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.