Taklif : تکلیف offers an extensive study of Zanan monthly magazine’s (ماهنامه زنان) archive over 16 years. Founded by Shahla Sherkat in 1992 known as the only Persian magazine dedicated to women in Iran, seized by authorities several times, with a six-year gap from 2008 until its relaunch as Zanan-E-Emrooz (Today’s Women) in 2014, with a successive short-term suspension in 2015. Reflecting on women’s rights movements in the aftermath of the 1979 Iranian Islamic Revolution, this project critically responds to “Utopia as Method” as the processes involved in the moments of (historical) disruption and discontinuation—as in the case of Zanan magazine, several suspensions over its lifespan. This study will be presented in an archival setting installation, including cut-out from the selection of published magazines, a visual-based publication (including an interview with Shahla Sherkat the founder of Zanan monthly Magazine) in limited editions and two-channel video screens rendering a selection of scenes from women’s demonstration for civil rights during different eras in Iran.
Taklif : تکلیف is an imaginary space and a travelling library for radical imagination dedicated to learning, unlearning, and relearning practices through art and dialogue; an artist-run initiative formed with the ambition to rigorously bridge our intellectual activities with our emotional embodied intuitions, within and beyond the institutional settings.