MEMORIALIZATION OF WAR BETWEEN CONFLICTS OF INTEREST BEFORE AND AFTER THE ISLAMIC REVOLUTION: PUBLIC ART AND PUBLIC SPACE IN IRAN

Since 1800s, numerous wars have impacted the cities of Iran. Regarding the urban artwork in Tehran, the capital of Iran, the following question comes to mind: What approach has the urban artwork adopted to represent the war and its related concepts? Adopting a documentary research approach and investigating the concept of war in different eras, this paper attempts to study the sculptures in urban spaces as documents. Based on the books and historical documents, a total of 192 sculptures, which were built from the Qajar dynasty to 2016 have been examined in this study. During the Qajar dynasty, the governments have used sculptures, especially the ones placed in city squares, to demonstrate their power. After the Constitutional Revolution, figures denoting concepts of justice and freedom became pervasive in the squares up until the end of the Pahlavi dynasty. After the Islamic Revolution, the Iran-Iraq war has been called Sacred Defense and the goal of creating statues has been changed to express revolutionary and ideological concepts. Figurative sculptures and busts have been made as a tribute to the martyrs of the Iran-Iraq war.