The Woman, Life, Freedom (WLF) movement has ushered in intersectional expressions of political agency. In solidarity with this movement, architects, urbanists, and designers have experimented with turning the tools of their craft toward addressing gender apartheid and imagining liberatory futures. From radical urban interventions to forensic design and to climate justice activism, such designers’ works reflect ideals that provide a rich tapestry that can be unpacked, reinterpreted, and envisioned in countless ways. This exhibit aims to platform and amplify such work.

We are seeking thought-provoking works at the intersection of architecture, urbanism, or broader spatial design practices and the events, goals, and implications of the social movements taking place in Iran and the SWANA region. We welcome a broad range of submissions: works may be descriptive, analytical, or interpretive. They may be speculative, critical, or pragmatic. Works may contain activist and political strategies to leverage and address social, spatial, and environmental problems. And works may be futurist, contemporary, or historiographic.

This exhibition offers a platform to meld memory with imagination, channeling our creative energy to envisage freedom. As part of the Iranian Studies Biennial Conference, we aim for this exhibit to offer a journey from conceptual ideals to visual narratives—a chance to give shape to hopes and aspirations.

This exhibit will be held in conjunction with the Iranian Studies Biennial Conference in Mexico City, from August 12-15, 2024. Works will be exhibited in the public lecture hall of the National Museum of World Cultures, in downtown Mexico City.

The exhibit space includes four wall spaces with high ceiling heights and fifteen movable panels (1.23m x 2.16m). The space will be used for a reception for the Iranian Studies Conference and available to museum visitors.

Anyone may submit for this exhibit. Artists, designers, professionals, scholars, and students in fine arts, architecture, urban studies, or other spatial design disciplines may be particularly well-matched for this exhibit. Projects may be submitted by individuals or groups, affiliated or independent. We welcome submissions from anywhere in the world.

While the presence of contributors at the exhibit would be wonderful, it is not required. We understand the difficulty of international travel and restrictions on visas and financial limitations. Works may include drawings, maps, diagrams, renderings, sketches, collage, and other forms of two- and 2.5-dimensional visualizations. A limited number of projection, video, and audio submissions may be accommodated as well. 

If you have questions about your project, please don’t hesitate to contact the curators at:

dissentxdesign@colorado.edu

We welcome existing and new work.

Please complete the submission intake form here.

Each submission must include the following:

• submitters name, affiliation, 100-word biography (pseudonyms and anonymous contributions are acceptable, particularly for those concerned with censorship or retribution)

• a description of your project, highlighting the connection to the exhibit theme and goals (500 to 800 words)

• a title and 300-character description of the work (for the museum label)

• images of the work (placed in a single PDF, resized to smaller than 10MB)

• portfolio and/or resume (<10MB PDF) There is no submission fee. Projects selected for inclusion in the exhibit will have further instructions on submitting full-sized files for print and installation.

All submissions will be reviewed by a panel of jurors. We imagine selecting works based on relevance to the theme, critical and creative contribution, and craft.

Our jury comprises Shekoufeh Mohammadi, Sholeh Shahrokhi, Ghazal Jafari, Nazgol Bagheri, and Iman Ganji.

The curatorial team is seeking funding to support honoraria for selected artists and designers. While such funding is not guaranteed, we will announce the availability of funds immediately upon any success in our fundraising efforts. (We welcome

suggestions from participants for sources of fundraising that we might approach. Currently, we are applying to governmental and academic grant sources.) At minimum, we will cover the printing and installation costs for all works.

We anticipate covering the cost of photography of the exhibit reception and making those photos available to all artists whose work is selected.

We welcome existing and new work.

This exhibit will be up for the duration of the Iranian Studies Association Biennial Conference at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in Mexico City. The exhibit organizers are exploring opportunities to further disseminate the selected works through publication.

Contributors will be invited to participate in the “Envisioning Freedom and Justice” initiative, which this exhibit is tied to. The broader initiative seeks to harness the power of architectural and design representation as a tool to imagine the future of a free Iran.

A linked panel at the Iranian Studies Conference delves into themes of (a) radical urban intervention, (b) architectures of memory, (c) institutes for future education, and (d) climate justice and resource rights. We hope to engage exhibit and panel participants in envisioning programming and publication as part of the Envisioning Freedom and Justice initiative. As such, this is a call to dream, to envision, and to create.

We invite all who use the language of art to express sorrow and joy, to put a few sentences on paper, draw an image, design a plan, or reconstruct the urban spaces.

Thus, this invitation is not only for artists, intellectuals, architects, and planners, but for "all of us.“

If you have questions about your project, please don’t hesitate to contact the curators at

dissentxdesign@colorado.edu.