The Super-Modernism of the Festival of Arts, Shiraz-Persepolis (original) (raw)

Speculation abounds regarding the invisibility of collections hidden from the public by institutions and individuals alike. Removed from cultural circulation, it is less frequent that such works are intentionally relegated to unceasing slumber. When such collections are displayed for the public, a simultaneous opening up of potentiality, audience and creative engagement is implicated. Yet, what if the collection or the artwork no longer exists in the conventional sense of a tangible art object? What if the object was ephemeral, with all records of its existence buried under a mythological façade of epic exaggeration and unwarranted demonisation? Such was the fate of the Jašn-e Honar-e Shiraz or The Festival of Arts, Shiraz-Persepolis, a ground-breaking international festival of performing arts held annually in Iran every summer between 1967 and 1977, in and around the city of Shiraz and the ancient ruins of Persepolis. The intellectual drive behind the festival, its modus operandi, as well as its aesthetic content constitute a highly enduring, contested space despite the passage of a half a century, reflecting the Festival’s complex nature. This stands in contrast to most other concurrent pre-Islamic Revolutionary cultural initiatives, like the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMoCA), which have been retrospectively endorsed and validated by artists and cultural practitioners who have inherited their material and intellectual assets.