Tuba

A 'mixed-media series' by "Mehran Tizkar"

In collaboration with “Raha Rastifard”

“The photo project Tuba shows in eight light boxes the woman in Iran today in a society which is
determined by tradition as a style and pattern of thought in every area of life. The filigree, stylized
images reflect in the faces and postures a translucent power of tradition. The artists don‘t want to
express a political opinion but represent the woman‘s view and idea of herself, abstracted in the
medium of photography.
Tuba is the name of a huge, miraculous tree that grows nothing but jewels in Paradise - a symbol
of strength and beauty. The photographs are presented in the exhibition rooms of the Islamic
art collection at the Pergamon Museum. The juxtaposition of ancient and contemporary art from
the same cultural background in one exhibition space raises the viewer‘s awareness of many
contrasts, such as the layers of variable and seemingly immutable values.”
Such describes the Iranian artist‘s couple its photographic series from 2006/2007, in which they
seek to emotionally cope with their experiences in their home country Iran as well as during their
emigration. The practice to use the diaphanous image as a reminder of veil, which simultaneously
holds and disguises the vision, is familiar to us; it reminds us of the slides from our childhood
and of the illusory world of advertising photography. Here, this technique is being artfully used for
processing memory in different layers and on different levels.
On the one hand, the “substance of memory” in the pictures consists of folk motifs such as the
blindfold that is part of the women‘s traditional costume in the Gulf region of Bandar Abbas in the
south of Iran. On the other, it pictures overwhelmingly large calligraphy and stark ornament that
appear behind or next to the woman‘s figuration and the blindfold and that originate from objects
in the Museum of Islamic Art. It seems that the “museum aura” of these objects remind the artists
of the origins of tradition and religion in Iran. We should not forget that this practice of connecting
today‘s rites to history is not only carried out in the Orient. Today‘s museum visitors will not only
be fascinated by the connection of the different levels of „beauty“ in both Creation and artistic
production, but will also remember that artistic work is to be seen in the broader context of culture
– contemporary critical art as well as commissioned art that has been produced for rulers and
patrons in the past.

Text by Prof. Dr. Haase, former director of Museum of Islamic art, Pergamon Museum Berlin

Links: Freedom to create / Pergamon museum