Bahman Kiarostami

Arriving in the dark as an outsider who had never been to this city before, one of the first things I noticed while pressing my nose against the taxi window was little twinkly lights floating by along the side of the roads, in green, red and bright blue. Something I am only used to seeing around Christmas. By daylight travelling in cars again, I sometimes caught a glimpse of some more unexpected decorations. A group of iron people, raising their fists in a communist-like fashion. A brown painted man who looked like he had seen better days, and in the median between two expressways, I think I saw deer grazing. To my surprise, not too long after this I watched a film with exactly this as its topic, Bahman Kiarostami’s Statues of Tehran (Mojasamehay-e Tehran).

Bahman Kiarostami was born in 1978 in Tehran and yes ; his father is well-known cinema master Abbas. Creating his own style, Bahman has been hunting reality, and the artists that inhabit it. They form a clear theme in almost all of his works, the latest one being Statues of Tehran. Kiarostami made his first documentary, Morteza Momayez : Father of Iranian Contemporary Graphic Design, when he was eighteen years old. After that followed many more artists such as professional mourners in Tabaki (2001), an international quintet in Nour (2003), two musicians that play the ancient instrument kamancheh in Two Bows (Do Kamancheh, 2004), Iranian artists in a group project Persian Garden (Baghe Irani, 2005), and an unexpected Pullitzer prize in Anonymous (Gomnam, 2007, in cooperation with Kaveh Kazemi) to name just a few.

I think it is safe to say that Kiarostami has a strong fascination with artists (in the broadest sense of the word) and how they relate to the world (I wasn’t going to mention his father, but maybe his work in many fields of the arts has something to do with it). Weaving a long line from music to performance past the visual arts and after maybe left back to music, or right on to photography, his films are more than mere recordings. They always give insights into society as a whole. Statues of Tehran is no exception. It shows the many statues of Tehran in their many shapes, forms and uses.

The film has two main storylines, both representing a different period in Iranian history. Bahman Mohassess’ sculpture was the first modern work of art erected in Tehran but it was taken down after 1979. The piece of art was considered unfavourable. The other is a relief statue representing the revolution by Iraj Esskandari, which is also not on display anymore, due to the construction of a new metro station. Modern times are taking over. Besides the passing of time itself, these two works represent a contrasting approach to ideology and art, nicely visualized through a telephone conversation between the two men.

Kiarostami cleverly exposes the make-up of the city by starting to look at its cosmetics. Many layers form an unconventional cityscape via a gallery of characters : a city clerk (“Do you know who I am ? I am responsible for the building of the metro system, but nobody knows about this.”), a theatre director (“The fact that you keep filming even though you knew beforehand you were not getting permission, exposes your intentions.”), and a proud but hurt sculptor, who sees his statue removed to make way for a new era. People picnicking on the grass beside a highway, making family portraits beside a statue of a clown and adorning their streets with artificially-lit fake trees, shows a side of the city that you sense when you first drive through it, but cannot really put into words. Kiarostami’s focus untangles the layers of convention that you want to see through, as a foreigner coming to Tehran.

Maartje Alders