12 April 2025, 15:00–18:00 / Casco HQ
Order the book(s) online via our bookshop
Following the successful launch of Monument Zero on 8 March 2025 at Framer Framed in Amsterdam—held alongside the opening of the eponymous exhibition project by artist and Casco ecosystem member Katayoon Barzegar—we are excited to announce a second gathering at Casco HQ to continue the conversation around our newly published book.
Marking the 46th anniversary of Iran’s largest International Women’s Day march, the exhibition opening and book launch featured a screening of Year Zero (1979), followed by a talk with one of its makers, Claudine Mulard, and a panel discussion with Katayoon Barzegar, Behshad Tajammol, and Niloufar Nematollahi, moderated by Jill Toh.
This second gathering takes place at Casco on Saturday, April 12, 2025, from 15:00 to 18:00, furthering the exchange. The program begins with an introduction by Casco team member and editor Niloufar Nematollahi, who presents the publishing project and provides historical context on the 1979 protests. A screening of Year Zero (1979) follows, accompanied by a recorded reflection from Claudine Mulard. The event concludes with a conversation between Katayoon Barzegar and Meshkat Talebi, in dialogue with Casco team members Niloufar Nematollahi and Aline Hernández, exploring the role of artistic imagination in feminist movements of transnational solidarity. By bringing together the scarce materials that depict this forgotten history, Monument Zero counters historical erasure and explores the preservation of political struggles through collective artistic practice.
The gathering closes with a dinner prepared by Rawan Boustany, celebrating the collaborative research and dedication that have shaped this important and inspiring project.
Copies of Monument Zero are available for purchase at the launch.
About Monument Zero
In Iran, 8 March 1979 was the start of a six-day nation-wide protest wherein thousands of women marched through the streets of Tehran, as well as other major Iranian cities such as Abadan, Tabriz, Sanandaj, and Isfahan. These six days marked the first time women organized en masse against the mandatory use of hijab, in particular, and the Islamic Republic, in general. Equally significant is the fact that only recently has the scale and political significance of these protests become known beyond those who participated in them.
Taking its title from the short documentary Iranian Women’s Liberation Movement, Year Zero (1979), the book Monument Zero thus emerged from the twofold desire to shed light on the 1979 International Women’s Day protests and to reflect on the rather complex mechanisms that led to their historical obfuscation.
Bridging historical and contemporary perspectives, and by way of intergenerational collective practice, this book presents essays by artists and researchers, previously untranslated testimonies and letters from 1979, and unseen photographs by Sophie Keir—currently archived at the Centre Audiovisuel Simone de Beauvoir. It thus offers readers the opportunity to articulate, for themselves, possible modes of resistance grounded in the experiences and political imaginaries of past feminist struggles against historical disfiguration.
Contributors: Katayoon Barzegar, Niloufar Nematollahi, Jose Rosales, Pegah Pasalar, Elaheh Soroushnia, Shirin Karimi, Taraneh Haeri, Claudine Mulard, Sophie Keir, and Meshkat Talebi. Designed by Francisco Baquerizo Racines and Linus Bonduelle.
