Mossavar-Nameh is the most elaborate edition of the project and a
result of almost five years of research. The curatorial concept of Mossavar-Nameh was designed
through studying many twentieth- and twenty-first-century Iranian artists with regards to their
sources of inspiration, themes, and techniques throughout their careers.
The criteria for including artworks/artists in Mossavar-Nameh Project fall into three broad
categories: 1. Content; 2. Appearance/Form; and 3. The Artist. Each category is detailed as follows:///
1.1. Content—NARRATIVE The artist expresses ideas through illustration/visualization/animation of
literary texts and narrativity using images that entail sequencing of the fictive events, either chronologically or arbitrarily.
1.2. Content—SATIRE The artist uses techniques such as satire, parody, or comic exaggeration in order to portray sociocultural or sociopolitical issues and comment on them. In this course, the artist uses metaphorical language and other figurative techniques such as parody, fable, and allegory.
1.3. Content—HISTORY & MYTHOLOGY: The artworks are inspired by mythological history,
sometimes mixed with actual history and politics.
1.4. Content—VIOLENCE: The artist portrays instances of patriarchal violence, war practice, male
chauvinism and macho men in the artworks.
2.1. Appearance—CARTOONISTIC: The artist creates artworks that are cartoon-like in nature, expressed through illustration techniques or techniques inspired by illustration or its contemporary practices.
2.2. Appearance—HISTORIC IMAGERY: The artist refers to historical or literary texts such as
myths, legends, religious stories, folk stories and employs of classical allusions and analogies.
2.3. Appearance INTERCONNECTIONS: The artist invokes visual resources and cites artists, methods, and techniques from others.
3. THE ARTIST: The artist becomes part of a larger tradition of artists, hence in MossavarNameh’s research, the trends in their works become more significant than their biographical information
Artists
