“CINEMA IN THE PRESENCE OF OTHERS”
AN EXHIBITION OF LIMITED EDITIONS, REPRODUCTION OF A SELECTION OF IRANIAN MOVIE POSTERS
Maxim Gorky stepped into a movie theater for the first time. Confronted with the moving images on the screen, he was struck with awe and poured his impressions onto paper: “Last night, I was in the realm of shadows; a world that, on its own, inspires a strange longing to see — the thrill of watching ‘living pictures.’” To describe the “Cinema in the Presence of Others” project, one could echo Gorky by saying that the film poster is the shadow of the film, a “tall shadow.” Tall in the sense that this shadow appears to embody the very essence of the film. It’s a static apparition derived from vibrant, moving images, evoking memories of an Iranian cinema film. Through encountering the posters/shadows in this exhibit, we embark on a journey through the history of Iranian cinema. Each poster conjures a film in our minds, right before our eyes. As a result, we are afforded the chance to explore portions of Iranian cinema “in the presence of others,” through images etched on paper, along with a few names, symbols from each film, and unique graphics. The “Cinema in the Presence of Others” project was conceived in 2013 when Fouad Sharifi reached out to Abbas Kiarostami and requested a silkscreen print of the black-and-white poster for Sohrab Shahid Saless’s film. This initial step led to the “Placards” project in the winter of 2014, inspiring a serious exploration into producing more posters for Iranian cinema. From that point onward, numerous challenges emerged: limited access to original posters and their files, difficulties in restoring existing files, the complex process of contacting the poster designers or film directors (where possible), and securing appropriate paper, ink, and stencils for each poster. In some cases, the need arose to redesign posters for certain films. Despite these hurdles, over seventy posters were ultimately gathered for this project to serve as a meeting point between design, graphics, and Iranian cinema at key historical moments. Returning to Gorky, he described cinema to his audience as a spectral way of viewing the world, saying, “If only you knew how strange it feels to be there. It’s not life; it’s the shadow of life.” Similarly, this exhibition can be seen as offering the viewer a ghostly way of seeing the world of these films — a pause, a strange sense of summoning the years gone by in Iranian cinema. This project brings the cinema of our past into the present, allowing us both to reflect on the art of poster design and to consider the current state of Iranian cinema and its capacity to create enduring posters for today’s films. Babak Karimi Gorky’s quotes are sourced from this book: “Cinema and Psychoanalysis: The Play of Shadows,” by Vicky Lebow, translated by Ghasem Momeni, published by Khaan Publishing House.009821 PROJECTS IS IN COLLABORTION WITH 8CUBE GALLERY