„Reloading Images: Tehran-Berlin / Work in Progress 2007“ was the title of an artistic research project that took place in Berlin and Tehran from January to October 2007. In total there were around 40 artists, art students and scholars involved. The focal point of the project was the investigation of artistic agency and strategies in these two cities. Besides a workshop the project consisted of seminars, lectures and public presentations of the work results.

Reloading Images: the project’s aim was to question and explore notions of (re)presentation. Not only regarding the stereotypes that “East” and “West” have of each other, but also in terms of the awareness that images, especially in a mass media context, always bear a political agenda or express specific political power structures, regardless if this was the initial intention of the producer of the image or not. In the context of „Tehran-Berlin / Work in Progress” and the actual political climate, images can not be read only according to criteria of visual and art historic studies, but also in their context of genesis and distribution. As a consequence the abdication of the representational gesture of “imagery” as a self-contained element within the system of art or at least the questioning of its dominance might enable a more differentiated way of observation and reflection of the current sociopolitical state and relevant forms of activity of artistic production within this. In a world that is dominated by mediated images and completely aestheticized a consequent artistic strategy could be to leave the beaten tracks of visual representation and explore other forms of social activity. The project as a concrete intervention, that positions itself amidst the seemingly clear defined political frontiers, is to be seen as a field of artistic activity - a “künstlerisches Handlungsfeld”.

Tehran – Berlin: the second part of the project title states the two places, from which the collaborating artist initiatives work: Reloading Images Berlin and Parkingallery Tehran. Since all initiators of the project have family ties to Iran and Germany, the choice of the two cities was mainly of biographical nature and emerged out of the interest and urge to connect the art scenes of Berlin and Tehran. In the context of an art world that considers itself to be more and more of global importance and relevance, the confrontation of artistic approaches in Berlin as one of the major global art centres and Tehran as a place that is considered as culturally and politically peripheral by the global community and Iranians themselves, raises tension-filled and urgent questions: Questions about the self-conception of artists within their regional context, the role that art takes within society, the universality of ideas of Modernity and their reciprocal effects with regards to local cultural traditions. In addition to these points we wanted to explore and unveil strategies of a focussed and differentiated discourse, which, despite the political and mediated polarizations does exist. Not in the sense of “building bridges between cultures” - since there is no need to negotiate “between cultures” or to evoke nonexistent cultural borders. Rather, we are interested in stressing the necessity of and developing strategies for civil engagement as an alternative to state and economy-based politic of interests often instrumentalising art events and official “cultural exchanges” to promote their own agendas.

Work-in-Progress: „Reloading Images” through the implication of a state of continuous development the title already proclaims the processual character of the project. Accepting the risk of failure in order to stay open for unexpected possibilities, the project structure resembles the trial-and-error stategy of scientific experiments. Instead of relaying on ready-made concepts we wanted to initiate a collective elaboration of our topics and bypass representational demands. The focus was on the personal encounter and the artistic discourse between the participating artists and scholars; reflections of the setting within which we communicate, work and live.