Persepolis 2530
2007The project takes as its starting point a party: thrown in 1971 by Shah
Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran. This event, for invited
monarchs and heads of state, was held over 3 days and has been variously
described as the most lavish party of the twentieth century.
The festivities took place in and amongst the ruins of Persepolis, capital
of the first Persian Empire. Directly beside the ruins a vast tented city
was constructed to accommodate invited guests. This encampment was designed
and built by a Paris based interior design company and was touted as a
modern day version of ‘The Field of the Cloth of Gold’. The display of
such decadence, the fact that virtually every detail for this celebration
was imported from France and, the manner in which the Shah presented himself
– heir to Cyrus the Great - (effectlvely sidelining Islamic history) demonstrates
some of the asymmetry surrounding this event. In Persepolis the Shah publicly
displayed an unforeseen confusion: one of the world’s most important archaeological
locations, (a world heritage site) presented as his own personal property.
Historians have frequently pointed to Persepolis ‘71 as a key moment in
the turn towards revolution. Persepolis ‘71 is therefore deeply embedded
in our own more contemporary times.
Upon further research it was discovered that the tent city of Persepolis
is still in existence. The one hundred and sixty acre site designed by
the House of Jansen is overgrown, dilapidated and vandalised. The tents
themselves exist as ruined, skeletonic structures; their tattered cloth
coverings have been all but destroyed by the elements.
The installation was a reconstruction of one guest tent (at actual scale)
presented in its present, enfeebled, skeletonic state, effectively returning
this structure to Europe as folly. The Pahlavi’s were large patrons of
the arts; in particular they established a museum with a major collection
of 20th century European and American art. The collection was contentious
and remains so both in Iran and in terms of its potential market value
in the west. Therefore, at Art Unlimited the Persepolis piece with its
embedded history found its own natural setting.
Art Unlimited, Art
Basel 38 13.06.07 – 17.06.07
Arnolfini,
Bristol 02.02.08 – 25.05.08
