A new narrative of “Berlian Mansion” in Golestan Palace

Simultaneously with the reopening of Berlian Mansion in Golestan Palace on the anniversary of the Constitution, unseen documents and photos from that historical period will be unveiled in 2 exhibitions “Constitutional Movement Through the Lens of the City Photo Gallery” and “In Memory of the Constitution”. Coinciding with the 117th anniversary of the Constitutional Movement, the Iranian Constitutional Movement Conference will be held from August 14 to 17 at the Golestan Palace World Heritage Complex. This conference includes artistic, historical, political, literary and legal meetings, which are held twice a day with the presence of professors and researchers. Also, holding two exhibitions of documents and images related to constitutionalism is one of the other programs of the Iranian Constitutional Movement Conference.

Referring to the historical importance of the Golestan Palace, Afrin Emami, director of the World Heritage Collection, said: This place was a royal citadel and important events took place there. One of the very important events that happened in the Golestan Palace complex is the issue of the constitutional movement, and our effort is to fully display the issue of the affinity of this event with the Golestan Palace by holding the conference of the Iranian Constitutional Movement and opening the Berlian Hall.

He added: I was assigned a mission by Dr. Ali Darabi – Deputy Minister and Deputy Minister of Cultural Heritage – to pay special attention to historical figures and events. In the first step, during the week of cultural heritage, we opened the Almas Mansion as a “Memorial of Amir Kabir” and dedicated this mansion to the display of works related to Amir Kabir, preserving its historical identity, of course, the chancellery office of Amir Kabir, which was close to the Almas Mansion. It does not exist and it was inevitably assigned to this issue due to the type of architecture as one of the oldest buildings in the complex and close to the chancellery office of Amir Kabir. In addition, the previous arrangement of Almas mansion had no historical background and identity and was done in taste. After that, the constitutional issue was in focus and considering that the reading of the constitutional decree and the issuing of the constitutional decree happened exactly in the Berlian Hall, we decided to do a new reading of the Berlian Mansion for the people in the Golestan Palace.

Emami said about the new reading of the Berlian mansion: For the new reading of the Berlian Hall and the collection of works, a good opportunity was provided to restore this hall with many decorations related to architecture, including mirror work and unique plasterwork. Security and protection measures have been carried out on the chandeliers of the Berlian Hall and five halls have been restored. In addition to allocating credit and expenses, we used expert and experienced restorers for this. The Berlian Hall has undergone many changes since its construction, and all the efforts of the Executive Vice-Chancellor have been to carry out this restoration based on the latest available documents and pictures and the involvement of personal taste and in compliance with the principles of restoration and preservation.

The director of Golestan Palace continued: “There have been other important historical events in the Berlian mansion, such as the body of Naseruddin Shah was brought to the Berlian mansion after his assassination in Shah Abdul Azim’s shrine, but the most important event that had a continuous impact on the history of this country and the lives of the people.” It was a constitutional issue. The constitutional decree was read from the window of the Berlian mansion, and there is a photo of that historical moment that shows this window and the moment of reading the constitutional decree in the presence of scholars, the chancellor and some Qajar politicians.

Emami stated: We are obliged to show the objects, documents and treasures that we have, to convey the historical events that happened in this complex to the visitors. This issue requires that a research activity be carried out; Because, in general, narrative orientation creates a tendency towards research. In this matter too, we needed to form a headquarters; Because it was not just about the arrangement of objects, it was also necessary to read documents and pictures and we needed people who know the Qajar period well. Therefore, Dr. Alireza Qasimkhan, Mohammad Reza Behzadi and a number of other friends cooperated with us to form a staff and with the support of the Cultural Vice President and the Department of Introduction and Education, the Research Department and the trustee of Golestan Palace property, we were able to carry out this reading after six months of effort. and open Berlian Hall at the same time as the Iranian Constitutional Movement Conference.

Referring to the specialized meetings of this conference, he said: In order to better expose this reading, it was necessary to hold a series of specialized meetings to raise the issue of constitutionalism and its impact on Iranian society in artistic, political, etc. issues. Many researchers in this field had the opportunity to present their materials, but due to the limited time, we could only benefit from the presence of a limited number of them.

Emami added: In addition to the opening of the Berlian Hall, we will also hold two exhibitions, one of which is called “Constitutional Movement through the lens of the Shahr Photo Gallery” including constitutional documents and images, in cooperation with the Shahr Photo Gallery Museum, and the other is called “In Memory of the Constitution”. Contains unseen photos from Golestan Palace’s album library. Considering that the exhibitions have a limited period, we plan to publish a catalog of them that will be available to the visitors. In the context of the meetings, all the articles presented by the researchers in their lectures are published in the form of a book cover.

The World Heritage Director of Golestan Palace added: In addition to the objects that people see now, valuable works are kept in the reservoirs. These exhibitions are an opportunity for these works to be exposed. Every new exhibition and arrangement causes some objects to come out of the reservoir, and new events in museums attract a new audience. Many people may think that visiting a place like Golestan Palace once is enough, but if we continuously have new conferences, meetings and exhibitions, the audience will be motivated to visit this place again.

He also explained about the formation of this event: in modern museology, museums are moving from object-oriented to narrative-oriented, and all the efforts of museums are to introduce objects in the form of a narrative as much as possible in order to have a better impact on the visitor. This work requires that the study activity be done, the narratives of each object are collected and it is determined what role these objects have and how they should be displayed in museums.

Stating that cultural and historical objects are like words, Emami added: You cannot memorize a number of jumbled and unrelated words, but when these words are put together and become a sentence, you can remember it and even Explain about them. Historical objects are like these words. When they are placed in showcases without a purpose, without a proper arrangement, without a narrative and story, they are like jumbled words that visitors see and then forget, but when these objects are put together with a correct and attractive narrative, they remain in the audience’s mind. .

The director of Golestan Palace stated: One of the policies that have recently been noticed in the museums under the supervision of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts is that all museums go towards narrative-oriented and try to display content in the museums in order to attract more visitors. Let it make the visitor spend more time in this cultural and historical complex on the one hand, and on the other hand, when he leaves the museum, his cultural and historical literacy will be added. Museums are like textbooks, and just as history is taught to students in books, museums should be able to teach history in a narrative form and live.

Stating that the Golestan Palace is a world heritage complex that has been registered in the World Heritage List for reasons such as its architectural values, Emami said: Golestan Palace is of great interest to researchers and universities; Because the repository has manuscripts, visual documents, and written documents, and very wide topics for research are raised in this collection. For this reason, I believe that Golestan Palace is considered as the center of Qajar studies and if anyone wants to study about Qajar period, he cannot ignore Golestan Palace. For this reason, I think it is possible for Golestan Palace to have a specialized journal by attracting researchers, and new findings of researchers will be published in it continuously.