In a project, called ‘A Gallery As Big As a Town’, which Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf hopes will encourage people to visit museums, the city’s billboard ads will be home for artworks by renowned local and foreign artists for 10 days, turning the Iranian capital into a giant urban art gallery.
The long, tree-lined Modarres highway, named after a famous Islamic cleric, now displays Edvard Munch’s striking masterpiece, The Scream.
Another street hosts The Son of Man by Magritte, the Belgian surrealist, next to a painting by the famous Iranian poet and artist Sohrab Sepehri. Not far from it, there is a large landscape by David Hockney – the original was shown at the Royal Academy three years ago.
The pictures are among more than 1,500 billboards dotted across the capital’s streets, displaying a total of 700 works that also include reproductions of traditional Persian miniatures, carpets, calligraphy and various other art pieces.
Iranian artworks have been selected from different periods of Islamic and pre-Islamic arts including potteries, glassware, etc. and contemporary and modern period which displays works by Kamal-ol-Molk and his trained competent students.
Tehran’s mayor, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, has changed Tehran’s landscape significantly in recent years, building new bridges, tunnels and green spaces. The city’s budget has also increased under his watch.
Last year, Ghalibaf unveiled a spectacular high-tech bridge that was designed by a young female architect, Leila Araghian. She recently won an international award for the structure, designed when she was 26.