The Back Room Workshop

Sazmanab and CultureHub
IranNew YorkPerformanceSazmanab M-40Sazmanab PlatformTehranThe Back RoomUnited StatesWorkshop

How do public spaces become politicised or privatised, and how are they inscribed with new meanings? How might artists, writers, and educators intervene in different spaces and engage new publics? How do scale, location, and permanence, whether public or private, inside or outside Iran, affect the projects artists propose and develop? What performances and interventions might take place within and between sites, and how might such practices open questions around participation, agency, and democracy?

This six-session workshop brings together readings, discussions, and practical experiments to explore relationships between contemporary visual and performance practices and understandings of space, considered both as a physical location and as an abstract concept. Sessions are facilitated remotely from New York City by Ava Ansari and Molly Kleiman of the Back Room, in collaboration with CultureHub, and include guest lectures and workshops by artists, scholars, and curators.

Workshop syllabus

Session 1
Friday, May 2
6–8:30 PM (Iran)
Session facilitators: Ava Ansari and Molly Kleiman

Session 2
Friday, May 9
6–8:30 PM (Iran)
Guest artist: Lisi Raskin
Reading and discussion: The Aesthetic of Equity: Notes on Race, Space, Architecture, and Music by Craig L. Wilkins, pages 91–115. Translated by Saleh Najafi.
Session facilitators: Ava Ansari and Molly Kleiman

Session 3
Thursday, May 15
6–8:30 PM (Iran)
Reading and discussion: The Social Turn: Collaboration and Its Discontents, from Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship by Claire Bishop, pages 11–40. Translated by Ali Moazzami.
Session facilitators: Ava Ansari and Molly Kleiman

Session 4
Thursday, May 22
6–8:30 PM (Iran)
Guest artist: Lisi Raskin
Session facilitators: Ava Ansari and Molly Kleiman

Session 5
Thursday, May 29
6–8:30 PM (Iran)
Guest artist: Jeannine Tang
Session facilitators: Ava Ansari and Molly Kleiman

Session 6
Thursday, June 12 (tentative)
6–8:30 PM (Iran)
Public session

Venue: Sazmanab, CultureHub [New York City]