth attained” ing narrative of 20th-century Iranian history, she has preoccupied herself with the events of she has preoccupied herself with the ing narrative of 20th-century Iranian history, distorted traces of these events their deaths and the fragmentary, gap between the two. This gap between the deaths and their traces creates the capacity for a gap between the two. (28). “direct contact with reality” leap toward Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_a_00895 by guest on 29 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_a_00895 by guest on29 September 2021 (Photo by Akhlaghi) Azadeh Tehran’s Evin Hills under mysterious circumstances. Figure 7. On 18 April 1975, leftist intellectual Bijan Jazani was executed in 50 Sareh Z Afshar 16. 17. from oneprisontoanother. article announcesthekillingofnineprisonersastheyattemptedajailbreakwhilebeingmoved alog pageacrossfromthephotograph. Datedtwodaysaftertheshooting, 20 April 1975, the man because Akhlaghi’s sourceforthereimagining, anewspaperarticle, isreprintedonthecat- by thebronzishdustkickedupinkerfuffle The finalfigureshowsnothingofhimselfbutaghostlyshadow, shroudedinwhiteandhidden appear mid-tumble, andtwoawaittheburnofbulletswitheachnewshotthatpiercesair. Tehran the exhibitioncatalognamesonlyoneman, alongwiththelocationofclash: “Evin Hills, they raisetheirrifles, feetalignedandplantedfirmlyontheground(fig. 7). Thecaptionin looking baggypants, facinguniformedofficers, whosehandsandfacesoverlapmergeas nine men, blindfolded, slipper-footed, deckedinunremarkablebutton-downshirtsandcheap- already deadtofinishthemoff. trator whoissingledoutassuchSa’diJalilEsfahani, whoshotintheheadthosewerenot are droppedintheconfessionandallpresumablysome wayinvolved, buttheonlyperpe- or fifthpersontoopenfireonceariflewaspassedhim. Asidefromhisown, fiveothernames there wereatleastfourorfiveofficialsinvolvedintheslaughter, asherecallsbeingthefourth of knowing. Regardlessofthedegreecredibility, Tehrani isunderstandably vagueondetails: that theconfessionwasobtainedpostrevolution, butunderwhat circumstances, wehavenoway is theacronymusedtoreferShah’ssecretpolice.)Printed inJune1979, wecansurmise [Sazeman-e Ettelaatva Amniyat-e Keshvar, NationalIntelligenceandSecurityOrganization] one month, andonedaylater, isheadlined “Tehrani, SAVAK’s executioner, confesses.” (SAVAK Tehrani, SAVAK’s executioner, confesses],Ettelaat shodand, Nine prisonerswere killedwhilefleeing],Ettelaat Abbas Sourki. Thesource iscited by Akhlaghias Sarmadi, Bijan Jazani, Hasan Zia Zarifi, Kazem Zolanvar, Mostafa Javan Khoshdel, Mashouf Kalantari, and goes on to list the names of those killed as The article Mohammad Choupanzadeh, Ahmad Jalil Afshar,Aziz Below thissnippet, anothernewsarticlefromthesamenewspaper, Ettelaat, datedfouryears, The source iscited by Akhlaghias — Bijan Jazani.” Ofthe ninevictims, threearealreadyontheground, anotherthree 16 17 جالد تهرانی، ساواک، کند می اعتراف می کند Tehrani claimsthatthosewhocarriedoutthemurderwere By an Eye-Witness, 2013. نه حنی در شدندزندانی کشته فرار کشته شدند ( ۱۳۵۸ — خرداد we canonlyascertainthatheisinfactaninth ( ۱۳۵۴

a ۱

a

[21 May 1979]),page3.

[Tehrani, jallad-eSAVAK, e’teraf mikonad; فروردین a ۳۱ these, from18 April 1975, shows of massshootings. The firstof two ofherbloodydepictions tive doubtareondisplayin niques inembodyingnarra- and Akhlaghi’s inventivetech- constructed assuch. is ineffectbasedonamemory past anditseventshave “existed” account ofthewayinwhich historical every themselves —how ory astheexistenceofthingsin attend tothequestionofmem- by traditionalhistoricity, and and “absolute reality” putforth the notionsof “true history” come toquestionwithGinzburg and ambiguityinplay, wemight do. Keepingnarrativedoubt conventional historicalaccounts [Noh zendani darhein-e fararkoshteh

[20 April 1975]),page1. Prime examplesofthisgap Postrevolutionary Retrojection 51 was to to was — by — The Shia Shia The it is mere months after the revolution of 1979 and — , 2013. (Photo by Azadeh Akhlaghi) by (Photo 2013. , Eye-Witness an By In this photo her stare lines up with that of a young boy leaning In this photo her stare lines up with that 18 all assassinations that had happened while they were imprisoned. all assassinations that had happened while article by John Kifner (1979). Kifner article John by Times York New — Iran of Movement Freedom leftist the of members founding the of one and cleric Shi’a prominent stealthily flavoring his Islam with Marxist seasoning, Taleghani was highly popular seasoning, stealthily flavoring his Islam with Marxist

—

the pre-burial ablution ceremony of progressive Shi’a cleric, Mahmoud Taleghani (fig. 8). (fig. 8). Taleghani Mahmoud Shi’a cleric, the pre-burial ablution ceremony of progressive (2006:126–27). For details on the crowds that turned turned that crowds the on details For (2006:126–27). Future the Shape Will Islam within Conflicts How Revival: the see burial, his for up For more on Taleghani’s religio-political stance and influence on the 1979 revolution, see Vali Nasr’s Nasr’s Vali see revolution, 1979 the on influence and stance religio-political Taleghani’s on more For The details here are murky, the circumstances cloaked in mystery. The narrative gaps are many The narrative gaps cloaked in mystery. the circumstances The details here are murky, The scarf’s On one muted repose performs on two levels in the 1975 restaged shooting. 18. someone who, by virtue of being on the wrong side of power following the revolution, may well by virtue of being on the wrong side of power following the revolution, someone who, Akhlaghi’s image assertions in exchange for his life. have been under pressure to make certain red scarf, in her every other photograph the artist, In shows us the haziness of this history. recedes into even as she sometimes onto the scene, appears in clear view of the camera: gazing the crowds gathered staring into the lens from among instance, in one eerie the shadow; or, for and to be sure, only one experience of the event ever had the possibility of being relayed only one experience of the event ever had the possibility of being and to be sure, unaware of the plan until the final moments preceding the act and that the prisoners were killed unaware of the plan until the final moments behind the assassination of state figures “intellectual leaders” in retribution for their role as the friendly with SAVAK Figure 8. On 9 September 1979, dense crowds headed to the mortuary where the body of Ayatollah Mahmoud mortuarythe to headed Mahmoud Ayatollah of body the where crowds dense 1979, September 9 On 8. Figure Taleghani undergo ablutions in preparation for burial. for preparation in ablutions undergo Tehran’s leading religious figure at the time of his death in early September 1979 and known for leading religious figure at the time of Tehran’s his tact in on what is presumably Taleghani’s casket Taleghani’s on what is presumably In stark futures and closely eyeing those ushering it in. awaiting their its children are watching, all the victims who could have borne the hills of Evin, in the 1975 photograph taken in contrast, into the it would seem, Akhlaghi has disappeared, testimony to the murders are blindfolded; ground behind the political prisoners. which lies on the fabric of her red scarf, Akhlaghi has been there insomuch as she has been in any of the other the scarf is a sign; hand, the day acquired as much information regarding she has done her research, That is, scenes. as she who lays claim to Akhlaghi as artist and archive excavator, The scarf signals as possible. with the well-read leftist youth at the time of the revolution; Akhlaghi’s decision to restage his Akhlaghi’s decision to of the revolution; with the well-read leftist youth at the time funeral was to be expected. Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_a_00895 by guest on 29 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_a_00895 by guest on29 September 2021

52 Sareh Z Afshar future phantoms, futurefantasies” (143). photo seriesmostcertainlystrivesfor, makingtheseapparitionsmomentarilyvisible can “alter that structureourindividualandcollectivelife” (2003:142–43). As Taylor statesand Akhlaghi’s (for aninstant, live, now)thatwhichisalwaysalreadythere:theghosts, thetropes, thescenarios mance asthatwhich, occurringintheghostly “moment ofpostdisappearance, [...]makesvisible trauma assuch, thenwecanpullthisunderstandingalongsideDiana Taylor’s viewofperfor us graspthepast, “photographs hauntus” (89). Ifwerecognizetheontologyofphotographs recognized asfictitious(2003:57). Shefurtherwroteofhow, whilenarrativesoftraumacanhelp graphs ofearlywarphotography, “turn backintohistoricalevidence” evenaftertheyhavebeen ical evidence anything, itcanandshouldforcereflectiononourpartabouttheimpurenatureofmosthistor rebuke thephotograph, toquestionitsdoublepowerindepictingandcorroboratingatrocity. If painful politicstheyeitherdoorfailtodredgeup. And yet, thisfallingshortneednotleadusto quite shown. This deficiencyisfurthercompoundedinthecaseofcollectivetraumasand the mediumofrepresentation, trauma, photographedorpainted, canonlyeverbeevoked, never incomplete; traumaexceedsitselfandthisphotographicrecreationremindsusthatnomatter this understandingofthetraumatictrace. 1979 Iran, andisaclearreferencetoFranciscoGoya’sThe Third ofMay 1808 (1814), reinforces capture ofthefiringsquadthatgunneddown11menconvictedas “counter-revolutionaries” in body (re)performsitsout-of-timeexperience. lective traumasunfold. Trauma takesandundertakes:itrootintheunconsciouswhile memory, orinourdocumentsandarchive phor, symbolizingthematerialityofresidueleftbehindbytrauma ­representing theofficialhistoryhandeddowntoher. Ontheotherhand, thescarfisameta- 19. sure tothe work. Akhlaghi’s (re)enactmentscancontinuetoactpoliticallylong beyond heraudience’sinitialexpo instance, owingtotheirabidingnature, boththe photograph andthesentimentarousedthrough tograph” (2003:85). And toecho Taylor, someenactments leaveatrace(2003:143);inthis to conjureSontagagain, weknowthat “sentiment ismorelikelytocrystallizearoundapho visit andrefreshtheirmemoriesofwhattheyhavechosentothinkaboutasagroup. Moreover, tographs ofstagedhistoricevents tell astoryoranolddifferently;inbothcases, herartisticapproach so-called collectivememoryisformulated(2003:86). Akhlaghi’s imagesseemtowanteither minds viaimagery decides thatacertain(versionofan)eventwasconsequenceandlocksthestoryintotheir tion inthatitis “not arememberingbutstipulating” (2003:86). Meaning, whereagroup Trauma studies, ithasbeenwidelyargued the OrganizationofIranianPeople’s FedaiGuerillas(fig. 9). Ashrafwasambushed andshot corpse ofHamid Ashraf, afoundingmemberofthearmedMarxist-Leninistguerrilla group, second imageofmassmurder:shesitsinthemirror, merelyareflection, lookingoverthedead Pellegrini 2009). This secondtonthtimeoftraumais what Akhlaghi tenderlyembodiesinthe us, “never forthefirsttime[;itisalways]second tothenthtime” (1985:36;seealso studies scholarship, seeingastrauma, muchlike performance, is, asRichardSchechnertells Repeating and Working-Through” ([1914]1958) The factthattheimageofEvinHillsfiringsquadrecallsJahangirRazmi’sbone-chilling Razmi’s work. Nine of the men shot were Kurds (Time The only photograph to ever win the Pulitzer Prize anonymously, this photo was identified in 2006 as Jahangir Trauma alsoleavesa trace, thoughitisonethatusuallyresideson In thiscase, thealterationstartswithashiftincollectivememory, which, forSontag, isafic — many stagedphotographs, Sontagobservedbylookingatthecanonicalphoto- — poster-ready photographsthatarethevisualequivalentsofsoundbites — enacts Sontag’sclaim. With her photographs, peoplecan 19 — — Any representationoftraumaisalwaysnecessarily even assomethingofusisleftbehindwhencol- based onFreud’s1914essay, “Remembering, n.d.). — stands totakeapagefromperformance — — and in on ourflesh, inour — taking pho — the surface. - - — -

- - - Postrevolutionary Retrojection 53 - - only momentarily — , 2013. (Photo by Azadeh Akhlaghi) by (Photo , 2013. Eye-Witness an By her position tells us that this death was without witnesses as well; that her position tells us that this death was without —

nor were they, in most cases, “properly” documented; they were not recorded in a trust- “properly” in most cases, nor were they, —

Akhlaghi’s recreations, then, are microhistories that keep narrative doubt intact in the bal- are microhistories then, Akhlaghi’s recreations, They help sketch new configura- The images of art do not supply weapons for battles. consequently, said and what can be thought and, what can be tions of what can be seen, do so on the condition that their meaning or But they a new landscape of the possible. (2009:103) effect is not anticipated. ance between the real and the fictional, and harness it for an inverse function in the service of and harness it for an inverse function in the ance between the real and the fictional, Per Rancière’s crafty observation: soliciting new microhistories as well. happen, yet could not be and were not properly mourned at their yet could not be and were not and iconoclasts that did happen, etics, time Complications to mourning ranged anywhere from official state banning of worthy manner. The serial nature of this photography project may lead us to consider these deaths as analo- The serial nature of this photography project may lead us to consider these deaths that they were in fact anomalies and in many respects but it’s important to reassert gous events, her the artist is restaging deaths of dissidents, be certain, To owe their notability to this nature. A Quality of the Real A Quality of the Real nesses to the corpse, pulled out of their prison cells, stand over Ashraf stand over pulled out of their prison cells, nesses to the corpse, those who were asked to identify the body were only asked to do so after the fact. These wit were only asked to do so after the fact. those who were asked to identify the body They gaze blindfolds in order to confirm his body. allowed to peer out from under bags and only aware of the fact of death after the traumatic never knowing what happened, downward, act has occurred. down along with nine other members of the group at the Mehrabad South House by SAVAK the group at the Mehrabad South House by SAVAK down along with nine other members of but the mirror, infinitely in itself again and again, Akhlaghi’s stare repeats on 29 June 1976. never for the first time Figure 9. Hamid Ashraf, a founding member of the armed Organization of Iranian People’s Fedai Guerillas, was brutally Guerillas, Fedai People’s a founding member of the armed of Iranian Organization Ashraf, 9. Hamid Figure the by House South Marxist-Leninistthe of members other nine with Mehrabad along the at group guerrilla murdered 1976. June 29 on (SAVAK) police secret Shah’s Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_a_00895 by guest on 29 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_a_00895 by guest on29 September 2021

54 Sareh Z Afshar the kindofstate-dealtbrutalitythatpersiststoday. possibility ofsomedaysheddinglightuponthegapsinstoriesthosedeathsresultingfrom pasts ose tableauxtodayistonotonlybegintheprocessofreconciliationwiththesepastsasdoubtful lectively grapplewiththisandotherdoubtsatthefootof “altars” presentedbythesegrandi- “because theycannotbesurethatthedeadareanywhere” (2011:804). That beingsaid, tocol- cated. As Thomas W. Laqueurpointsout, thelivingsufferhavingoutlivedtheirdeadprimarily rise upwiththedescentofdeadintoground, however, canneverbecompletelyeradi- make certain)that, inwhatremainsofhim, heremainsthere” ([1993]1994:9). The doubts that than confusionordoubt:onehastoknowwhoisburiedwhere air intohisveins? monly knownfact? And whatofthejailedjournalist children’s fablesreallygoforaswimanddrown, eventhoughhisinabilitytoswimwasacom- ist athletereallycommitsuicideinhishotelroom?Didthenation’sbelovedsocialistauthorof Did thisfeministpoetreallydieinanaccidentorwasshedrivenofftheroad?thatleft- were thethreeUTstudentsburied? Was thekillingofarmedguerrillaactivists “permissible”? ies disappearedordestroyed. Shadowsofuncertaintyhavecascadedoverthesedeaths: Where ceremonial gatherings, tomassandunmarkedgraves;fromsuspiciousdeathsinexile, tobod- 21. 20. her. Historycanmake memory. As ourmemoriesmakeandremakeus, memoriesthatareatany tory tounderstandhowherinheritanceofviolentpostmemory continuestomakeandremake is madehistory ries withtheartistcanseetheirrecollectionstakeshapeashistorical detail storage andtransmissionofknowledge” (2012). Here, thewitnesseswhosharedtheirmemo- are “of severalinterrelatedandcoterminoussystemsthatcontinually participateinthecreation, ming fromtheembodied/documenteddividethat Taylor dismissesbyelaboratinghowthetwo ative processesratherthanstaticbinariessittingoppositeone another, afauxdistinctionstem- This otherarchiveblendstogethermemoryandhistory, revealingthemasdynamic, collabor native archiveinacountrywhereanyofficialaccountofnationalhistoryisheavilyregulated. sense, sheisrighttobeuntroubledbythisequation. Remarkably, theartisthascreatedanalter seems unconcernedwithequatingthestagedphotographsoriginalevents. And ina time, shesays, peoplesaw “a pictureofsomeonetheylovedformanyyears” limits ofthepubliclysayablearealsorecircumscribedinpresencetheseimages. had beenwranglingwiththeir(post)memories:thisprojectmakesthememoriesseeable. The People werefinallygrantedanopportunitytostepoutsideofthepersonalspacesinwhichthey a pictureofsomeonetheylovedformanyyearsbutcouldn’ttalkabout” (inStoughton2014). Stoughton: “People traveledfromothercitiestocomethegalleryandforfirsttimesee ing, itowesthisoperationinparttowhat Akhlaghi revealsinherinterviewwithjournalistIndia and theirsurvivorspreviouslyhadaproposcutofjustice. vated bythisresistanceforthenarrativesofdissidentsdyingtodayexceedswhathope that trytoeliminatethesespacesandportraythehistoricalasacohesivewhole. The hopeculti- dredge up, toseeandacceptthesegapsasapartofthenarrativesresistthoseaccounts the stories, buttobearwitnesstheirunknowablenatureandtheambivalentfeelingsthey making (1999). In invoking the altar here, I’m thinking with Kay Turner’s study of how women privately modes of altar- find new Akhlaghi restaged. Gholamreza Takhti (1968); Samad Behrangi (1967); and Mohammad Farrokhi Yazdi (1939), all of which Ghandchi (1953); Marzieh Ahmadi Oskuie (1974) and Hamid Ashraf (1976); Forough Farrokhzad (1967); In order, these questions address the controversial Shariat deaths of Azar Razavi, Mostafa Bozorgnia, Ahmad This redrawingofthelinescomesaboutinlightacuriousdetail, however:forthefirst If theseriesisabletoperformandrecordambivalenceatheartof(collective)mourn- — a pointofdeparturefromtheofficialaccountshistory — 20 while theartist, andbyextensionheraudience, caninsertherself intohis- To quoteDerrida: “Nothing couldbeworse, fortheworkofmourning, 21 The objectivehereisnottoclaimknow — did someunknown “they” reallyinject — — t know —to (to and itisnecessary but alsotoyieldhopeforthe —

— private memory Akhlaghi here - - Postrevolutionary Retrojection 55 - - - - - of much — of what — — mellat-e and sight — will surface (2010:30). will surface (2010:30). —

we can come to sense history we can come in the disjunction between what between what in the disjunction — — seeing/feeling history liquefies it as seeing/feeling history say — “the feminist killjoys, unhappy queers, unhappy queers, “the feminist killjoys, — and how each of these, in their intrusion to happiness, remind us in their intrusion to happiness, and how each of these, —

an emotion that reads the openness of bodies to being affected by each — that reading of the openness of the body to being affected is one that assumes the that reading of the openness of the body to being affected is one that assumes the Akhlaghi and her dead subjects. Akhlaghi and her dead subjects. who, following Sara Ahmed, we can call “affect aliens” we can call Ahmed, following Sara who, — —

— differently. That is, where knowing history is rendering it an object of memory where knowing history is rendering is, That differently. ), and the intruders are those who infringe upon its “happy” path of sustaining itself. path of sustaining itself. “happy” upon its and the intruders are those who infringe ),

- be hopeful can thus start from a position of unhappiness and its ability to surface pub To As far as images go, they never stand solo; Rancière points out how they belong instead “to they never stand solo; Rancière points out how they belong instead As far as images go, What’s more, carving out a space for history as that which resides in the heart of mem which resides in for history as that carving out a space What’s more, that when thought of as an affect, as a force that arrives from outside the subject, happiness is as a force that arrives from outside the subject, that when thought of as an affect, In the cur and moral economies (2010:30). a prime example of the overlap between affective of Emotion Politics The Cultural Ahmed’s earlier work, licly as such; an observation first made in “intentional and directed towards the future only in rela- where she writes of hope as (2004), a desired future only exists Ahmed, For (2004:185). tion to an object that is faced in the present” in response to hope the future can also be read as a question of fear While other as the possibility of joy. a system of visibility that governs the status of the bodies represented and the kind of atten- a system of visibility that governs the status conceives of a new system By an Eye-Witness In this configuration, (2009:99). tion they merit” problematic and unrepresentable by the state, of visibility that has room for subjects deemed and express dis- for their very willingness to speak out “the dead we [her generation] admire,” in giving these dissidents visibility and mournabil- In creating room, sent against the state. their agency. returning to them Akhlaghi in effect gives them a place within subjectivity, ity, a break from the is also to the mechanics of doubt, while subjugated This agential positionality, other and as such is entangled with the collective hope that those normative Iranian subject, Iranians outside the normative family to threaten its place as these individuals arrive from Ahmed, For of unhap- and thus are a constant source its model, by failing to reproduce “happy object” a few examples She counts off a piness for this entity. and melancholic migrants” (­ the family can be considered to be the noble nation rent Islamic Republic of Iran, sharif messages The state counts among them the political dissenters and those who amplify their of change will come can thus con- We (Ahmed 2004:186). or pain” “a possibility of danger porosity of the body as as a question of sider what it would mean to ask the question of the archive as an affective one, translating hope as a place and by Akhlaghi’s images certainly take this up, hope as well as fear. tive, predicts the future through what it knows beforehand via the senses. Intuition thus allows via the senses. through what it knows beforehand predicts the future tive, Akhlaghi’s What (3). in the senses rather than in historical knowledge new futurities rooted seeing itself should be seen and table is once again the argument that collection brings to the sensed tion remains: reflecting upon the “tactile, fragrant, pulsing” removes these forms of knowl pulsing” fragrant, “tactile, upon the tion remains: reflecting conscious this However, memory. flow and makes of them objects of edge from their temporal in its inseparability from the specula which, is a practice in intuition, reflection on the senses see and what we can we can see and what what what we say, we see and sensory distribution. a different system of and rewrite it within otherwise, that help do the of new theoretical forms call for the creation Deborah Kapchan’s ory heeds instilled between that refute the separation forms analysis, work of critical cultural speculative Further complicating this already a visual relationality with the world. subject and object by and limitations when dealing with Kapchan reminds us of the possibilities problematic divide, the problem of reflec one level, On (2017:3). of sensory knowledge” “non-intellective modes reflection upon any sensed detail like what happens in In it. always shaping itself to the memory vessel containing memory that is always in motion, of knowledge rather than a site pinpointing our focus on history as a form our and with it, Akhlaghi’s collection shines a light on how our histories become rigid memory, made possible via Her images attempt to reintroduce the flow of time into history, futures too. in flux. its introduction as an object of memory: moment entrenched in a specific distribution of the sensible distribution of the in a specific moment entrenched Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_a_00895 by guest on 29 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_a_00895 by guest on29 September 2021

56 Sareh Z Afshar opponent, theseimages “rework theframeoftheir[thewargeneration’s]perceptionsand the mance ofdeathcanfunctionas ashrinefordeath:throughsharingoflove forlife’sformidable death. And, inaspace alreadydesignatedforcollectiveremembranceandmourning, thisperfor speak oftheartist’sloveforand attachmenttoitincomingknowherself are aglorifiedtributetowhat she considersremarkabledeaths. Theyareinpraiseof deathand completely breakwithit:theyare Akhlaghi’s homagetoher own conflictswiththematter;they that resiststheirimmediatetranslationintothought, neither trytoreinforcethisfatalism, nor highly fatalistandobsessedwithdeath. What Ipositis thattheseimages, intheirpensiveness icled asfixed. Theimagesaddressageneration, hergeneration, apopulationoftendescribedas an “official,” state-recognized publicbiography, mythic figures whosefates arefrequentlychron- the zoneofindeterminacy. Akhlaghi’s imagesare ofnationallegends, eachofwhomcomeswith joined withoutbeinghomogenized the affectpervadinghercleverficto-filmiccreations. deaths” (2004:xx–xxi). The artistherehasreestablishedwhatcancountasreality, thisbydintof It isalsoawayofestablishingwhoselivescanbemarkedaslives, andwhosedeathswillcountas of thesphereappearanceisonewaytoestablishwhatwillcountasreality, andwhatwillnot. “the publicsphereisconstitutedinpartbywhatcanappear.” Sheconcludesthat “the regulation appearance andreevaluatinglostlives. As Butlernotesofthelimitssayableandseeable, artistic project, wecaninferthistobehercreativeinterventioninderegulatingthesphereof fronting thearchivesasstoragehouseoffutureandnotpast. of joy, andfearasaplaceofdoubt, herseriespromotesdoubtfuljoyandjoyfuldoubtincon- create anintersectionamongthesedifferentregimesofexpression. the pictorial, alwaysinplaywiththetraditionsandconventions ofIranianpoetryandprose, to in theimage, theartistmaneuversbetweenphotographyand cinematography, thetheatricalto minacy: asidefromthedoubtbleedingthroughcircumstancesofeachdeathanditsafterlife Eiferman 2014;PeabodyMuseum2019). Unsurprisinglyshemakesuseofthiszoneindeter fusing togetherherpassionforcinemaandmythicliteratureinthephotographicseries(see whom sheworkedalongsideasanassistantdirectorbetween2005and2008, andadmitsto and passivity, butalsoartandnon-art” (107). Akhlaghi hadanapprenticeshipwithKiarostami, sentation image isanthatdealsintension he definesas “thelatentpresenceofoneregimeexpressioninanother” (2009:124). Apensive tography andpoetry” asa “good contemporaryexample” ofthepensivenessimage, which latter, thetheoristwritesofIraniandirector Abbas Kiarostami’swork “between cinema, pho- them andthekindofhumanbeingsimagesareaddressedto. should attendtothecommonsensecomposingthem, thekindofhumanbeingsrepresentedby tion toaskisnotwhethertherealityoftragediestheydepictfaithfullyupheld;rather, we to seeandspeak. With suchfictiveconstructs of “intolerable” content, Rancièreposits, theques- but alsowhocanspeakanddecipherwhatispermittedtobeseen tus ofvisibilityatplayinIran, whichhasdictatednotjustwhatcanappearinthepublicsphere, ings” (Rancière2009:102). The imagesinByanEye-Witness bringtotheforeveryappara- different spatiotemporalsystems, differentcommunitiesofwordsandthings, formsandmean- of fiction, can “constructdifferentrealities, differentformsofcommonsense entryway intothefictionofawork. Imagesthatimbueuswithadeepsenseofagony, asworks New divisionsbetweenthesayableandunsayable, thevisibleandinvisible, canalsoserveasour Film andFiction Moreover, if Akhlaghi isunperturbedinlendingaqualityoftherealtodescriptionher It isinthetensionheldatthisjuncture These imagesareboth “intolerable” and “pensive” inRancièreanparlance. Musingaboutthe — and signifies “azoneofindeterminacybetweenthoughtandnon-thought, activity — that ByanEye-Witness canbesaidtomaneuveraround — the tensionbetweenregimesofexpressionandrepre- — where differentregimesofexpressionarecon- — not everyonehastheability — — a performanceof that istosay, - - Postrevolutionary Retrojection 57 - the — an exploration — after keeping thought in suspen- — behaves, however, is integral to the forms of epistemology we can is integral to the forms of epistemology we can however, behaves, — history as having memory, history as a memory constructed as such. This constructed as such. history as a memory having memory, history as — think. We can come to think ourselves and others across the endless stream and can come to think ourselves and We think. — even more so in a country like Iran, where showing skin, always scandalous, is the always scandalous, showing skin, where even more so in a country like Iran,

—

Skin is what we show of ourselves and see of others, how we know and come to be Skin is what we show of ourselves and see of others, , new subjectivies and different orientations toward the orientations toward and different new subjectivies , of By an Eye-Witness For spectators the images are pure we see [in this series] in history’s memory; can’t search out what We and multilayered narra- a simple repetitive and public, and personal and simultaneously of our people’s perpet- my own generation witnessing the story tive from someone of It’s as though another image and liberationist tendencies. puzzlement, ual displacement, the sound of the camera I hear history’s memory right now... is being recorded over (Rasoulof [2013?]) ­shutter... the sensible to the Foucauldian polarity that defines I take liberties in adding as above, If, eye How the other at least one eye sees. in encountering photographs, For many of us, feeling eye, the thinking I feeling eye, knowledge can be transmitted and distributed in hope to cultivate and the ways in which our there is skin, In-between, as recorded in the flesh. through bodies, less damaging fashions; i.e. look at the wound and not see and the metaphor, there is feeling: if we look between the sign and finally observe, notice, we can start to feel, through it, embodiment of self-revelation. Steven Connor suggests that the reason skin, in and of itself, in and of itself, suggests that the reason skin, Steven Connor embodiment of self-revelation. “the multiplication of skin- figures so prominently in our postmillennium moment is due to not merely a result of its evermore visible presence in and surfaces [...and] signifying screens” he “[t]he first such modern skin-surface” as Identifying the photograph social representations. Barthes too was fixated on the ways in joins together the acts of touching and looking (2001:36). a skin [he shared] with anyone who has been photo- “a carnal medium, which light operated as (1981:81). “to [his] gaze” the photographed body “touch[ed]” as well as radiations that graphed,” what both of these thinkers overlook in their meditations on the allure of the photo- However, leaving all the work of touching and feeling graph is their own participatory role in this linkage, the other. the photograph, up to the image, sion so that thought and nonthought can mingle, art and nonart can merge, and passivity and art and nonart can merge, mingle, sion so that thought and nonthought can activity mix docile touch of affective skinscapes. known future are realized through an understanding of the past as rewritable and of history that is as of history that is as past as rewritable and understanding of the realized through an future are fluid as memory a seeable history versus the artist considers a the idea of what is gleaned through understanding language’s deter and felt, said, differentiating between what can be seen, knowable history: by the sensible as determinable and the irreducibility of the visible and mining grip is loosened Encapsulating this undeniable. and transmitting knowledge is rendered elements in producing founder of Mohsen Gallery: Rasoulof, approach further is Ehsan stratum or “by the combinations of visible and articulable that are unique to each knowledge [1986] 1988:51); it is not to challenge Foucault’s breakdown (Deleuze historical formation,” the domination of visual- Breaking plane of visibilities. it is to extend the nondiscursive rather, such an extension has been poetically rendered in a ity over all perceptible experiences through Tunisia shortly A reflection made during his 1914 trip to simple diary entry by artist Paul Klee. This no.937). (1964:320, the other feels” “One eye sees, he writes: WWI, after the beginning of was medium, specifically as it pertains to the photographic feeling in conjunction with seeing, to the memory of his lost mother later extended by Roland Barthes in his ode only shares an image he childhood that pains him, into photography through a picture of her I hence I notice, “I feel, Barthes notes, Lucida, In Camera in description and not duplication. (1981:21). I think” observe, dynamism of [their] affects. As such, they can open up new passages towards new forms of polit- new forms of up new passages towards they can open As such, of [their] affects. dynamism 2009:82). (Rancière ical subjectivation” Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_a_00895 by guest on 29 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_a_00895 by guest on29 September 2021

58 Sareh Z Afshar 22. tion presentsitself:Howdoesa groupgetcutofffromitsownpast? As pressingisthe question a diminishedteleologicaldrive insofarastheircollectiveagencyisatplay ple. IfwearetoacceptthecausalityestablishedbyBerger tive trajectory:whattoremember, whattoforget, andwhattoimagineasacommunityofpeo- different groupshavehadlevelsofaccesstoandautonomy inchoosingtheircollec- along space. And yet, theeffectJohnBergerattributes tosuchastateisundeniable. Historically, appears nearimpossibleinourdigitalera, whichbears thepromiseofcontinuitiesacrosstime, To severagroupfromitspastbefitstheplotofcleverworkfiction;thisimaginative feat entire of the past has now art become a political issue. than one that has been able to situate itself in history. This is why A people or a class which is cut off from its own past is far less free to choose and to act as a people or class The Afterlife ofthePast the survivalofourkind is beinglost?Furthermore, isthereadangertothisloss, oristhisgradualerosionanecessityto and archives?Cananyoftheseformstrulyoutliveourphysicalbodiesforlong, andifnot, what feeling? Where isourknowledgeinscribed value assignedtomemory demands “Don’t forget” and “Never forget” (2003:115). Critiquingtheimbalancebetween Photographs shouldhelpusfeel, hencethink, subsequentlyhelpingustonotforget. hope istotry, throughphotographs, toactlikeskin:skinfeels, andtherefore, itdoesnotforget. of theseevents, theoperationofshutterinencapsulatinglightremainssame. The only too realtoeverfullyforget gle momentoftheworldisallaphotographcancapture, tooshorttoeverfullyremember, yet neously theimpossibilityofforgettingandremembering. The luminescenttraceofasin- they canshowtheunspeakable, allowingustofeeltheunthinkable. They representsimulta- betweens, linkages, modesofknowingandtransmittingwhatwecometoknow. Furthermore, tograph itsitsin:tohear more openfutureasimaginedbythepast. And, finally, tosilencethemissingpastlikepho- of theholesflesh, body, memory, anddrillnewonessodoubtcanperformintheserviceofa them inordertoletforgetfulnesstakeeffect;tellstoriesaboutwhathappened. To fillinsome continually remembered. Where thesephotographsdidnotexist, Akhlaghi setouttocreate way ofshuttinghiseyesontheephemeral, onwhatcouldnot Barthes 1981:53). We constructnarrativesforthesamereason:Kafka’sstorieswerehima jectory thatisbestforgotten, foritisunforgivable” (Dabashi[2013?]). of artbeingproducedbythewargeneration, writingthat “[h]er generationpaintsapainfultra- Akhlaghi’s is necessarythatmemorybefaultyandlimited” (2003:115). Inhisownobservationsregarding warns usoftheburdentoomuchremembering: “To makepeaceistoforget. To reconcile, it retroactive noise. So whataboutus, ourrole?Howdoweparticipateinthisgiveandtake, thistouchingand Connerton’s seminal essay “Seven Types of Forgetting” (2008). To read more on the different types of forgetting as well as an analysis of forgetting as failure, see Paul Photographs touchus. They are But nottonever forget:thereisadifference, articulatedeloquentlybySontag, betweenthe “We photographthingsinordertodrivethemoutofourminds,” Kakfaoncesaid(in By anEye-Witness, HamidDabashiarticulatesaresonantsentimentaproposthework — — — the thinkinganimal? — and here too much whether thesephotographsareof “actual” eventsorthestaging — — much likeskin — the soundsofpresentminusconstantbuzz and thatallottedtothinking — on ourflesh, inourmemory, orinourdocuments — not ontheoutsidebutrathergo- — — and this is the only reason why that thehistoricallyunsituatedhave — or perhapsshouldnot — not enough on egr (1972:33) Berger —John — an importantques- — — — she fore- be the Postrevolutionary Retrojection 59 To that end, that end, To 22 the artistic practice of the artistic practice of — an efficacy that distances itself from the critiques an efficacy that distances itself from the — I first looked back at and then forward to the possibilities of in/ I first looked back at and then forward to — as we reconceptualize the structures of grief, doubt, joy, and mourning joy, doubt, as we reconceptualize the structures of grief, — - serves as a productive point of contemplation for the war genera , By an Eye-Witness

my generation

— Seigworth, 29–51. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Durham, 29–51. Seigworth, .gallery/exhibitions/2016/azadeh-akhlaghi-2013/. University Press. and Wang. London: Macmillan Press. 1–20. Andrew Stott, Peter Buse and ed. History, Psychoanalysis, https://artcollector.net.au/azadeh-akhlaghi-an-eye-witness-in-iran. Accessed 6 October 2019. University Press. I’ve tried here to keep the gap between these two possibilities intact, permitting my argu- intact, the gap between these two possibilities I’ve tried here to keep postrevolutionary Iran. References Press. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University of Emotion. Politics The Cultural 2004. Sara. Ahmed, Melissa Gregg and Gregory J. In The Affect Theory ed. , Reader “Happy Objects.” 2010. Sara. Ahmed, Mohsen Gallery. Tehran: Exhibition catalog. . By an Eye-Witness [2013a?]. ed. Azadeh, Akhlaghi, http://mohsen August 2016. Accessed 5 Mohsen Gallery. “By an Eye-Witness.” 2013b. Azadeh. Akhlaghi, CA: Stanford Stanford, in the Islamic Republic. Anxieties of Power Reframed: Iran 2019. Narges. Bajoghli, Hill York: New Howard. Richard Trans. . Lucida: Reflections on Photography Camera 1981. Roland. Barthes, London: British Broadcasting Company and Penguin Books. of Seeing. Ways 1972. John. Berger, NC: Duke University Press. Durham, Cruel Optimism. 2011. Lauren. Berlant, In Ghosts: Deconstruction, A Future for Haunting.” “Introduction: 1999. Andrew Stott. and Peter, Buse, London: Verso. . Violence of Mourning and The Powers Life: Precarious 2004. Judith. Butler, Art Collector 70 (October–December). An eye witness in Iran.” Akhlaghi: “Azadeh 2014. Rex. Butler, MD: Johns Hopkins Baltimore, and History. Narrative, Trauma, Unclaimed Experience: 1996. Cathy. Caruth, 1:59–71. Memory Studies 1, “Seven types of forgetting.” 2008. Paul. Connerton, of why: Why does a group get cut off from its past? Is this discontinuity, this historical break, this historical break, Is this discontinuity, cut off from its past? does a group get Why of why: forgetting? act of prescriptive or an erasure, matter of repressive a state-imposed we could also look to where the agent responsible for this rupture is not a state or ruling elite, a state or ruling elite, this rupture is not agent responsible for look to where the we could also - of economic produc systems corporations, kin groups, families, themselves, but individuals an element of information then Is the forgotten/forgetting civil societies and cultures. or tion, - or planned obso or is it structural amnesia, of the archive, the fallacious promise overload and these que- With deemed taboo? humiliated silence that encircles topics or even the lescence, proposition well before we the already entangled complexity of Berger’s we start to see ries, “entire art of the past”? Is it the What constitutes his argument and ask: approach the crux of we read it instead as the prac- or can no longer immediately accessible, art created in a time an art a practice that attends to the past as art, tice of the past as an the past? art of the past and the prac- Between the temporally inaccessible space. ments to unfold in this of aestheticization: that of the art resides the distance between two forms tice of the past as an the significance of the intersection Berger’s position highlights life. and that of everyday past, marginalized groups can look historically as the place where presently, of politics and aesthetics assertion about art in tandem with Rancière’s By reading Berger’s to locate their autonomy. (2009:63–69) “aesthetic efficacy” notion of of the pas- most notably that mimesis and ethics, posed to those regimes of art grounded in sive nature of spectatorship into inde- to where a determined posture could lead to its own unfolding determinacy: back, to where an indeterminate stance could lead to multiple indeterminacies, terminacy; forward, collaps- people acting as a group; and in so doing, of a “doing” inviting collectivity as the much like It is my hope that this writing, ing a fated future previously considered inevitable. Akhlaghi’s tion in ­ Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_a_00895 by guest on 29 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_a_00895 by guest on29 September 2021

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