Bazar Art Book Fair / Tehran, Iran 2020
From the fair curators:
“In early 2020 we scheduled the 2nd edition of Bazar Art Book Fair for early July; The year everyone faced the global pandemic in one way or another, and all the uncertainty it brought with itself!
It soon became clear that the fair could not be held, at least physically. Therefore, we decided to arrange the 2020 Bazar in a different format. In this book/catalog, each participant has a double-sided sheet instead of the usual table in the fair. These pages and their layout was designed by the participants.”
BAZAR Art Book Fair is an Iran-based platform for the exhibition and distribution of art books. Founded in 2018 by co-directors Hedieh Ahmadi and Ronak Moshtaghi, the project seeks to establish an inclusive community of artists, publishers, and audiences that allows them to exhibit and trade their publications independently. While the main focus of the project is to organize an annual art book fair in Tehran, the platform is active throughout the year —holding workshops, participating in international art book fairs to distribute local art publications abroad, and through the expansion/exhibition of its art book collection.
BAZAR Art Book Fair was launched due to the importance of artistic and self-published material in today’s art world. The lack of an open and inclusive platform to distribute and exhibit such product in Iran was the main motivation behind founding this program.
Scope:
International Presence: Aside from its annual event, one of the main goals during the time between BAZAR Art Book Fair has been to participate in international art book fairs for the distribution of locally-conceived and produced publications. This is especially important for BAZAR as it is an effective means to maximize exposure and gain traction. Such prospects are seen by BAZAR as compelling motivation for inviting more participants in the annual event.
Creating and Maintaining Local Archive: From its onset, BAZAR has sought to collect and maintain a curated archive of artist books, relevant publications and resources in its library. BAZAR’s track record and presence in international art fairs as well as the network already established by its founders and affiliates has opened the possibilities to procure publications from a wide variety of artists, collectives, publishers, and international book fairs. BAZAR aims to occasionally sets up exhibitions of its library and archive.