BP’s archive was created alongside the company’s rapid growth and its establishment in Iran as one of Britain’s largest assets outside of its borders. During the same period, the city of Abadan was built to house the company’s many employees. In the works that Tabatabai and Afrassiabi have been developing since 2011, they appropriate certain parts of the archive/collection and create new objects and images. A selection of these works will be exhibited at Tensta konsthall. By reusing these historically specific archives, the artists seek to write the history of modernity. It becomes a history with an open ending. Two Archives is part of Tensta konsthall's program series about archives, libraries and collections.
Tabatabai and Afrassiabi have collaborated under the name Pages since 2004. Their joint projects have included a bilingual magazine published in both Farsi and English. The artist duo is based in Rotterdam but works in both Iran and the Netherlands. Their projects, like the editorial stance of the magazine, are closely intertwined and often address issues related to the experience of modernity and the modernization project in Iran. An issue that Pages rephrases as reflections on contemporary art and artistic practices. Their work has been presented internationally in both solo and group exhibitions.
Art works in the exhibition:
Superimpose – Wooden and Steel Oil Derricks (2011)
Designed after the oil derricks used during the first failed attempt to find oil in 1902 and the first successful attempt in 1908 in southwestern Iran
Materials: Wood and painted brass
Dimensions: 94 x 48 x 40 cm
Five Paintings from the Series Depot of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (2011–2012)
Materials: Alkyd on canvas
Size: Varying
Untitled Object with Violet Curve (2011)
Designed after the fan housing from the Abadan Refinery workshop, 1945
Materials: Cardboard and paint
Dimensions: 65.2 x 72.2 x 56.2 cm / 41.5 x 73.8 x 57.9 cm
Forth and Back – Knocking-off Time at the Refinery (2011)
Based on material from a 1921 film by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company depicting workers leaving Abadan Refinery, from BP's archive
Format: DVD, black and white, silent, 1’29” loop
Dispute in Technicolor (2011)
Correspondence from November 1950 to March 1952 regarding the making of Persian Story, a film produced by Anglo-Iranian Oil Company
Materials: Paper, color filters
Dimensions: 139.5 x 81.7 cm
Housing Abadan (2011)
A copy of the album Housing Abadan, Estate Management, Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, Abadan, December 1950
Materials: Printed materials, photographs, linen, paper, and cardboard
For more information about Two Archives, see the catalogue.
Two Archives
By Nasrin Tabatabai and Babak Afrassiabi
14.3—2.6 2013
In 2011, Nasrin Tabatabai and Babak Afrassiabi began a series of works that draw on two archives/collections from the 20th century. One of the collections is held by the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art and its department of modern Western art—a large collection inaugurated in 1977, when the museum became part of the state's modernization project. The second starting point is an archive created by British Petroleum (BP), which pertains to the oil company's establishment and oil extraction activities in Iran between 1901 and 1951, during which time the company made the first oil discoveries in the Middle East.
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On until
2.6 2013Opens
14.3 2013
2.6 2013Opens
14.3 2013
Tue-Fri 11-17
