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Al Mada Foundation Organizes the International Basra Book Fair Exhibition

File photo: Side of a previous book fair organized by Al Mada Group for Media, Culture and Art.
File photo: Side of a previous book fair organized by Al Mada Group for Media, Culture and Art.
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Al Mada Foundation Organizes the International Basra Book Fair Exhibition

File photo: Side of a previous book fair organized by Al Mada Group for Media, Culture and Art.
File photo: Side of a previous book fair organized by Al Mada Group for Media, Culture and Art.

The city of Basra is preparing to host the Basra International Book Fair, which is organized by the Al Mada Group for Media, Culture and Art.

It is the first time that Basra hosts such a huge event, which shall be held at the same time each year.

The exhibition will kick off on October 20 and will last for ten days. It will be held under the patronage of the Iraqi prime minister and with the support of the local government in Basra.

More than 250 international and Arab publishing houses will take part, and it will host an array of cultural activities, with several Arab intellectuals participating in them.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, Ihab Al-Qaisi, who runs the Fair, said: “Following the great success of the Iraq International Book Fair, which had been organized by Al Mada late last year, and the high turnout seen at its pavilions, my management team was compelled to think of Basra as the site of its new exhibition."

"Holding a distinguished cultural activity in Basra could draw many intellectuals to the city, as had happened a decade ago in Erbil. More than 500 Iraqi intellectuals took part in Al Mada’s Fair there, and it provided them with an opportunity to delve into the region’s cultural experience,” he added.

According to Al-Qaisi, a number of books will be donated to the libraries of institutions in Basra and Basra University.

The Union of Iraqi Writers and the Union Basra Writers will both be heavily involved, holding a variety of cultural sessions. The Union is also tasked with facilitating the arrival of exhibition visitors from Baghdad to Basra.

On the Fair’s first edition being named after Iraqi poet Badr Shakir Al-Sayyab the Fair’s director said: “As it is known, many book fairs follow this cultural tradition, and, for our part, we have chosen a figure who had been among the most prominent names in the Iraqi and visual cultural scene for over seventy years. In the middle of the 20th century, he led a renewal movement in Arabic poetry. The poet will be honored with the reprinting of his poem, Rain Song, and organizing critical sessions and poetry readings about him."

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Iran's Vast Collection of Western Art, Much Long Hidden, Re-Emerges Despite High Tensions With US

A woman walks past a portrait of the leader of the American Indian Movement Russell Means, right, by American artist Andy Warhol, as she visits an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A woman walks past a portrait of the leader of the American Indian Movement Russell Means, right, by American artist Andy Warhol, as she visits an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
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Iran's Vast Collection of Western Art, Much Long Hidden, Re-Emerges Despite High Tensions With US

A woman walks past a portrait of the leader of the American Indian Movement Russell Means, right, by American artist Andy Warhol, as she visits an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A woman walks past a portrait of the leader of the American Indian Movement Russell Means, right, by American artist Andy Warhol, as she visits an exhibition titled Eye to Eye which showcases over 120 works by modern world artists as well as Iranian painters at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, in Tehran, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

As Iran faces increasing tensions with the West and turmoil at home, a new exhibition at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art is displaying Western artwork including pieces not seen by the public in at least a decade.
The unveiling of the exhibition “Eye to Eye” has drawn numerous women, their hair uncovered, to the underground galleries of the museum in Tehran's Laleh Park. Their presence, while unacknowledged by authorities, shows the way life has changed inside Iran just in the last few years even as the country's theocracy presses forward with enriching uranium to near-weapons grade levels and launching attacks on Israel during the ongoing Mideast wars, The Associated Press said.
“The first feeling that came to me, and I told my parents, was that I can’t believe I’m seeing these works, which have always been kept far from our eyes,” said Aida Zarrin, a young woman at the museum.
“If such events are held here and we can see artworks like the rest of the world, it’s enough. They are really precious.”
The government of Iran’s Western-backed shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and his wife, the former Empress Farah Pahlavi, built the museum and acquired the vast collection in the late 1970s, when oil boomed and Western economies stagnated. Upon opening, it showed sensational works by Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko, Claude Monet, Jackson Pollock and other heavyweights, enhancing Iran’s cultural standing on the world stage.
But just two years later, in 1979, Shiite clerics ousted the shah and packed away the art in the museum’s vault. Some paintings — cubist, surrealist, impressionist and even pop art — sat untouched for decades to avoid offending Islamic values and the appearance of catering to Western sensibilities. Nearly everything is believed still to be there, though an Andy Warhol print of the empress was slashed during the revolution.
Today, the collection is likely worth billions of dollars. Even with Iran now cash-strapped under Western sanctions, officials with the museum have been able to advocate for keeping the collection, though there have been occasional trades in the past for items from Persian history. Those sanctions may increase under the next administration of US President-elect Donald Trump.
As Iranian politics have thawed, re-frozen and thawed again, the collection resurfaces along with those changes.
Among the over 120 works being shown are ones from Picasso, Andy Warhol and Francis Bacon, along with celebrated Iranian artists. One of the Warhols, “Jacqueline Kennedy II,” is a silkscreen double image of the former US first lady in mourning after the 1963 assassination of her husband, President John Kennedy. Another Warhol portrait of Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger also garnered attention from the cellphone photo snappers.
“A lot of these works are important works in the history of art, and that’s why this show distinguishes itself from others,” said Jamal Arabzadeh, the exhibition's curator. ”A lot of people with less exposure to art have discovered the museum for the first time. ... We are seeing a part of the community that are discovering art and the museum and see the potential of this place, and this is something to be proud of.”
The presence of Western art comes as Iran's government has long fought against items like Barbie dolls and depictions of cartoon characters from “The Simpsons.” Such Western influences have been deemed un-Islamic in the past and have been seen as part of a “soft” cultural war against Iran.
With a ticket costing the equivalent of 14 US cents, the exhibition offers a rare government-sanctioned event not involving the country's politics or Shiite religion.
Among the visitors were many women defying the country's mandatory headscarf, or hijab, law. Crackdowns over the hijab have slowed down after Iran's presidential election in July that elected reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, though individual cases of arrest continue to draw anger.
And for many, the cost of tickets to travel abroad given Iran's collapsing rial currency keep foreign museums out of reach.
“This is very attractive for art enthusiasts because not everyone can go and see museums abroad. It’s extremely exciting to see the works here,” said a woman who only gave her last name, Dolatshahi. “I had no idea I could see works by van Gogh and Picasso here.”