Imagining Shahnama in the 21st century
First exhibition of contemporary art ‘Imagining Shahnama in the 21st century’ in the series of the project Shahnama Forever. Shahnama Forever is a fresh sub-project that grew out of the bigger ‘mother’ Cambridge Shahnama Project started in 1999 and originally funded by the AHRC and later supported from several private sources, including the Iran Heritage Foundation and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.
The Shahnama Forever, although it incorporates practical aspects of the contemporary life of the Shahnama after its life in the ancient and mediaeval periods, inherited many features of the original project. The main aspect of this is the academic approach adopted in comparative studies of the modern and the medieval, of common themes and imagery in Eastern and Western art and literature, and of the perception of contemporary art as unique primary source.