Did o Bazdid

Sangelaj, Tehran, Iran. 27 August 2024. Workshop.

Did o Bazdid is a neighborhood workshop held on 27 August 2024 at Jalal Al-e Ahmad’s father’s house in the Sangelaj neighborhood of Tehran, the future house museum. About 40 people took part. It was designed to record the memories of the place, link past and present, introduce the museum and its gallery to the neighborhood, and bring local people into shaping the museum itself.

Group conversation about the museum’s future

Neighbors outside their shop, with the workshop poster in the window

In the first part, each participant had an individual portrait taken and shared their name, age, profession and personal connection to the neighborhood and the house. They wrote their memories in a notebook and told them aloud for an audio album. The portraits, notes and recordings become part of the neighborhood’s oral and cultural history, kept for the museum.

The workshop poster on the neighborhood street

The second part invited residents, as the cultural heirs of the neighborhood, to imagine the museum’s future around a printed map of the area: cultural and educational programs for different generations, creative use of the museum’s spaces, closer ties between the museum and its community, and the museum as a tool for keeping the neighborhood’s identity alive. Together, these activities make the museum more than a building. It becomes a living record of local history and memory.

Credits

Photography: Studio Chahar