Urban Culture in Tehran: Urban Processes in Unofficial Cultural Spaces (The Urban Book Series)

This book studies the production of urban culture in Tehran after 1979. It analyzes urban resistance and urban processes in underground cultural spaces: bookshops, cafes and art galleries. The intended audience is architects and urban planners interested in socio-political aspects of bottom-up space formation, but also those in humanities and particularly cultural studies. The idea of the book reflects architectural criticism and bottom-up processes of space formation. It analyzes alternative, non-official ways of forming cultural spaces in Tehran and the way they resist formally endorsed culture. Cafés, bookshops and galleries, each take various and different sets of strategies to constitute their territory and their communities within the city. From temporarily occupying street corners (booksellers) to constitution of an underground network of unfixed meeting points, to using the modern paradigms of ownership and the idea of private property, primarily as a political tool for management, to claim a safe alternative sphere of art, and finally to semiotic spatial codifications of spaces to make them as a safe gathering places taking food as a means. All these three cultural spaces deal with various conditions to form specific forms of resistance practices, throughout processes that leave their spatial traces on the city. Preface 6 Contents 7 List of Figures 9 List of Tables 18 1 Power and Resistance: Eternal Duality 19 Abstract 19 References 32 2 The Beverage Drinking Rituals and the Semantics of Alternative Culture: Tehran Cafés 33 Abstract 33 2.1 History 33 2.2 Environmental (Spatial) Features (Semiotics of the Café Space) 44 2.2.1 Hide and Seek with the Eyes 46 2.2.2 Blending into the City 47 2.2.2.1 Café Kargadan 48 2.2.2.2 Mira Café 52 2.2.2.3 Theatre Café 52 2.2.3 The Glass Eye of Nostalgia 53 2.2.3.1 Connection to the Intellectual Nexus of Both Iran and the World: Spatial Illustration 54 2.2.3.2 Vintage and Worn-Out Stuff 58 2.2.4 Making the Atmosphere 60 2.2.4.1 Tamadon Café 62 2.2.4.2 Café Romance 64 2.2.5 Café, a Place for Montage 69 2.2.5.1 Mosofer Café 70 2.2.6 Café, a Social Base to Live, Work and Hang Out 74 2.2.6.1 Lorca Café 77 2.2.7 The Café and its Media 79 2.2.7.1 Books 79 2.2.7.2 Walls, Boards, Photos and Writings 80 2.2.7.3 Posters 80 2.2.7.4 Menus and Desk-Writings 81 2.3 New Café, New Directions 86 2.3.1 Mobile Café—The Soft Space in the City 86 2.3.2 The Complex Café and the New Style 91 2.3.2.1 Ham Café 92 2.4 Café: Utopia or Heterotopia 93 2.5 Conclusion: Café, a Mutual Urban Language 93 References 104 3 A Multifaceted Reading Culture: Tehran Alternative Booksellers and the Mainstream 105 Abstract 105 3.1 History and Preface 105 3.2 Types of Bookshops 118 3.3 ‘Official’ Alternative Bookshops 120 3.3.1 Amir-Kabir Publishers 122 3.3.2 Nashr-e-Cheshmeh (Cheshmeh Publishers) 123 3.3.3 Nashr-e-Hanooz (Hanooz Publishers) 124 3.4 Second-Hand Bookshops 129 3.4.1 Golestan Bookshop 130 3.4.2 The Wall Bookshop 132 3.5 BookStalls 132 3.6 Conclusion: Demarcations and Overlaps 138 References 139 4 A Genealogy of Tehran’s Art Galleries: A History of the (Home-) Studio 140 Abstract 140 4.1 Apadana, House of Fine Arts (1949–1950) 147 4.2 Rasht 29 (1966–1969) 149 4.3 13 Vanak Street Gallery (1984–2005) and the Private Pool (2001) 151 4.4 The Most Recent 155 4.4.1 Parkingallery (1998) 160 4.4.2 Sazmanab (2008–2015) 165 4.4.3 Emkan (2015) 173 4.4.4 Tehran Carnival (2009) 178 4.5 Conclusion 181 References 182 5 Final Reflections: Anachronisms, Ever-Present Questions and Specificities 183 Abstract 183 References 184 Index 185 Annotation This book studies the production of urban culture in Tehran after 1979. It analyzes urban resistance and urban processes in underground cultural spaces: bookshops, cafes and art galleries. The intended audience is architects and urban planners interested in socio-political aspects of bottom-up space formation, but also those in humanities and particularly cultural studies. The idea of the book reflects architectural criticism and bottom-up processes of space formation. It analyzes alternative, non-official ways of forming cultural spaces in Tehran and the way they resist formally endorsed culture. Cafes, bookshops and galleries, each take various and different sets of strategies to constitute their territory and their communities within the city. From temporarily occupying street corners (booksellers) to constitution of an underground network of unfixed meeting points, to using the modern paradigms of ownership and the idea of private property, primarily as a political tool for management, to claim a safe alternative sphere of art, and finally to semiotic spatial codifications of spaces to make them as a safe gathering places taking food as a means. All these three cultural spaces deal with various conditions to form specific forms of resistance practices, throughout processes that leave their spatial traces on the city Front Matter ....Pages i-xix Power and Resistance: Eternal Duality (Seyed Hossein Iradj Moeini, Mehran Arefian, Bahador Kashani, Golnar Abbasi)....Pages 1-14 The Beverage Drinking Rituals and the Semantics of Alternative Culture: Tehran Cafés (Seyed Hossein Iradj Moeini, Mehran Arefian, Bahador Kashani, Golnar Abbasi)....Pages 15-86 A Multifaceted Reading Culture: Tehran Alternative Booksellers and the Mainstream (Seyed Hossein Iradj Moeini, Mehran Arefian, Bahador Kashani, Golnar Abbasi)....Pages 87-121 A Genealogy of Tehran’s Art Galleries: A History of the (Home-) Studio (Seyed Hossein Iradj Moeini, Mehran Arefian, Bahador Kashani, Golnar Abbasi)....Pages 123-165 Final Reflections: Anachronisms, Ever-Present Questions and Specificities (Seyed Hossein Iradj Moeini, Mehran Arefian, Bahador Kashani, Golnar Abbasi)....Pages 167-168 Back Matter ....Pages 169-172