We are a small collective of individuals from diverse fields who felt compelled to begin an independent space after gaining experience in various artistic environments. In recent years, Iran’s shifting political, social, and economic landscapes have sadly brought news of the closures of many alternative venues, once brimming with thoughts, writings, and gatherings. This has accentuated the pressing need for coming together and engaging in collaborative endeavours. Our journey began from casual conversations two years ago, and amidst its ebbs and flows, our connections grew stronger, bringing our vision for Sarazad into more explicit focus. These ties were not restricted to Sarazad’s founding members. Many joined us, supporting Sarazad’s ethos without any ulterior motives. Our aspiration is not just to nurture these connections but to expand this circle of camaraderie. Sarazad is an intersection of amateur passion and professional dedication. Our enthusiasm mirrors diligent students enamoured with their work. Financially, we have often leaned on our educational earnings to fuel our dreams.
Sarazad emerges as a nexus for delving into the intersections of art with politics, society, history, and education. For us, life and art are intertwined entities rather than isolated concepts. We hold that art, akin to life, is not born in isolation but flourishes in meaningful interactions with the world and its inhabitants. At Sarazad, our exploration of art, history, and politics aims to highlight the intricacies of coexistence. This journey brings into focus the chasms in dominant systems, drawing our gaze to the “periphery/centre” delineations and compelling us to forge spaces that amplify the voices from varied gender, linguistic, geographical, and class backgrounds. Here, the aim is not a mere representation of the marginalised. We, in fact, wish to critique the conventional representation systems, placing emphasis on the process as much as the voice. We aspire to craft a polyphonic space, underscoring the vital dialogue about art, its practice, and research.
At Sarazad, our ethos revolves around “artistic re-search.” We aspire to transcend theoretical frameworks, emphasising free thought in content creation. Our goal is to foster an environment where challenging and revisiting the established norms of knowledge production, art, and distinct disciplines is not only possible but encouraged. This method critiques traditional research and representation methods and regards research as politically driven and rooted in societal consciousness. In Sarazad, we aim to bridge the gap between abstract theoretical ideas and real-life experiences within socio-cultural and political realms through the lens of art. Instead of viewing history as a singular, overarching narrative, we see it as a mosaic of individual experiences that we try to historicise, the microhistories. This fragmented, evolving history is something that continually warrants reflection and reevaluation as an incomplete phenomenon.
In architecture, a “free-standing” or “cantilever” is a structure that rests on a foundation, and the other end sits outside the main body and extends into the external space. Sarazad (cantilever) is, on the one hand, rooted firmly in social life and the necessity of companionship, participation and critical thoughts, and, on the other hand, it roams freely in various social, historical, geographical, and knowledge areas.
Our effort is to ensure that our views and beliefs in taking our work in Sarazad forward are also present in our personal lives and work relations: an exercise in experiencing and understanding ourselves and others in the context of the society in which we live, a continuous and unfinished effort informed by every day and tangible actions such as looking, listening, thinking, questioning, reading, searching, researching, presenting, making, break apart, connecting, breaking, sharing, opposing, confronting and returning.
This note has an exercised nature for us, and we are eager to rewrite it in the future based on our experiences with others.
Sarazad