The Iranian hostage crisis 30 years ago opened a rupture between the United States and Iran that has festered ever since, with bursts of bellicosity replacing any official dialogue. Not willing to wait around for politicians and diplomats to heal the rift, a group of 20 young artists and students in the two countries are doing a little cross-cultural outreach of their own.
Since June, they have worked together on art: drawings, video, design, animation and sound sculpture, trying to be as nonpolitical as possible.
A portion of the pieces are collaborative — some created via Internet exchanges, others shipped back and forth via Turkey, because no mail service exists between Iran and the U.S.
“Dialogue,” the resulting exhibition of more than 200 works, opens today at the Andenken Gallery, 2990 Larimer St., with a public reception from 6 to 10 p.m. It runs through March 29.
“Things are much easier for us, as we have had the benefit of using an international language which cannot get lost in translation and comes directly out of the heart in the shape of art,” Paris Mahtosh, 36, an Iranian architect and photographer, said via e-mail.
That doesn’t mean there haven’t been challenges. Besides having to send people from Iran to Turkey to pick up packages and contend with customs scrutiny, the artists have had to been careful not to attract undue attention from Iranian authorities.
Morehshin Allahyari, 24, an Iranian digital- media student at the University of Denver, has shepherded the project. Since arriving in Denver in 2007, she has sought to educate people about her country and offset unfairly negative perceptions that have focused on terrorism and Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
“Whenever you hear about Iran in the media,” she said, “it’s all about: ‘Everyone hates Americans there.’ ‘It’s a poor country.’ ‘It’s a desert.’ ”
After she gave a talk last year at DU about Iran’s underground art scene, students from the artist co-op, Kinda Collective, approached her about working together. The collaborative effort, dubbed IRUS Art, emerged.
Allahyari contacted a friend in Tehran — Negin Ethesabian, a book illustrator — who in turn recruited 10 artists there.
Josh Fishburn, 28, a graduate student at DU, became involved because he wanted to improve relations between the countries.
“I’m a little ashamed to admit that I didn’t know a lot about Iran,” he said.
Fishburn has been able to put a human face on the country and to learn basic facts, such as Iranians speak Farsi, not Arabic.
“My hope is that by seeing the works that are in this show that people can create a personal connection to the artists and have a similar experience.”
Two of the show’s sections center on literary icons that speak to the spirit of each country — American humorist Mark Twain and Scheherazade, the storyteller in “The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights.”
The rest of the exhibition is devoted to the collaborations.
Mahtosh believes the show, which IRUS hopes to present in Iran this summer, can have at least a small impact on U.S.-Iran relations.
“As long as this little step is followed by more steps in the future,” she said, “we can be hopeful about further improvements.”
