Karnameh, Visual Culture of Iranian Children, 1950-1980
Karnameh, the first curated archival exhibition at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, surveys through more than three decades of visual creation for children in a cultural and sociopolitical context.
The exhibition was a journey through the early illustrations for educational books, photo documentaries of early century schools, Pioneers of image making and entertainment productions, effect of cold war, American hegemony and Iran between east and west, Oil-based economy and nationalization, religious alternative illustration and literature, revolution and imposed war.
Historical archives and collections, unique in quality and quantity showcased in diverse media such as books, magazines, films and animations, artworks, ephemera which weremostly unseen.
The collected archive was the result of collaboration of TheABCollection, StudioKargah Archive, Bread & Salt Collection, National Film Archive, Iran Cinema Museum, Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, Iran Graphic Museum, Children’s Books Association and many other private archives and institutions.
As a special additional section to the exhibition, “Karnameh Theatre”, was a five-night film festival, screening films from 1950’s melodramatic Filmfarsi to the 1960’s early Iranian animations and the award winning shorts and animations of the 1970’s; as well as movies of the 1970’s which were banned or lost at the time of production were premiered during this event such as Amir Naderi’s lost movie, “The Winner”. Most of the screenings were 35 mm films from the archives of National Film Archive and Kanoon.
The importance of 79’s revolution days and beginning of the Iran-Iraq imposed war was pictured through the lens of photo journalists such as Bahman Jalali, Raana Javadi, Maryam zandi, Jassem Ghazbanpour and Seyfollah Samadian.
“Ketab-e- Karnameh” was published by Pejman Foundation coinciding the opening of the exhibition.
