Performing the Iranian State Visual Culture and Representations of Iranian Identity

1. THE PHOTOGRAPHIC SOURCE FOR A QAJAR PAINTING
2. CARTOGRAPHIC DESIRES: SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE SHAHR-E FARANG (PEEPSHOW) AND MODERN IRAN
3. TAKKIYEH DOWLAT: THE QAJAR THEATER STATE
4. FOR THE LOVE OF HER PEOPLE: AN INTERVIEW WITH FARAH DIBA ABOUT THE PAHLAVI PROGRAMS FOR THE ARTS IN IRAN
5. SHAPING AND PORTRAYING IDENTITY AT THE TEHRAN MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART (1977–2005)
6. SEISMIC SHIFTS ACROSS POLITICAL ZONES IN CONTEMPORARY IRANIAN ART: THE POETICS OF KNOWLEDGE, KNOWING AND IDENTITY
7. RECLAIMING CULTURAL SPACE: THE ARTIST’S PERFORMATIVITY VERSUS THE STATE’S EXPECTATIONS IN CONTEMPORARY IRAN
8. PAINTED AND ANIMATED METAPHORS: AN INTERVIEW WITH ARTIST ALIREZA DARVISH
9. IN THE HOUSE OF FATEMEH: REVISITING SHIRIN NESHAT’S PHOTOGRAPHIC SERIES WOMEN OF ALLAH

This book discusses what it means to “perform the State,” what this action means in relation to the country of Iran and how these various performances are represented. The concept of the “State” as a modern phenomenon has had a powerful impact on the formation of the individual and collective, as well as on determining how political entities are perceived in their interactions with one another in the current global arena