Electric Room features projects that are usually site-specific and mostly involve experimental and non-traditional formats of exhibiting art. The space focuses on showcasing short-term experimental projects, research-based presentations, performances, screenings, smaller-scale events, and occasional single-piece exhibits. Electric Room is located in downtown Tehran across Faculty of Fine Arts and Architecture (Azad University), and within ten- to fifteen-minute walks from Tehran Art University, and Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Tehran. The space is technically the electric control room and the entry to the storage facility of V-Cafe, a large cafe/restaurant in Felestin Street.
The venue was originally converted into an exhibition space in 2017 by Dastan-gallery founder Hormoz Hematian and curator Ashkan Zahraei, hosting 50 projects, each for six consecutive days, designed and executed by Ashkan Zahraei under Dastan:Outside Projects, from July 2017 until September 2018.
In June 2023, Ashkan Zahraei reopened Electric Room as an independent curator-run project under his “INSIDE, despite” experimental art programming initiative. The space continues to feature short-term exhibitions, displays and installations, designed by Ashkan.
The 5x6m Electric Room features a shop front comprised of four 2.2m-tall windows (two 0.9m and two 0.6m wide) and a 1.1m wide door, three electric switchboards covering one wall, two bare walls, a 3.6m high ceiling with a U-shaped array of fluorescent lights, two small spot lights, a 3.1×0.35m tubular A/C canal with two vents on the ceiling, and a small 1.17m-high by 0.92m-wide double door for access to and through the main building —which also includes a cafe, a restaurant, and six floors of office space.
