Artist Bahar Behbahani organized a four-hour event called "Damask Rose: A Gathering" on Governors Island, transforming three shallow fountains with handwoven carpets and crocheted canopies. The gathering featured West African musical improvisation, Kurdish poetry, a cyanotype workshop, and communal activities like hair braiding and tea ceremonies, involving over two dozen community groups including the Asia Contemporary Art Forum and Eat Offbeat. The event was part of Governors Island Arts's annual Interventions series, curated with associate curator Juan Pablo Siles.
This event matters because it challenges conventional boundaries between art and daily life, emphasizing community, rest, and cultural exchange over traditional art viewing. Behbahani, who draws inspiration from Persian garden motifs and her Iranian heritage, used the gathering to highlight the political and ecological dimensions often overlooked in Western interpretations of Persian gardens. The crochet canopies, woven by Behbahani's mother and friends in Tehran amid unrest and state violence, symbolize resilience and cross-border connection, making the event a poignant statement on art as a living, communal practice.