Mapping Within: An Alternative Guide to Tehran and Beyond

The exhibition Mapping Within: An Alternative Guide to Tehran and Beyond provides an alternative overview of Tehran.
The exhibited artists have ignored the routine and have chosen to depict their individual experiences and stories, far from all exhausting conventional norms that society (theirs and others) forces on them. They explore the inner universe, the inward. Each artist depicts an aspect of Iran’s multi-color culture and society.

The detachment these artists have made has provided them the comfort zone they required to construct their own imaginary worlds, yet they are still influenced by history and their origins.
The solitude of these artists is more of a choice rather than a sign of depression. Their work is a document of their reclusion.
Through these artists’ artistic visions unpleasant routines are integrated into somewhat vague, melancholic, and nostalgic depictions. These depictions can no longer be confined within the local – this order within disorder. These paradoxes are not specifically dedicated to certain regions and localities. The perplexity of the 21st century human is what binds us together.

Susan Sontag wrote: “To collect photographs is to collect the world”, one can also argue that To collect art is to collect the world. These artworks can be used to investigate some of the frameworks of Iran’s complex society and can help obtain a multidimensional perception towards a mysterious land that still has so much to be explored.