More than thirty years ago‭, ‬when I was a graphic design student at the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem‭, ‬I traveled to Eastern Turkey‭, ‬south of Ararat‭. ‬Looking across the Iranian border‭, ‬I dreamed of the day when the border would open‭, ‬and I would be able to enter that forbidden land and enjoy its wondrous cultural treasures‭. ‬Twenty years later‭, ‬in the early 2000s‭, ‬I discovered the enormous outburst of creativity taking place just then across that same border‭. ‬At the International Biennial of Graphic Design in‭ ‬Brno‭, ‬in the Czech Republic‭, ‬I met two delegates from Tehran who heralded an exciting revolution in graphic design‭. ‬Their artistic language and the clear tone of their graphics were remarkably distinctive‭, ‬and aroused my curiosity to get to know a rich culture that had‭, ‬until then‭, ‬been unknown and inaccessible‭. ‬That was my first encounter with the work of Morteza Momayez‭, ‬one of the founders of contemporary Iranian design‭, ‬and especially his poster for the 1975‭ ‬International Film Festival in Tehran‭. ‬It contained thirteen hanging strips of celluloid film‭, ‬the tail-ends of which formed a pattern that recalled Persian typography‭. ‬The‭ ‬moving meeting with him and other Iranian designers planted a seed within me‭: ‬to forge collaboration between us‭, ‬although it seemed impossible then‭ ‬‮–‬‭ ‬as it still does today‭.‬

 

Another ten years went by‭. ‬A mass protest movement swept Tehran in the wake of the Iranian presidential elections‭. ‬By that time‭ ‬I had connected to hundreds of Iranian designers through Facebook and Tweeter‭, ‬and I watched the riots in the city streets and the attempted revolution on-line‭. ‬I thought then that the time had come to bring those‭ ‬magical Iranian design voices to Israel‭, ‬and I searched for a way to make it happen‭. ‬I realized‭, ‬to my disappointment‭, ‬that the Iranian designers were fearful of any direct connection‭, ‬and they declined any collaboration‭. ‬The initiative failed to bear fruit‭, ‬but I did not despair‭.‬

 

I decided to renew my connection with the Moravian Gallery in Brno‭, ‬and its curator Marta Sylvestrová‭, ‬who had introduced me to‭ ‬Iranian posters all those many years earlier‭. ‬She was glad to cooperate‭, ‬and gave me access to the gallery's collection of Iranian posters‭, ‬including works from the 1990s and the 2000s‭. ‬Together we selected the main body of work for the exhibition‭. ‬We were‭ ‬privileged to receive assistance and professional direction from the Eps51‭ ‬graphic design studio in Berlin‭, ‬and its two curators‭, ‬Ben Wittner and Sasha Thoma‭. ‬To complete the collection‭, ‬however‭, ‬we needed works from the most recent period‭. ‬That brought us to the Poster Triennial in the Slovak city of Trnava‭. ‬Its curator‭, ‬Robert Paršo‭, ‬and the director of the Jan Koniarek Gallery‭, ‬Róbert Nemecek with curator Zuzana Dohnalová‭, ‬loaned us the works we lacked‭, ‬and the selection displayed here is the result‭.‬

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The‭ "‬Sign from Iran‭" ‬exhibition at the Museum for Islamic Art‭, ‬Jerusalem‭, ‬is‭, ‬for me‭, ‬an old dream come true‭. ‬The goal of the exhibition is to examine the design world‭, ‬the culture and the society of Iran‭, ‬using objective criteria‭; ‬and to recognize the contribution of Iranian designers to the modern Muslim visual world and it's encounter with Western culture‭. ‬The high standard of design in their works carries a message that has burst local boundaries‭; ‬and the creativity that vibrates in Tehran‭, ‬despite the prohibitions and restrictions imposed by the regime‭, ‬has yielded surprising innovations in the realm of traditional calligraphy and contemporary typography‭. ‬

 

The exhibition offers visitors a small window for a first-time view of posters that were mostly designed in Iran in the last twenty years‭. ‬Their subjects are design‭, ‬culture‭, ‬music‭, ‬film and art‭; ‬and they were part of a great wave of creativity that peaked‭ ‬in the last decade and has since dissipated‭, ‬partly because some of the designers have left Iran‭. ‬It is our hope that this exhibition will be a good omen‭, ‬and the beginning of direct collaboration with these artist-designers‭.‬