First and foremost I would like to thank Professor Hamid Dabashi for offering me this opportunity to edit this volume based on his outstanding writings on contemporary art, world cinema, and visual culture. He was also so generous with his time and constant help with providing immediate answers for my questions on the textual materials, and approaching artists for high-quality images of their works to be included in this book.
I am equally grateful to all of the eminent artists whose works I have had the privilege of using in this book. In particular I wish to thank Shirin Neshat, Nicky Nodjoumi, Amir Naderi, Tarek Al-Ghoussein, Shoja Azari, Nahid Haghighat, Azadeh Akhlaghi, Farhad Moshiri, the late Bahman Jalali and the late Ardeshir Mohassess for their permission for reproduction of their works, and their respective galleries and estates for their very kind help in obtaining those pictures.
I would like to acknowledge the SOAS, University of London library for providing the online and other resources which were greatly useful in shaping this project.
I should further thank my daughter, Pegah, for providing the format for the cover design of this volume with high competency.
Last but not least I would like to thank Anthem editorial and production team, in particular Tej P. S. Sood, Publisher and Managing Director, for his attention and support, Nisha Vetrivel, the project manager in the Production Department, for her courtesy and consideration and also Abi Pandey in the Editorial Department of Anthem Press.