The current state of conceptual clothing in Iran From the perspective of the participating Artists (1380s)

Since ancient time clothes has been integrated into human life، though this is the 1960s and after when clothes have been described as an artistic concept. Nowadays، clothes in addition to their traditional functions including protection، coverage and beauty have found communicative function as well. Since 1960s، artists have benefited from such a powerful tool presenting their desired concepts and dispositions and have employed clothes in their installations، performances، videos، photographs، etc. to create artistic works and to communicate audiences. Similarly، in recent decades in Iran there have been exhibitions dealing with the issue of clothing as artworks. The main purpose of this research is Check the status of conceptual clothing in Iran held in the 2000s. To achieve this purpose، after reviewing related literature to clothes and conceptual art as well as conceptual clothes as the bridge between these two concepts، the conceptual artists working with clothes in Iran were identified and their works were examined. Since such artists are rare in Iran and there is no archive of their opinions، approaches and works، in this research، participants were purposely selected and semi-structured interviews with them were conducted. Data gathered from these interviews were analyzed using quantitative methods. The collected data from face-to-face interviews and emails were transcribed، coded and finally the categories and patterns were identified and analyzed. The research findings indicate that this area of art in Iran has not developed extensively and only few artists have involved in the field of conceptual clothes. The most artists who presented conceptual clothing in their exhibitions during 2000s are educated in visual arts. The rest of artists under study have their education in fabric and clothing design and architecture. The study reveals that there is a meaningful relationship between the artists’ approaches to clothing and their educational background. Artists with education in fabric and clothing design had more functional approach to clothing than the other participants and more poorly presented in their exhibitions compared to the artists with visual art background. It seems these artists need stronger underlying theoretical basis sufficient to develop their initial ideas and to begin their artistic process of creation. The results also show that one of the most salient factors in such disachivement can be a dearth of theoretical information and resources، unfamiliarity and indifference of audiences toward this field as well as various social، cultural and political obstacles in Iran. At the end، the research findings indicate that the art is in the tremendous growth in this field. Based on the findings of the main reasons for the lack of knowledge and contacts in this field received، also there are several limitations of social، cultural and political in Iran.