Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art opens after 32 months of restoration

The reopening ceremony of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art was on Thursday, January 28, due to the observance of health protocols with the limited presence of a group of artists, officials and guests from foreign embassies.

In this ceremony Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini Deputy Minister of Culture for Art Affairs, Ladan Heydari Deputy Minister of Management Development and Resources under Minister of Guidance, Mohammad Javad Haghshenassi Chairman of the Cultural Commission of the Islamic Council of Tehran, Mahdi Afzali Managing Director of the Roudaki Foundation, Hadi Mozaffari Visual Arts Office director, Qader Ashna Director General of the Center for Performing Arts, Mohammad Allahyari Director General of Music Office, And a group of artists such as Ghobad Shiva, Hossein Mahjoubi, Bahram Kalhorniya, Reza Abedini, Mehdi Moghimnezhad, Abbas Mirhashemi etc. presented. 

At the beginning of the ceremony, Ehsan Aghaei, director of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, gave a speech and said: I am very proud that today, at the reopening ceremony of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran, after 30 months of renovation, I can welcome you. It is gratifying that the museum is reopening after a major renovation, in its most similar form to the original design. During the restoration of the museum, extensive research and archival studies have been carried out on the museum treasures, the results of which will soon be presented in six books.

There are also various programs for exhibitions and other events that will be announced in the future. A collection of 705 valuable works of contemporary Iranian art has been donated to the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art by Dr. Jamshid Naseri and his late wife Manizheh Mir Emadi. Some of these works will be displayed in the museum from today, he added.

After that, by playing a video of the residential house of Jamshid Naseri and Manijeh Mir Emadi, which was full of various works of art, Dr. Naseri explained about donating a collection to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran.

Following the ceremony, Bahram Kalhernia, the artists' representative in the Museum Restoration Supervisory Council, spoke about the museum restoration process and the task assigned to him.

Also Seyed Mojtaba Hosseini, Artistic Deputy of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, gave a speech: Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art has a special place both in the museums of the country and among the museums of the world, and one of its advantages is the valuable social capital of the friends and enthusiasts who have accompanied the museum all these years. The establishment and strength of this building was an inevitable thing that we had to deal with. Therefore, we chose a very difficult path, and this work began with the cooperation of all departments of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, especially the Minister and my colleagues in various departments.

 During the 32 months of repairs, the theoretical activities were not stopped, but among the activities of the technical and engineering team in the dust, the museum staff was organizing documents, creating a database of works, and so on. Today, on the eve of the new century (based on sun calendar of Iranians), the Museum of Contemporary Art begins its activities with the same form and composition as it did in the beginning, and the many changes that have been made in it are not visible due to the delicacy and precision that existed, he noted.

Hosseini said about donating a personal collection to the museum: "This work showed how collectors can display their treasure to the interested people, regardless of the profit and profit concerns."

After the opening ceremony, the attendees visited the two exhibitions "Armaghan" and "Concept Photo". Performance of works by Kiavash Sahibnasq was also part of the opening ceremony and pieces of contemporary music by Niayesh Javaheri, Golriz Zarbakhsh and Jabiz Zarbakhsh were performed in different parts of the museum. In the "Armaghan" exhibition, which is part of Manizheh Mir Emadi's treasure, works by Parviz Tanavoli, Hossein zendehroodi, Reza Mafi, Mohammad Ehsaei, Jazeh Tabatabai, Farideh Lashaei, Manoucher Yektai, Abbas Kiarostami,Massoud Arabshahi, Abolghasem Saeedi, Jafar Rouhbakhsh, Parvaneh Etemadi, etc. have been displayed. The concept photo exhibition, which is a selection from the photo treasure of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, also works of artists such as Dennis Oppenheim, Brand and Hila Becker, Groan Alec, John Grover, Edward Rosha etc. displayed.