Bare bones will be the only exposed human body parts on show when the first exhibition of contemporary British art opens in Iran next month.
Although the exhibition takes British art in the 20th century – from Henry Moore to Damien Hirst – as its theme, the British Council has selected the works with scrupulous care for Iranian sensitivities.
”Some works we just knew were out from the start,” said Andrea Rose, the visual arts director of the British Council. ”We have in our own collection some lovely early Henry Moore pieces with tiny little tits, but it was never even considered to send them.”
The need for tact has left some large gaps. Important living sculptors, including Eduardo Paolozzi, Tony Cragg and Anthony Caro, are in — Caro will be among those visiting Tehran during the exhibition — but one of the best known, Antony Gormley, creator of the Angel of the North, has been left out.
Almost all his work uses nude figures, often, like the Angel, taken from casts of his own body. ”He wasn’t dropped — we never considered including him,” Rose said.
Gilbert and George, much better known for their rollicking later work involving foul language and defecation, will be represented by chaste earlier video pieces.
Damien Hirst is one of the artists closest to what Rose called ”the red line” of acceptability: Resurrection, a real human skeleton suspended in a crucifixion-like pose in a glass case, reflects his recent interest in Christian religious themes.
Two pieces by Mona Hatoum, one using a wheelchair, the other crutches, caused unexpected alarm. They were considered offensive to those mutilated and killed in the Iran-Iraq war, and have been withdrawn.
Instead, Tehran will see her Deep Throat video — which horrified some western viewers — a view of her own digestive system made with an endoscope.
The most controversial single work is likely to be Breath, a four-screen piece by the Iranian-born sculp tor Shirazeh Houshiary, which incorporates ancient Jewish, Christian and Buddhist chants.
The exhibition is being held at the invitation of Hamid Reza Sami-Azar, the director of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, established by the Shah before the founding of the Islamic republic. Among his collection are some works, including a Francis Bacon, which have never been exhibited.
In the more relaxed atmosphere that followed the election of the reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, in 1997, the museum has become a popular meeting place for young artists and students.
News of the show was warmly welcomed in Tehran on Wednesday. ”This is huge. It’s the biggest art exhibition ever here, and more daring than anything that has been done here before,” one gallery-goer said.
The British Council re-established contact with Iran last year, after a 23-year gap, with a small art exhibition and a touring production of Twelfth Night.
This year’s much more elaborate event, with a full programme of lectures, films and workshops, will open on February 24, four days after the Iranian parliamentary elections.
The Tehran show is part of a rich programme of arts events which the council is sending across the world, under the banner Constructive Engagement.
Lady Kennedy, who retires from chairing the council this year, said the Iraqi war had had a huge impact on relations across the world, and made the council’s work more important: ”We are always there on the ground floor. Our business is to keep those relationships alive, even if quite destructive things happen.” – Guardian Unlimited Â