Setting the Stage

In spring 2002 the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMOCA) hosted a five-day conference on postmodernism and contemporary art. There were small panel discussions in the museum's library and public lectures in the auditorium, which comfortably accommodates 275 people. The auditorium is located at the base of the museum's main hallway, which is a three-story spiraling ramp. The afternoon of my first visit, the line to enter the auditorium queued to the top of the ramp and was peopled overwhelmingly by young adults. Their voices and laughter were restrained due to the codes of public behavior with which they have been raised. Yet, this restraint could not begin to mask their energy. As the doors opened, we poured in, quickly filling the seats. The standing-room-only crowd took up every inch of the side aisle and back wall. For four hours we remained, listening intently and rushing through the tea break to return to the increasingly stuffy space. Foreign presenters, among them art critic Edward Lucie-Smith and artist Joyce Kozloff, showed slides, spoke freely through interpreters and responded to a steady stream of enthusiastic questions posed by an insatiable audience that returned day after day.