The project Unlimited
History has its starting point in the video Street of Roosevelt (2009) and is thus interlocked
directly with 32° N / 53° N. In the video, Daha’s Iranian grandmother Monirjoon recalls the
street on which she lived during her childhood and youth in Tehran: the “17th of Dey
1314” Street was named after the banning of the chador by Reza Shah in January 1934 (as
was previously also the traditional male clothing, the kolah) and after the “Liberation Day
of the Woman” celebrated during the Pahlavi dynasty. Grandmother Monirjoon also recalls
in the video her attending a ceremony on the occasion of her graduation and the arrival of
Reza Shah and his wife and daughters at the event, who for the first time ostentatiously
appeared unveiled in public, but also the fact that in the American embassy, which also –
just like Monirjoons house - was situated on the “17th of Dey 1314” Street, parts of the
Tehran Conference were held. The memories of the old lady and her emotions at the sight
of the prepared road closure by several military vehicles and tanks at the occasion of the
conference, which remained secret to the Iranian public up until the departure of Churchill,
Stalin and Roosevelt, mingle with the historical facts, which the artist inserts as text blocks
into the moving images, for example the recording of the four names of the street: before
1934 “Amjadeyeh”, from 1934 “17th of Dey 1314”, from 1943 “Roosevelt” and from
1979, finally, “Dr. Mofateh” Street. Again, it is this relationship between private and public
history, which catalyzes and motivates the project Unlimited History.
