From ‘Grand’ Realities to ‘Grandiose’ Fantasies
Shopping mall, in the north of Tehran, is the space of fantasy more than of reality. Pursuing pleasure, consumption of images has become preliminary act in the mall. Both mental world and real world are embodied in shopping malls that have become as cultural as Grand Bazaar in Tehran. Consumer culture invites citizens to celebrate their emotional pleasure and happiness within the cultural imagery of shopping mall. Thus satisfaction has been gained by the exhibition of excess and increase. In this context, luxury has become the answer to all necessities that are asked for in order to be accepted and thrive in the north of Tehran; and shopping malls are the sites within which fantasy meets reality; and luxury engages social practice.
Moving from an active socio-cultural lifestyle towards an inactive image dominated pseudo-communal lifestyle; cultural transformations in Tehran are reflected in spatial transformations. In the context of this paper, spatial dynamics of Bazaar are replaced by spatial representations of shopping malls. Aesthetic society of contemporary Tehran pursues image making to expand the dream world. Space of consumption engages people with the terminal act, consumption; puts them inside the dream world of wealth; and creates an experience of luxury each time a person takes a trip to the grandiose mall. Being present in these spaces is the essential to create an image of luxury. It is the luxury consumption itself, being rather than doing, which indicate a type of everyday practice in the north of Tehran.
Mediation of images through production of malls presents a form of spectacle in the North of Tehran. Sprawl of shopping malls in the north of Tehran is indicative of the fact that social actions that lead to promotion of brand image and spectacle sustain within spaces of collective luxury. Such transformation in relationships is as same as the transformation of the dynamism of the society.
From grand to grandiose’ represents the transformation of a conceptual approach to social practice leading to transformation of social spaces. In literary definition, grand, used in the name of a place or a building, indicates that it is large and beautiful anddeserves to be admired . While the word Grandiose indicates extravagantly or pretentiously imposing in appearanceor style; it means trying to seem very important . Thus, ‘from grand to grandiose’ refers to the change in both ‘social value system (in everyday life)’ and ‘spatial productions and spatial representations’. Bazaar created a unique urban integrated space that brought communities into variety of activities in the traditional city; while shopping malls have become agents of the ideology of consumption in the form of generic spaces in an urban sprawl in contemporary Tehran. Despite Grand Bazaar, spatial and social relationships of diversity are not the essentials for the significance of shopping malls, but in the society of spectacle making the image is essential for the citizens to create dream worlds inside these spaces.
Traditional costumers of Grand Bazaar used to be nurtured by common value exchange, while in grandiose shopping malls citizens are enriched by the image of luxury. For the bazaar, to stay vibrant it was essential to be diversely related to several social, cultural, political and economic matters. However, contemporary shopping malls of Tehran have dismissed most of those considerations and have enough chance of sustaining by adopting a single phenomenon, which is consumption.
Privatization of these malls and selection of their outlook create a sense of exclusiveness in costumers. But, Grand Bazaar presented traditional citizens with a public space, which offered them multi-dimensional services related to their lives; its grandnesscame from the way it offered spaces to diverse groups of the society to be an active sector in the traditional city; different groups were entitled to different types and sizes of spaces. Grand Bazaar is not a privatized setting within the traditional city.
Concentration on providing an image of luxury in the North of Tehran might cause a false reading of the reality of Tehran, since the appearance of luxury draws focus and attention to the north of Tehran, which is not a proper representative of the city in general. Either in terms of the social status or in terms of the spatial production, luxury is not the main concentration of the society, but as long as the citizens are able to imagine accessibility to luxury by being present within grandiose shopping malls, luxury is an accessible image for most of the citizens regardless of their status.