This afternoon lecture by Tehran-based artist and architect Homayoun Sirizi explores the history of municipal “Shora-ye Shahr” structures in Iran. Shortly after the 1979 revolution, local instruments of governance were reorganized, in view of increasing democratic control at the hands of neighborhood inhabitants. Like many other things in the 1980s, however, things took a complicated turn.
Sirizi’s research is particularly significant at a time when ideas of emancipation via local city governance are gaining traction in Europe, in the guise of ”New Municipalism”. By means of such international comparisons, the REALTY program strives for a global take on the gentrification debate. Not only is uneven urban development a planetary beast; any answers via contemporary art need to be global ones necessarily. International platforms, after all, are our one main forte here.
As a respondent to Sirizi, we will be joined by architect and researcher Niloufar Tajeri, from the Institute for Architectural Theory (GTAS), TU Braunschweig (DE). On this occasion, REALTY is building on a budding collaboration with Shifting Panoramas, a research and exchange program between Berlin and Tehran. Shifting Panoramas, curated by Solmaz Shahbazi and Azar Mahmoudian, equally features contributions by Sirizi and Tajeri, and explores metropolitan differences-in-similarity through a series of events in both capitals.
Language: English