Orientalism & Mimicry of Selfness: Archeology of the neo-Achaemenid Style

In October 1971, the king of Iran, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi celebrated “the 2,500-year Anniversary of the Founding of the Persian Empire by Cyrus the Great.” The famed ruins of Persepolis were chosen as not only the authentic site of historical reenactments, but also as the ultimate symbol of Iran’s monarchy and civilization (fig. 1). Through the three days of royal celebrations, Persepolis became, according to official reportage, “the center of gravity of the world.” International invitees..

Of Aryan Origin(s), Western Canon(s), and Iranian Modernity

From 1901 to his death in 1941, Austrian art historian Josef Strzygowski insisted that the source of Western architecture is to be found in greater Iran. While his theories changed over the decades, along with the alleged origin of “Oriental Aryans,” they had a significant impact on the secularist elite of Iran, who in the 1910s and 1920s appropriated Strzygowski’s ideas in claiming artistic as well as political superiority vis-à-vis the West. Based on his archaeological digs, the German Orie..

Cultivat(ing) modernities : the Society for National Heritage, political propaganda and public architecture in twentieth-century Iran

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2005.Includes bibliographical references (p. 615-632).Beginning in 1922, under the auspices of the Pahlavi dynasty of Iran, the tombs of selected historical figures were systematically destroyed to make way for modern mausoleums erected as metaphors for an "Aryan" nation in its process of modem revival. Initiated during the reign of Reza Shah who ruled the country with an iron fist between 1921 and 1941, most of the projects were implemented under his son, Mohammad Reza Shah, between 1941 and the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Since the monuments were ideologically inscribed commemorations of the leading modernists and reformists of the 1920s, their impact permeated the definition and function of high culture in Iran's 20th-century sociopolitical history. The dissertation offers a critical analysis of the political underpinnings, pedagogical aims, racial schemas, and aesthetic ends of propaganda architecture as they were conceived and constructed under the aegis of the Society for National Heritage. An in-depth study of the institutional history of the SNH, which included the construction of numerous mausoleums--particularly those belonging to Ferdawsi, Hafez, Ibn Sina, Omar Khayyam, and Arthur Pope, the supervision of over sixty preservation projects, and the creation of an archeological museum as well as a national library, the dissertation demonstrates that in the 20t century, the project of Iran' s "cultural heritage" was not just about a series of public monuments, well-choreographed museums, (in)accurate indexes of historical landmarks, or art exhibitions and congresses. Modern Iran's relationship to its cultural heritage was equated to Iran's equal and rightful place in the network of modern nations; its safest and fastest corridor to a progressive, and at times utopian, modernity; and its essential ideological(cont.) justification for the political, and often despotic, reforms aimed at territorial integrity and national homogeneity. Iran's cultural heritage, it is argued, was modem Iran's political raison d'e'tre.by Talinn Grigor.Ph.D

L’Orientalisme architectural entre imaginaires et savoirs

Regroupement des recherches des meilleurs spécialistes, actes du colloque international « Les orientalismes en architecture à l’épreuve des savoirs. Europe et monde extra-européen, XIXe et XXe siècles » (Paris, Institut national d’histoire de l’art, 4-5 mai 2006), ce livre fait le point sur les savoirs et la vision de l’Orient transmis aux architectes au cours des XIXe et XXe siècles par les récits de voyageurs, les publications savantes sur l’architecture, ou encore les cours dispensés à l’École des beaux-arts, et la manière dont ceux-ci ont adapté leurs connaissances à leurs projets réalisés ou non. Quand certains proposent des compilations d’éléments orientaux, d’autres mettent en avant un style « national » reprenant des motifs architectoniques perçus par les Occidentaux comme orientaux. Ces différentes approches montrent combien l’idée d’orientalisme est multiple, en Orient comme en Occident. De nombreux dessins d’architectes, des gravures et des photos anciennes qui permettent de mieux comprendre le contexte de la transmission des savoirs sont reproduits en couleurs