{"id":936,"date":"2024-08-18T10:52:02","date_gmt":"2024-08-18T14:52:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onlylove.art\/?p=936"},"modified":"2026-01-12T19:46:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T23:46:39","slug":"you-dont-die-the-story-of-yet-another-iranian-uprising-at-kyotographie-kyoto-april-16-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onlylove.art\/ja\/archives\/936","title":{"rendered":"You Don’t Die: The Story of Yet Another Iranian Uprising at Kyotographie, Kyoto (April 16, 2024)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I was excited to explore Kyotographie<\/a>, the sprawling annual international photography festival in Kyoto. Now in its 12th year, it has become one of Asia\u2019s largest photography festivals. It features 13 curated main exhibitions and more than 100 KG+, KG Select, and Special exhibitions installed in venues large and small all over Kyoto. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As far as I know, there is nothing like it in NYC. We have the annual AIPAD show, but it primarily consists of works selected by participating galleries, which must rent their booths and sell the works they display to justify the high cost of attending. While some participating galleries are more curatorially- or mission-driven than others, the photographs on view are mostly selected for their commercial appeal rather than for purely social or aesthetic impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kyotographie is refreshingly different and much more inspiring! \u201cWe always aim to highlight the richness of both local and international talent. By highlighting many regions and people we can offer a dynamic and inclusive festival which connects and elevates everyone,\u201d say festival founders\/organizers\/life partners Lucille Reyboz, a photographer from France, and Yusuke Nakanishi, a Japanese lighting artist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the exhibitions I was most keen to visit was \u201cYou Don’t Die \u2014 The Story of Yet Another Iranian Uprising,\u201d<\/a> an exhibition at Sfera<\/a> culled from 1000s of mostly anonymous images of the \u201cWoman, Life, Freedom\u201d uprising inside Iran, collected and authenticated by Le Monde<\/i> photo editor Marie Sumalla<\/a> and Le Monde<\/i> journalist Ghazal Golshiri<\/a>. With the assistance of Iranian colleagues Payam Elhami <\/a>and Farzad Seifikaran<\/a>, they established the date and location of each photo. Photographs by several professional Iranian photographers inside Iran also appeared in the exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Iranian
You Don’t Die: The Story of Yet Another Iranian Uprising<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As a feminist and a Sufi Dance Artist with teachers and friends from and inside Iran, I had a strong personal interest in the uprising and in this show. During the pandemic, one of my Iranian-born staff members at CRS was forced by circumstances to return to Iran, and communication with her became more difficult after Mahsa (Jina) Amini, a 22-year-old young woman from Saqqez, in Kurdistan, western Iran, was arrested on September 13, 2022 by the \u201cmorality\u201d police (Gasht-e Ershad<\/i>) while visiting Tehran with her brother because a single strand of her hair had come loose from under her headscarf. Mahsa was loaded into a police van and severely beaten, dying in police custody at the hospital three days later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Mahsa\u2019s funeral, a plain block of concrete was placed on her grave, on which her uncle painted the words (translated into English here):  <\/span>\u201cDear Jina, you don\u02bct die, your name becomes a symbol.\u201d Images of the gravestone bearing these words were posted on social media \u2014 the first known of which appears in this exhibition \u2014 and resonated with young women all across Iran, who were fed up with having to live with the sexist restrictions and capricious violence inflicted upon them by the government and who understood that what had happened to Mahsa, through no fault of her own, could easily happen to any of them at any time. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"First
First photo of Mahsa (Jina)’s grave published on social media and BBC Persian. On the stone, is written:
“Near, Jina, you don’t die, your name becomes a symbol.” September 17, 2022, Iranian Kurdistan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From that point onward, more and more women inside Iran, at first young women and then joined by women of all ages and social classes, started to walk outside without their headscarves, and even men began accompanying them in solidarity, sparking what became known as the \u201cWoman, Life, Freedom!\u201d movement. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Images of the protests and the violent police crackdowns, as well as images created in support of the movement, filled social media, rapidly amplifying and spreading the messaging. The number of people joining in the protests quickly swelled. Within days, the Iranian government began restricting access to social media. Nevertheless, people still found ways to share many images of these courageous protesters and the vicious crackdown they endured, and coverage of the uprising spread around the world, inspiring numerous protests and events in solidarity. This exhibition seeks to reflect the breadth and spirit of what has been, in the curators\u2019 words, \u201cthe most powerful wave of protest in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran, established in 1979.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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