Electric Room

Electric Room (est. 2017 by Hormoz Hematian and Ashkan Zahraei) 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 programming is done by co-founder and artistic director Ashkan Zahraei.
Each of Electric Room’s projects last for six consecutive days, starting from Friday and lasting until Wednesday evening. Fifty projects have been devised, starting from June 2017 and ending in July 2018.
Each project is documented as a series of photographs at the artist’s studio, installation shots, a recorded video interview with the artist, footage from Electric Room, a short description of the project, and with other visual/written material.
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).
Electric Room is run under Dastan:Outside Projects, a curatorial arm of Dastan’s Basement, which conceives and occasionally conducts projects outside of the gallery’s venues and regular program.
Electric Room’s programming remains independent of Dastan Gallery and the space has actively sought to sustain itself through some sales and external funding. However, in emergencies, Electric Room can turn to Dastan for financial support.
External supporters include Ofogh Art Materials (which until July 2018 sponsored Electric Room’s wall paint that requiring weekly makeover), Mess Atelier, which gives curatorial support and lithography services from time to time, and volunteer programs. Artists are perhaps the most important contributors to Electric Room’s sustainability.
Furthermore, for some of its programs, Electric Room partners with other independent spaces and projects, including New Media Society (Tehran), Rezvan Projects (Lyon and Tehran), Mess Atelier (Tehran), Bread & Salt Projects (Tehran), and Va Independent Art Space and Residency Program (Isfahan).
The 5x6m ‘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.
Electric Room is run by Ashkan Zahraei (artistic director/curator), Hormoz Hematian (co-founder).