PARASTOU FOROUHAR
Written Room
23.05.2026 – 21.02.2027
A room where the walls and floor are covered in a dense network of Persian characters. Applied by hand, they become an ornament, an expression of rhythm and musicality. With “Written Room,” Parastou Forouhar (born 1962) has created an installation that, through its precise craftsmanship, creates a distinctive atmosphere and invites translinguistic communication.
WRITTEN ROOM FOR THE FIRST TIME IN AUSTRIA
Parastou Forouhar is one of the most prominent voices in contemporary Iranian art. Her work unites her personal experiences as an exile with artistic expression that transcends geographical and cultural boundaries. Her works are characterized by emotional depth, political reflection, and aesthetic clarity.
Since 1995, the Iranian-German artist has realized various versions of her spatial installation “Written Room” around the world—now this impressive work will be shown in Austria for the first time. Forouhar covers the white exhibition space with elaborate hand-drawn calligraphic symbols in black ink. Even for those familiar with Persian, the symbols appear to be merely fragments of words and syllables. The writing loses its function as a source of information. Through abundance and rhythmic repetition, it becomes an image space that aesthetically transforms the unfamiliar. “Written Room” creates space for questions, encounters, and translinguistic communication.
I don’t distinguish between political activism and art. The artistic strategies I develop flow into my activist activities, and vice versa.
WRITING AS A SYMBOL OF LANGUAGE LOSS
“Written Room“ reflects Forouhar’s own experience: here, written characters become a profound symbol of the loss of language and cultural alienation. Born in Tehran, the artist has lived in Germany since 1991. The loss of her mother tongue and her homeland is a painful, personal backdrop to her work. The writing room is also a room of memories—a silent homage to the language of her childhood, whose symbols she tries to preserve even though they are gradually fading away. This effort is universal: we all know what it is like to try to remember the past.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Parastou Forouhar is an established figure in the German and international art world. She was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1962. From 1984 to 1990, she studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts of the University of Tehran and continued her studies with postgraduate work at the Offenbach University of Art and Design. She has lived and worked in Germany since 1991.
From 2019 to 2024, she was a professor of the Gutenberg Research Fellowship for Fine Arts at the Mainz Academy of Fine Arts. In the spring of 2025, Forouhar was selected from among 1,300 applicants as the winner of the prestigious German Gabriele Münter Prize. She was honored not only for the remarkable quality of her work, but also for the courage and consistency with which she advocates for freedom, human rights, and dialogue between cultures.
Curator: Gerda Ridler