Factory of Martyrs, the documentary coproduced by Fabrica, Benetton's creative laboratory and RSI Radiotelevisione Svizzera, is the special guest of the event "Immagini: inganno delle emozioni" (Images: emotions deception) that takes place on Thursday, March 29^th at 9.00pm in Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche, in Treviso.

 

The documentary, directed by Camilla Cuomo and Annalisa Vozza, is a journey through today’s Iran, by means of the huge paintings commissioned by the government, which tell about the myths and values of an evolving Islamic society.

 

The face of charismatic leader Khomeini and his successors, portraits of national martyrs, animal figures symbolizing good and evil: these huge paintings, commissioned and sponsored by the government, cover the walls of entire buildings in Iran. They are part of the ongoing Islamic propaganda campaign begun at the time of the Revolution in 1979, in spite of the fact that Islam is an iconoclastic religion. The murals proliferated after the war against Iraq, which broke out a year after the birth of the Islamic Republic, cramming the streets amongst advertising billboards for household appliances and mobile phones, and they have become true “epics” of common men who – through the sacrifice and martyrdom held dear by the Shiite religious tradition – want to be fully acknowledged as heroes by the collectivity. These works stand out today in the urban landscape, amalgamating politics, war and religion into a single image. In recent years new imagery has begun to appear, abstract and mystic paintings or a kind of French-style trompe-l’oeil, evidence of the will to give the country a new, modern and more peaceful face, and a reflection of the changes, fears and contradictions of a vibrant Islamic society, brought under the spotlight of international attention.

As declared by one of the two authors: “The documentary develops along two paths which run parallel, continually meeting and separating. On the one hand, Iranian murals and their evolving form as part of a propaganda mechanism that embraces popular myths and values; on the other, the human content behind these murals which reveals new levels of meaning, bringing their existence into dispute. A play of mirrors in which the camera’s eye is both participant and silent spectator, ready to catch the relationship between the giant images and everyday people in a Teheran which seems to speak through those images to itself and the world”.

The screening, introduced by Enrico Bossan, Colors Magazine Director, is part of a series of conferences about human rights, hosted by Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche.

Trailer: http://www.fabrica.it/project/factory-martyrs-trailer

 

Free entrance, auditorium spazi Bomben, via Cornarotta 7 Treviso

 

For further information:

Loredana Rigato – FABRICA press office: ph. 0422.516340

Fondazione Benetton, ph. 0422.5121

fbsr@fbsr.it, www.fbsr.it