MELA Notes

The Nasser Bakhshi Museum-Archive is recognized as a significant off-center archival and curatorial institution in Iran. Under Nasser Bakhshi’s direction, it exhibits historical-archival projects centered on socio-political events. As a pioneer in synthesizing contemporary art and archival research, the institution reconstructs collective memory through interdisciplinary initiatives. Its core approach offers innovative readings of historical traces and remnants through the lens of contemporary art and documentation. Archival projects derive vitality from documents that challenge temporal and existential frameworks of their original subjects, enabling alternative worldviews. Selection criteria prioritize socially sourced documents possessing aesthetic value and potential for transformation into artworks within contemporary art discourse—reflecting global currents that generate “living art” through “living documents.” This continuously expanding collection, encompassing artifacts from the pre-Islamic era onward, comprises 120,000 paper documents and manuscripts (including over 10,000 handwritten manuscripts), 12,000 lithographically printed books, and tens of thousands of personal objects and material traces of conflicts across West Asia. Systematically classified as an encyclopedic resource, it constitutes the foundational material for historical, documentary, and artistic projects. Seventy percent of the archive pertains to the last two centuries. The museum-archive’s distinction lies in its focus on discovering, collecting, and researching non-official collections tied to collective memory—particularly neglected narratives in Iran—and representing them through the integration of archives and contemporary art.