Red Paper

Ideological Publications Issued by The Soviet Union

Jun. 26 – Jul. 10, 2020 |
  • Hall A
  • Hall B

After holding a number of exhibitions, panel discussions, and other events, from the winter of 2020, Nabshi Center is carrying on with its largely archive-based activities. Four projects will be held every year, each presented in two or three parts, based on its scale and content, and it will be concluded by launching the project’s book.
“Red Paper” is the second joint archival project by StudioKargah and Nabshi Center, held in two parts within the new seasonal approach of Nabshi Center. The first part, “Red Poster,” is going to be held from January 10 to February 7, and the second part, “Red Book,” will be held from February 14 to March 13. Both parts of “Red Paper” will include film screenings and talk sessions, the details of which will be announced through the Nabshi’s social media. Moreover, “Red Paper,” which is the result of researches and studies for this exhibition, will be launched in the second part of the show.
Given the long-standing relationship between Iran and Russia and the need to study the Soviet Union’s cultural policies that have played a major role in the Iranian contemporary history and its visual culture, “Red Paper” is an impartial review of Soviet-produced papers and its visual documents designed to have a cultural influence on Iranians and the neighboring Muslim countries. Despite the fact that some of these documents were meant to export certain ideologies in a cultural or artistic packaging, they have undeniable connections to the life and visual memories of present-day Iranians.
The first part of the exhibition, “Red Poster,” takes a historical, visual look at the pre-October turmoil and the period between the two world wars in the Soviet Union. As a preamble to the historical study in this section, the documents of Soviet-Iranian relationships prior to the Russian Revolution, i.e., the Czarist period, are categorized and displayed. On the other hand, the visual section of the “Red Poster” consists of posters made for the public, especially Muslims, in the southern and eastern Russia, designed, produced, and distributed between the two world wars for ideological purposes. With their allusive language, these posters point to the spread of the Russian worldview after the October Revolution to “outsiders.”
Also consisting of two visual and historical sections, “Red Book” is the second part of the upcoming exhibition, consisting of paper documents that represent the Soviet’s exported politicized culture to Iran. The historical section displays the documents of the political and cultural relations between Iran and the Soviet Union in the period between the Russian Revolution and the Iranian Revolution, and the visual section exhibits books published in Farsi by the Progress Publishers in the Soviet Union to be exported to Iran. The publishing house had published a wide range of books, from novels, astronomy, and science, to cultural, communist propaganda, to children’s literature.

Part |: “Red Poster”
Opening: Friday, Jan 10, 2020, 4 – 8 PM
Visiting Days: Jan 11 – Feb 7, 2020
Part ||: “Red Book”
Friday, Feb 14, 2020, 4 – 8 PM
Visiting Days: Feb 15 – Mar 13, 2020
Visiting Hours: Sat – Thu: 11 AM – 8 PM, Fri: 4 – 8 PM

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