'Seven Mirrors' Exhibition Opened at Malek Museum

September 13, 2010 1:44 PM - Printable Version

A multimedia exhibition titled the "Seven Mirrors" was opened at Malek National Museum and Library on Wednesday August 25th, concurrent with the auspicious birth anniversary of Imam Hassan Mojtaba (AS).
According to Malek Public Relations, the exhibition is a combination of narrations, images, sounds and museum pieces with the main theme of the blessed surah of Fatihat al-Kitab (Surah of Hamd- opening surah of the Holy Quran), based on the structural and conceptual features of this surah and its influence on Persian Literature.
A short film titled 'Kalameh" (The Word) was displayed at this multimedia exhibition. A work of filmmaker/poet Mohammad Reza Aslani, Kalameh is the first one of the 13 installments of the 'Manteq al-Tayr' series.
In addition, seven samples of the Surah of Hamd in deferent calligraphies from seven fine manuscript Qurans, all part of Malek collections, are on display at this exhibition. Seven different readers of Quran recite the surah on each display, including Abd al-Baset, Manshavi, Mohammad Anvar and others. Also, the voice of Behrooz Razavi can be heard, reading the text and narrative related to the surah. Using the headphones installed beside each display, visitors can listen to each of these recordings on the background of audio effects.
The imags on display at this exhibition are the enlarged images of the pages of seven fine manuscript Qurans, including the one written by calligrapher Abdollah al-Ranani in 1221, and another one by Mohammad Taghi Esfahani in 1252 (lunar calendar).
Of these seven fine Qurans, three originals are on display at the exhibition, including an unnumbered copy, the one by Abdollah al-Ranani and another one by Zeinolabedin Esfahani (Ashraf ol-Ketab).
On the sideline of the opening ceremony, filmmaker Aslani said of the film 'Kalameh': "This film was made in 2001; the first installment of a 13 part series which I made for Channel 1 of IRIB (Sima). The series is mostly focused on painting and calligraphy, Iranian painting as well as the global aspect of this art form, from Chinese to renaissance and modern painting. Also, there are some images of densely woven fabrics in the films. The main theme of the film is 'Reading'. In this film, as it was the first installment of the series, I have used the opening part of the Bible, and the opening surah of the Quran: 'In the beginning was the word' and 'Read, in the name of your God'. There are contents by Sohrevardi, Attar and others in other parts of this series, which are recited by Mr. Anvar."
On the relevance of the 'Kalameh' and the 'Seven Mirrors' exhibition, he said: "It was selected for this exhibition because of the central themes of calligraphy and the divine words."
Museum Manager and exhibition designer Dabirinejad then explained the development process of the event: "According to Haj Agha Malek's letter of endowment, we are required to hold five celebratory events on the birth anniversaries of the five principal figures of Islam, so we decided to turn these occasions to museum events, as was the idea of the endower and in line with his wishes. In fact the idea was born when we first decided to put Malek Manuscript Qurans on display, and in the next stage decided to exhibit images of the pages of the surah of Hamd from these Qurans. Then, we started to investigate the reflections of and feedbacks on this surah and its concept in the mystical and historical literature. We asked different people to share their understandings, impressions and experiences of this surah. Anyone made a reference to a poem or a passage, we put them all in a collection derived from all sorts of literary resources, and as the surah of Hamd had seven verses, we compiled seven boxes and thus the Seven Mirrors was formed. The Seven Mirrors is in fact an opportunity for everyone to see and reflect their own impression and experience of this surah in the mirrors."
Dabirinejad continued: "The poems that are used in the displays were selected from texts such as the Interpretation of Meybodi's Kashf-ol-Asrar, Tabari's Interpretation, different translations of Quran and also Hafiz's Golestan and the works of Molana and Khajeh Abdollah Ansari, all with similarities, relevance and references to the surah of Hamd. All these links gave us these packages, and to create variety, we created a four sided box, the sides representing narrations, images, sounds and museum pieces. Now you can have the experience of standing in front of a display and receive a collection of data along with audio effects, disengage yourself from what's around you and be in an audio atmosphere where you can have your own individual impression, same as with the images and other sides of the box."
On the selection of the film 'Word' for the exhibition, he said: "I had seen the film before, and I felt like it was perfectly aligned with what we had in mind. So, we assigned 'Manteq al-Tayr' as narrated by Mr. Aslani for one aspect of the exhibition. What we want is to create a moment of concentration, a vehicle to allow people to remind themselves -apart from all clichés- to feel. For us, it would be enough to think that the visitor has left the exhibition with one word, one sentence or one poem clinging to his mind. I think that would be our desired response."
The 'Seven Mirrors' exhibition was opened on Wednesday August 25th, celebrating the birth anniversary of Imam Hassan Mojtaba (AS) in an eftar banquet attending museum curators, artists, librarians, administrators of art and culture centers, executives of Astan Qods Razavi and reporters.
The exhibition will be running to October 7th at the interim venue of Malek National Museum, located in Imam Khomeini Street.