TEHRAN — A photography exhibition examining the impact of war on Palestinian women and children, a research project exploring the architecture of Persepolis in Spain, and an exhibition of works by Qajar-era calligrapher Gholam Reza Esfahani feature among recent developments in Iran’s visual arts scene.
The exhibition What Was Not Seen! features photographs by Palestinian photographer Mahmoud Abu Hamdeh and is scheduled to open at the Palestine Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran on October 20.
Organized by the Iranian Photographers House, the exhibition presents a collection previously shown in Baghdad under the Arabic title Ma Lam Yushahed.
The photographs focus on the everyday experiences of Palestinian women and children, drawing attention to dimensions of life under conflict that may receive less attention in conventional news coverage.
Through a socially engaged approach, Abu Hamdeh documents the human consequences of war in Gaza, looking beyond images of bombardment and destruction to portray the lives of those affected.
The exhibition is scheduled to run until November 6. According to IRNA, visiting hours are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. from Saturday to Wednesday and 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays.
The research exhibition Tachara Palace at Persepolis opened on October 16 at the María Moliner Central Library of the University of Murcia in Spain, in collaboration with the University of Tehran. It is scheduled to run until October 23, 2026.
Combining photography, infographics and explanatory texts, the exhibition examines Tachara, the palace built under Achaemenid king Darius I at Persepolis, one of ancient Persia’s most significant archaeological sites.
The photographs are the result of a decade of work by Fatemeh Nahari, a photography professor at Shiraz University of Art, who documented the site across different seasons.
The research component was supervised by Ali Shahidi, a former head of the University of Tehran’s Department of Ancient Iranian Languages and Iranology.
The exhibition explores Achaemenid