Archive Museum

On a general level, the termThe Archive Museum, which is the first museum focused on archives and contemporary art in Iran, is a non-profit and public benefit organization that includes a treasure trove of contemporary Iranian and foreign art, more than one hundred thousand different historical documents from West Asia, five thousand letters, more than ten thousand volumes of manuscripts and more than twelve thousand volumes of lithographic books, historical and contemporary objects and elements, which was established by its founder Naser Bakhshi himself and is managed in a completely independent endowment process and can be visited for free, everyday.
This museum, which has been operating for nearly four years with a focus on archives and contemporary art, has organized interdisciplinary contemporary art projects based on its own collections and treasures during this time. It aims to delve deeper into the aesthetics of art from the perspectives of history and contemporary art, as well as how archival elements relate to the formation of conceptual art. In this regard, in addition to publishing fifty titles and special editions through its own museum press, it is committed to promoting and elucidating these issues both in terms of project organization and research, as well as publishing. The museum has displayed and published notable works. In its future programs, it seeks to present and expand these concepts related to the collective memory of West Asia in relevant international fields.

“archive” refers to a collection of documents and artifacts that have a completely factual nature. Documentation also has a strong presence in contemporary art installations, and in any form of media and collection of documents and objects, it quickly finds a place and position like a work of art that is different from the classic definition of collection. As so, many conceptual artists have also worked on compiling archives, recording and documenting fundamental elements or inspirations for their works, especially documenting the process of creating works.

Nasser Bakhshi Museum Archive, in addition to hosting exhibitions of parts of an artist’s career, aims to collect and record historical works and inspirational elements. It has compiled, until now, more than one hundred thousand documents, objects, handwritten and lithographic books, and other material based on the theme of collective memory. These will be presented over time in a permanent location.

Museum …. Archive …. Nasser Bakhshi………………..
Permanent Project…….Tabriz………Preliminary Ideas

The overall concept of this Project٫Museum is different from the projects and exhibitions presented in galleries and similar places; it takes the form of a museum-like allusion to natural history museums, cabinets of curiosity, folklore or scientific history museums. This museum is divided into different halls :

Hall One: Room of Curiosity
Hall Two: Inspirations
Hall Three: Formation Process 
Hall Four: Packages

The primary idea behind this Project٫Museum is a reference to the freezing of memories and their transformation into other materials, a process of collective memory and its formation in the human mind, and its transformation into an actionable definition outside of oneself. By entering this Project٫Museum, we view depicted objects and memories that have been transformed into tangible forms and historical references, expressed in the form of a museum, where humans interpret their past life processes. This is where we enter into the manifesto of Nasser Bakhshi: a review of the mindset and process of transforming collective memory from the perspective of an observer into scattered but related pieces whose foundation is derived from the dark room theory .

Nevertheless, here the observer plays the role of reviewing a process that has occurred in the society (and perhaps experienced by themselves), but has been placed in a position to feel somewhat disconnected from this event. This distance from events, despite being involved with society, is the starting point of exploration in this Project/Museum .
Like an observer who enters cabinets of curiosity and explores the world, here the viewer gradually feels their role in events that have previously occurred. They transform into something else in the form of memories, and the observer embarks on another path .