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In an act of geopolitical observation as well as personal introspection, Anahita Razmi’s works for the exhibition confront the term Gharbzadegi, meaning “Weststruckness” with the fictional term Sharghzadegi, “Eaststruckness”.

Gharbzadegi is a pejorative Persian term variously translated as “Westoxification”, “West-struckness”, “Westitis”, “Euromania” and “Occidentosis”. During the reign of Shah Reza Pahlavi Iranian intellectuals began to use the term Gharbzadegi to describe the ill-fated relationship between the West and Iran. In 1962 Jalal Al-e-Ahmad wrote “Occidentosis: A Plague from the …