Islamic Art, Exhibitionary Oder, World Exhibitions, Art Biennials, Contemporary Islamic Art.

The display of Islamic artworks has not had a uniform, integrated and stable narrative; these works have been displayed in different exhibitions in different ways and the concept of Islamic art has also been influenced by Islamic art exhibitions. Therefore, studying the works of Islamic art in exhibitions can reveal the hidden ideologies and direction in these art events.
Exhibitions are not neutral and unbiased; they have special cultural and political connotation. According to Timothy Mitchell, these events select and arrange works based on the "Exhibitionary Order"; Exhibition order finds rules over time and imposes norms on the understanding and interpretation of works and objects. Therefore, the study of art events (exhibitions, biennials and festivals) is a good approach to explain how to interpret and recognize works of art. It is from this perspective that we can know how the works of Islamic art were known, interpreted and understood in different periods. In this article, we discuss the impact of art events on the introduction, collection and documentation of Islamic art; events that give direction to the art history and selection process of museums. These artistic events have influenced the introduction, collection, documentation, categorization and conceptualization of Islamic art.
The present research method is based on event studies. Study of art events (exhibitions, biennials and festivals) is a good approach to explain the complex relationship between art and reality. Nathalie Heinich sees the study of artistic events as a pragmatic approach in the sociology of art that studies how values are produced and reproduced in exhibitions. In this article, we pursue the methodological questions of how these exhibitions present Islamic art. How do they shape narratives of Islamic art influenced by dominant artistic discourses and currents? In this article, the events and exhibitions of Islamic art in the three discourses of Colonialism, Nationalism and Globalism are studied and this question has arisen that: how three different narratives of Islamic art in the colonial, national and global discourses were formed? The event’s study can analyze the hidden and ideological functions of exhibitions in the construction of art history. The Data collection method in this article is documentary analysis and data organization is based on the trend analysis.
The results of this article distinguish three currents of "world fair", "national festivals" and "art biennials". The world fair began with the first exhibition in 1851 and continued until the Mohammadi Art Exhibition in 1910 in Munich. The event, sponsored by one country each year, was an arena for the colonial powers to compete and show their power and influence around the world. The Ottomans, first participated in the 1867 Paris Exhibition, and Iran was the first to officially attend the 1873 Vienna Exhibition. Influenced by the development of French colonialism, the Egyptian and Moroccan pavilions gradually held more significant pavilions at world fairs. After the 1870s, unlike previous periods when booths were categorized by country, a special hall was created as Islamic art, which included works from Iran, Arabia, Turkey, Egypt and India. This exhibition was an important step in documenting Islamic art and changing attitudes towards Islamic art. Actually, In these exhibitions, under the influence of the West and influenced by the colonial discourse, that Oriental-Islamic objects and subjects were selected and acquired by Western museums; it was during this period that works and objects were collected, categorized and named, and an Orientalist conception of Islamic art was formed.
In the first half of the twentieth century, with the development of the nationalist discourse and the establishment of new governments in Iran and the Arab countries, a new stream of national festivals and festivals began. In these exhibitions, which lasted from the 1920s to the end of the 1960s, Islamic art was considered as cultural heritage and part of national wealth, and the nationalist narrative dominated Islamic art. During this period, exhibitions were held not under the title of Islamic art, but on the basis of nations with the titles of art of Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Egypt and included works of Islamic art as part of the national heritage; the 1976 Islamic Art Exhibition marked the end of this stream. Since the 1980s, with the decline of nationalism and the rise of the globalization discourse, Islamic art exhibitions have entered a new phase. This time, Islamic art was presented as contemporary art in exhibitions, and the Biennial of Contemporary Art tried to present it as an artistic style beyond nationalism. However, what is displayed in these events as contemporary Islamic art is a narrative of contemporary art in Islamic lands. In other words, this current includes the experiences of contemporary art, which are often deconstructive and critical, rather than representative of Islamic art.