Iranian contemporary art is an achievement influenced by modernism that has found a suitable context for expression in direction of becoming globalized and in the age of communication. Whether this context is spontaneous and a historical necessity or a planned and imposed project, it is a reality in front of our eyes with its opportunities and mistakes. Today, more than being involved with naming present time the age of rethought-modernity or post-modern, we need to put more effort to understand the characteristics and the process of its formation better and deeper, as it is affecting our vision and life style.
With this introduction, an important question is that by relying on thought, education and local economy and destroying concepts and producing illusions in isolation, how and to what extent can this historical transition provide a context for innovation, growth and development of contemporary art?
The answer might be found in the evidence we have encountered in recent years: holding local markets entitled as “Art Fair” in order to sell art works, illusory and illiterate educational system, low quality of academic system, decrease, isolation and lack of formation of independent research institutions, commercialism, lack of transparency and creation of some financial bubbles in art economy, etc. These are just some samples to remind us that such kind of approaches have not provided Iranian contemporary art any opportunity in global scale, thought they are setting plans for isolating thought, education, art economy and a kind of conscious exoticism.
Since globalization and local resistance have been known as two similar phenomena, perhaps the current situation is inevitable and “we are still in the bend of an alley” in a historical transition.
Parham Taghioff