The Unlikely Architect

Lately Iran has been the center of news world wide, for its recent election. Hundreds of Thousand of protesters have taken to the streets to show there disapproval of what they beleive to be unfair election results. The man they back Mir Hossein Mocavi is more than meets the eye to the west.

Iranian Times:

Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi is a complex figure--not only was he a key player in the country's 1979 revolution and a prime minister during its brutal and chaotic aftermath, he's also an artist, an architect, and the head of the Iranian Academy of the Arts (the campus of which he designed). Mousavi's wife, Zahra Rahnavard, whom he met in the days before the revolution through their shared passion for the arts, is also a famous artist in Iran, and her sculptures can be found in several of Tehran's public squares.

A believer that art plays a secondary role to political engagement, Mousavi once wrote that “the paint brush will never take the place of the communal struggle for freedom. It must be said that the expressive work of any painter or artist will not minimize the need to perform his social responsibilities. Yet it is within the scope of these responsibilities that his art can provide a vision for a way of living in an alternative future.” A press release for one of Mousavi's exhibitions in Tehran described his work as an "exploration in designs, motifs and a kind of dreamlike intuition of lines, volumes and ascending forms on the context of an Oriental and poetic aesthetic.... The paintings have both the touch of primordial memories and look upon modern milieus and innovative experiences."

Mosavi has overwhelming support form the art community, one that has been supressed for many years, in a cuntry known for its rich arts, culture, and architecture. Though Moussavi's most famous commission to date is the Iran Ministry of Energy Building, the image Below depicts the Iran Art Portico on Valiasr Street in Tehran. Remarkably, this project was completed only about two months ago, just before the presidential campaign began. In the photographs, the place looks lovely. It is conceived in a pared down, geometric style that feels almost modern, even as it remains largely faithful to local Persian traditions. Indeed, the detailings on the base and capitals of the elaborately carved alabastrine columns appear to reach back, beyond Islam itself, to the ancient Achemenian and Sassanid styles--a vaguely pagan association that, in another context, got the Shah into such trouble three decades ago.
Middle East Report Online:

Some of Iran’s leading intellectuals and cultural figures have been actively campaigning for Mousavi. They attended a May rally in Azadi Stadium, marking the anniversary of the 1997 election of President Khatami. The Oscar-nominated director Majid Majidi made Mousavi’s official campaign video. Over 800 filmmakers and actors signed a public letter published in Iranian newspapers supporting Mousavi’s candidacy. Leading directors like Dariush Mehrjui, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Manijeh Hekmat, and Masoud Kimiai appeared in a ten-minute video, “Green Stars,” distributed on YouTube, calling on Iranians to vote -- and to vote for Mousavi. “There will be a day when Iran has a president whose hands are draped in green,” says a young woman to the camera, “who paints, listens to music, and reads quality books. His name is Mir Hossein Mousavi.” Makhmalbaf reminds viewers that disenchanted voters who protested the last presidential elections by not voting far outnumbered those who voted for Ahmadinejad. “An artist understands the meaning of responsibility,” says the director Masoud Kimiai. An architect and an artist himself, Mousavi has garnered increasing support amongst Iran’s culture workers who have faced growing pressures in Ahmadinejad’s regime.

Mosavi earned his Masters Degrees in Architecture form National University of Tehran, Specializing in Traditional Iranian Architecture. Mosavi's biggest influence architecturally is italian architect Renzo piano. “He takes some elements of modern Japanese architecture, and American postmodern, and then puts them in the context of Iranian architecture,” said a relative of Mosavi's. I am a strong beleiver in a builidng defines the man who designed it, so what doese Mosavis work say about the man? First of all, while it is possible to be a stupid painter, it is difficult to practice architecture without the intelligence to master a fairly rigorous course of study. Second, it is clear that Moussavi is not a crude Socialist Realist philistine, but a man fairly well versed in the most advanced art at each phase of his career. In art, however, if not in politics, he is more a follower than a leader. That said, his architecture exhibits a keen sense of beauty that is everywhere evident in the Iran Art Portico. On the basis of the images, it looks like a place of quietitude and contemplation, the sort which he may already wish he had never left.

Suffyan Tariq
Architect Daily
6-24-09

Articles of Intrest:
Middle East Report Online
Tehran 24