Kish: An Island Indecisive by Design / Artists: Nasrin Tabatabai & Babak Afrassiabi

Descriptive study of Kish, an Iranian island, marked by socio-economic changes over the past decade, and its growing importance due to its geographical location.

Kish is an island in the Persian Gulf where the extremes in politics, ideology and urban design visibly intersect. The island’s modern history is defined by shifting politics in the Iranian mainland, making it a stage for outspoken experiments and conflicting interventions by politicians, investors, architects and planners. In Kish, the Iranian artists/authors Nasrin Tabatabai and Babak Afrassiabi present an evocative account of modernity in this place.

In the 1970s the last Shah of Iran decided to transform the island into an ultra-modern private resort for the royal family and its guests. After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the hedonistic holiday island fell into disrepair until the 1990s, when Kish was transformed into an attractive place for Iran’s own tourists and investors who were keen to escape the strict social and political rules of the mainland. The many years of indecisive and unfulfilled planning is distinctly evident in the island’s architecture, which lacks any trace of a genius loci.

Its recent history has been largely defined by the ever-shifting politics on the Iranian mainland. The island’s many years of infrastructural indecision is distinctly evident in its architecture, which lacks any trace of coherence or feel for locale. This volume gives an often moving account of the chaos of middle-eastern modernity.

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