Curated by Idil Tabanca, this exhibition features international artists and designers whose creations transcend traditional boundaries in painting, sculpture, installation, and furniture design, redefining the relationship between form and function. In an era where modern humans spend more than three-quarters of their lives indoors, nature feels more distant than ever. “Creatures of Comfort” explores works that create space for nature to re-enter our urban lives.
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The exhibition, presenting an up-to-date selection from the Borusan Contemporary Art Collection, focuses on how spiral cycles, which define human existence, are interpreted by contemporary artists. Evolving regularly since the 2000s through commissions and acquisitions, the collection provides viewers with an in-depth interaction with different formations, issues, and ways of seeing in today’s world, bringing together works by artists who navigate between the physical and virtual realms.
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Tala Madani’s first solo exhibition in Washington State presents all-new work commissioned by the Henry Gallery, continuing her exploration of symbols, language, and power dynamics in society. Known for her provocative paintings and installations, Madani blends humor with critical insight, often depicting vulnerable, violent, and perplexed human figures. Her characters inhabit detailed, dream-like spaces that evoke the unconscious. Madani’s use of light as a medium exposes and reveals, while new works, including mural-like paintings and film-strip animations, deepen her practice. Visitors are immersed in a multi-sensory experience, engaging with her fantastical characters and uncanny imagery.
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Bringing together artists from Tate’s Collection, Gathering Ground explores the connection between environmental and social justice. Featuring works by Outi Pieski, Abbas Akhavan, Bruce Conner, Zheng Bo, and others, the exhibition honors Indigenous knowledge, queer multispecies relations, and the impact of land displacement. Set in a former power station, it invites reflection on our role in shaping a more just and sustainable future.
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Drawing on the treasures preserved in the IMA Museum’s collections, this exhibition highlights a richness and diversity like no other: that of Arabic calligraphy in all its expression, from the first pages of the Quran to its investment in new media.
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Sharjah Biennial 16, titled “to carry,” is a multivocal, open‐ended invitation to explore diverse formations and the many ways we bear histories, memories, and dreams. It challenges us to reflect on what we carry when we travel, flee, or remain, linking precarious present spaces with intergenerational legacies and imagined futures. Through a range of curatorial practices—from residencies and workshops to sonic experiments and expanded publications—the Biennial becomes a collective wayfinding process. In this threshold of dialogue and experimentation, art and community converge to share stories of resilience and transformation. Each work deeply echoes hope, and relentless renewal in fine art.
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Hussein Nassereddine’s solo show at Beirut Art Center presents the artist’s profound exploration of time and memory. It delves into the fates of the years, both near and far, through the lens of language, song, and personal history.
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“Eltiqa (Arabic for “encounter”) is an artist collective from Gaza City founded in 2000. For over twenty years, Eltiqa members have developed artistic practices together – including the setting up of a dedicated exhibition and workshop space in Gaza City, and supporting younger generations of artists through workshops, exhibitions and by offering a space to meet and dialogue.
‘Eltiqa: How to Work Together?’ includes a selection of Eltiqa’s artworks spanning several years of collaboration. The works on display were collected from various locations worldwide, remaining safe and intact – sometimes over many years – thanks to a trusted network of individuals and institutions that safeguarded them. Some artworks produced and exhibited years ago remained with institutions and individuals because of the difficulty of returning them to Gaza. Meanwhile, other works were transported out of Gaza by artists and their respective networks during the ongoing genocide.”
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YAY Gallery presents Identity Drift, Said Sharif’s first solo exhibition, exploring identity and self-expression. The show features six years of documentary photography, site-specific installations, and ready-made objects. Highlights include Papag, a playful take on traditional Caucasian hats, and Windy Windshields, an archival project on Baku’s car culture. A VAZ-21011 Zhiguli car is displayed, reflecting the Avtosh subculture’s influence.
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YARAT Contemporary Art Space presents Me and the Ark, Me and the Great Flood, a group exhibition inspired by Nasimi’s philosophy. Featuring sculptures, installations, and audiovisual works by Azerbaijani and international artists, the show explores perception, identity, and the blurring of boundaries in the digital age. Through diverse media, the exhibition reflects on inclusion, decolonization, and our responsibility in shaping the world.
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“This tribute serves as an ode to the South and a remembrance of Baalbaki’s home in Odeisseh, envisioned as one of the village’s first cultural centers before its damage during the 2024 war.
Born in 1940 to a family of farmers in Odeisseh, Jabal Amel, Baalbaki’s discovered his passion for drawing at an early age. He pursued fine arts studies at the Lebanese University under the guidance of the renowned painter Rachid Wehbi. His parents instilled in him a love for the land, particularly the ochre earth of the South, which would later become a recurring theme in his work. After spending more than thirty years in Beirut, Baalbaki returned to Odeisseh to build his home and establish a library that housed over two thousand rare books.”
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Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.) and the KINDL – Centre for Contemporary Art present recent works by international artists who were awarded the 2024 visual arts work stipend of the Berlin Senate. Spanning two venues, the exhibition features works across the mediums of video, sound, painting, sculpture, installation, and performance.
Curator: Sadaf Vasaei
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The exhibition Musafiri: Of Travellers and Guests explores the shared linguistic and cultural resonance of the word musafir, meaning ‘traveller’ and, in some languages, ‘guest.’ It reflects on migration, displacement, and hospitality, tracing journeys from historical figures like Lourenço da Silva Mendonça to modern migrant workers. Through art and history, it questions power, belonging, and the structures that define who is welcomed and who remains a perpetual traveller.
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a dual exhibition bringing together new productions by Panos Aprahamian (LB) and Janaina Wagner (BR). Set against the backdrop of Brazil’s landscape, the installations tell tales of present doomsday and cosmic longing, offering a harsh reflection on today’s modern world.
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The Archive Museum expands to Tabriz with Tabriz_Parallel Universe, opening in the historic Hariri House. This hidden Qajar-era underground space offers a unique platform for archive and contemporary art. Adjacent to the Tabriz School of Art Museum, it bridges past and present—fostering curatorial research and exhibitions rooted in both heritage and innovation.
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‘I Paint Your Grace, I Paint Your Pain, I Paint Love’ , unveils a compelling selection of never-before-exhibited works that delve into themes of memory, identity, and transformation. Marking his first solo exhibition in half a decade, the show presents artworks from three of his acclaimed series: The Hunt / Riders, Day and Night / Fig Leaf, and Migration / Grey Zone. In these works, past and present converge, offering a rare glimpse into Derakshani’s artistic vision where form, color, and narrative intertwine in a profound exploration of the human experience.
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This is the first major solo exhibition in Italy of Iranian artist Shirin Neshat. It spans more than 30 years of Neshat’s career, featuring nearly 200 photographs and ten video installations. Neshat interprets both the history and present of her homeland, Iran, and the wider world through a female perspective. Her work delves deep into social and political issues.
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Gaza is home to a wealth of archaeological sites from all eras that are now in peril. The IMA is therefore offering an exceptional collection in more ways than one, made up of highly valuable pieces that the vagaries of history have saved from disaster and which reveal the depth of its history, a priceless treasure whose complexity is reflected in this exhibition.
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The IMA Museum is renewing the photographic exhibition at the entrance to its exhibition (level 7): alongside the exhibition “Treasures Saved from Gaza. 5,000 Years of History,” it is offering a rich selection of old photographs from the collections of the Oriental Library of Saint Joseph University in Beirut (@bo.usj), dedicated to the sites and monuments of Lebanon—greatly endangered by Israeli bombardments—and shown for the first time in France.
In addition, the museum is exhibiting for the first time Li Bayrut, a large bronze by Chaouki Choukini created in the aftermath of the explosion in the port of Beirut.
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Featuring a diverse range of artworks—including visual installations, photography, sound pieces, and video works—the exhibition brings together the work of eighteen artists and artist duos from occupied Palestine and the diaspora. Their collective practice expands and liberates the notion of the archive, transforming it from a rigid tool to define identity into a generative space for reclaiming imagination and envisioning the future.
Curator: Reem Shadid
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In The Promise, artist Bashir Makhoul reflects on home as both a sanctuary and a site of loss. Born in Galilee and now based in Canada, Makhoul explores his relationship with his homeland in this exhibition, examining its emotional and psychological complexities. His work captures the tension between nostalgia and rupture, presence and displacement, permanence, and impermanence.
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New American Realism features more than 150 works by American artists from the Tony and Elham Salamé collection, presented in collaboration with their Aïshti Foundation. One of today’s most dynamic contemporary art institutions, the Foundation was established twenty-five years ago by the Italian-Lebanese entrepreneur Tony Salamé.
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Once a Sea features works by Azerbaijani artists exploring the cultural, emotional, and ecological ties to the Caspian Sea. Drawing on seascape epistemology and the writings of Hasan Guliyev, the show reimagines the Caspian not just as a site of loss, but as a space of memory, care, and spiritual connection—tracing past and present through a multidisciplinary lens.
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““Upside Down” reflects the changes and transformations occurring both within individuals and society. The collection is inspired by nature, particularly by trees that bend in the face of wind and storms yet do not break. These trees, with their curved forms, symbolize resilience and flexibility; just as in life, people too change under pressure and harsh conditions, being guided towards new paths.
Morteza Khazaie delves into the delicate balance between vulnerability and strength. Known for his poetic and deeply emotive approach to form and material, Khazaie captures the essence of human resilience through organic, sculptural works. His unique craftsmanship and thoughtful use of wood create pieces that are both grounded and transformative, resonating with the themes of survival, adaptation, and silent strength.”
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“This open studio and discussion grew out of a residency rooted in practical inquiry and field engagement, exploring architectural approaches grounded in the Palestinian context—particularly in the Naqab Desert—and shaped by urgent realities on the ground.
Darat al Funun’s the Lab hosted Naqab Architects, a collective founded by Lobna Al Sane, whose work centers on collaborative research aimed at imagining architectural alternatives in response to the ongoing threats faced by residents of “unrecognized” villages in southern Palestine—threats including demolition, displacement, and systemic persecution.”
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As I Lay Between Two Seas offers a poetic exploration of belonging, identity, and home. Featuring works by twenty-five artists from the Arab world and its diasporas.The works presented each display a different expression of movement–whether physical, temporal, or forced. They resist linear narratives and stereotypical depictions of displacement and migration. Instead, they collectively form a new web of meanings and (hi)stories that add depth and contribute to the broader discussions on migratory movements, rapid urbanization, political upheavals, and the lived realities of exile.
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Threads of Light: Stories from the Tasweer Single Image Awards presents 31 compelling images from the 2023 and 2024 awards, each capturing a fragment of memory, culture, and emotion. Spanning 12 countries across the Arab world and beyond, these photographs reveal the extraordinary in the everyday—from intimate Egyptian portraits to the vibrancy of Yemeni streets, the sacred traditions of Oman, and contemporary moments in Iraq. Selected from hundreds of submissions, the collection weaves together documentary, street photography, and artistic expression into a rich visual tapestry.
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The exhibition unfolds in five powerful stages, each capturing a phase of the terrifying war on Gaza. It traces its escalation over the past 12 months, following the genocidal assault launched by the Israeli occupation army on the civilians of Gaza on October 7th. Each stage serves as powerful visual documentation, bearing witness to the unfolding tragedy on the ground. The images and accompanying texts aim to guide the public through the relentless devastation, urging a deeper understanding of the ongoing genocide in Gaza a catastrophe happening before the eyes of a paralyzed world. This exhibition confronts the harsh reality of the most appalling mass killing of our time.
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“Diriyah Art Futures’ second exhibition, Maknana: An Archaeology of New Media Art in the Arab World, opens on April 21.
Bringing together over 40 Arab artists, the exhibition explores the region’s engagement with technology as an artistic tool—tracing the evolution of New Media Art through digital archives, generative systems, and expanded media. #Maknana offers a rare survey of how artists have shaped and redefined contemporary artistic expression across the Arab world”
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“The world continues out of step with itself. Time advances, but meaning falters. The gestures of daily life carry on, though they no longer feel proportionate to the moment. In Saadeh’s work, this imbalance becomes palpable. Her actions feel deliberate but disjointed, never quite arriving, never fully at rest. Going on becomes an act of endurance, but one that is constantly shadowed by the feeling of standing still.
The ordinary shifts in tone. Familiar acts appear strange; surreal moments pass unnoticed. Everything feels theatrical. Saadeh’s performances don’t heighten this atmosphere, they lay it bare, exposing a reality stretched thin by its own weight. Language struggles here. It arrives late, or breaks apart. Meaning surfaces not through explanation, but in the intervals: in pauses, fractures, and the weight of what remains unsaid. Her works speak only from within the act, never outside of it. They inhabit a friction: neither shielding us from collapse, nor surrendering to it entirely.”
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Desire Moheb-Zandi’s work crosses boundaries—both literal and metaphorical. The exhibition “Cross Over” embodies her journey between craft and art, cultural identities, materials, traditions, and experimentation.
The works invite viewers to experience textiles not only as a visual medium but as a tactile exploration of identity, materiality, and transformation. This exhibition fosters an ongoing dialogue between craft and contemporary art, tradition and innovation—where each woven piece represents a moment of crossing over into something new.
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The boat becomes a vessel for exploration, a metaphor for movement, uncertainty, and becoming. Each layer holds a trace of experience; a personal archive of feelings and moments that build into something whole. Vintage papers, found scraps, and layered textures-overlapping, sometimes contradicting- ultimately form a visual entity.
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“”“Closer, Breaking the Ordinary Sight”“ by Babak Zirak runs from 9 May to 10 August at Khane Honar Kashan. The exhibition invites viewers to see the world from a new angle and break visual habits. Zirak’s photographs focus on overlooked textures and familiar details, encouraging a renewed contemplation of everyday vision.
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“Curtain Call” is a photo and video exhibition exploring identity as both performance and truth. Through images of theater spaces and intimate video monologues, it reflects on visibility, the gaze, and selfhood. Framed by the metaphor of the curtain, it challenges norms and invites viewers to question who watches, who is seen, and what lies behind the veil of perception.
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“a major solo exhibition by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige. Spanning works produced mainly between 2016 and the present, the exhibition brings together installations, photographs, films, video and sculptures. It explores the vertigo of archeology, constructed imaginaries, fragilities, and persistence. In moments of extreme turmoil, the artists invoke poetry while also turning their gaze to what lies beneath our feet—surveying the emergence of subterranean, invisible worlds. These works evoke non-human perspectives on materiality, memory, cities, histories, and hidden narratives—uncovering what has been buried, forgotten, or concealed in a dizzying journey through the palimpsest of time.”
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The exhibition “With My Own Eyes” invites us to immerse ourselves in the living Palestinian timeline through the lens of the French photographer Joss Dray, who describes herself as the “Resistance Photographer.” At a time when standing with Palestine was tantamount to professional suicide, Dray bravely documented the atrocities of occupation, tracing the unwavering Palestinian resistance—both in the occupied land and in refugee camps in Lebanon. Through her lens, she captured moments of truth and defiance, creating a visual testimony of a people’s unyielding struggle, from the Sabra and Shatila massacre to the First Intifada, through the Oslo years, and into the Second Intifada.
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“This is Not an Exhibition”, and certainly not a traditional one neatly displaying specific artworks by their artists. That is beyond our capabilities now; no one can do so, as basic communication with Gazan artists is almost impossible. They, like everyone else in the Gaza Strip, are resisting annihilation in a genocidal war. For months, they have been suffering the misery of displacement, hunger, and cold. They left their homes and studios behind, either destroyed or their destruction imminent, and have consigned their artworks to flames, shelling, and death. As for those who live outside Gaza, their hearts are being torn apart by the agony and martyrdom of their families, our families, and their fates. These considerations have made the mere mention of art seem a luxurious disconnection from reality, and consequently has made it seem preposterous to even think about creating a conventional exhibition.
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In parallel with VIMA Art Fair, The Gallery 45 presents Shedding Skin, a group exhibition exploring transformation through emotional, psychological, and bodily shifts. Featuring works by Alexander Charriol, Ksenia Roshar, Maïa Evarïsta Charlotte Ibar, and Pooya Razi, the show reflects on what is shed, what endures, and what we choose to carry forward.
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A group exhibition entitled “On the Table” takes place at EV Art Gallery 3rd Place from 16 May to 13 June. Participating artists include Ardeshir Mohassess, Manouchehr Motabar, Leyly Matine Daftary, Mehrdad Mohebali, Khosrow Hasanzadeh, Nastaran Safaei, Hamed Sahihi, Mehdi Hosseini, Masoumeh Mozaffari, Masoud Sadedin, Gizella Varga Sinaei, and more.
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Seeing, With/Without Time by Morteza Ahmadvand explores perception beyond linear time. Through geometry and form, his works—paintings, sculptures, hybrids—invite viewers to reconsider their place within time and space. Merging thought and material, they offer a pause in time, a participatory shift in perspective where cognition, experience, and temporality converge.
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Galerie Christophe Gaillard presents the first exhibitions by Tirdad Hashemi and Soufia Erfanian, Iranian artists in residence at the Pinault Collection Lens. In Lies That Bled, Erfanian explores childhood memory shaped by loss and separation. Her paintings trace the shifting nature of trauma, where memory, imagination, and forgetting meet in a search for healing.
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“Unstable Grounds: NYUAD MFA Graduate Exhibition 2025 presents the work of graduate students completing the two-year Master of Fine Arts in Art and Media at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD). Marking the fourth year of collaboration between 421 Arts Campus and NYUAD, this exhibition highlights the research and experimentation of the 2025 MFA cohort, whose work explores the environment, displacement, migration, memory, and human connection.
The artists in this exhibition, Dima Abou Zannad, Bao, Adele Bea Cipste, Hala El Abora, Mowen Li (Amira), Jude Maharmeh, Safeya Sharif, and Danutė Vaitekūnaitė, engage with themes of the origin stories of flora, fauna, and water as metaphors for environmental and economic cycles; memory and its role in shaping contemporary perceptions; and communion as a site of vulnerability and celebration, reflecting on displacement, community, and belonging.”
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“Creative Memory of the Syrian Revolution invites you to the exhibition ““Detainees and Disappeared”” – a collective call from the heart for our detained and disappeared loved ones, where art demands justice, and memory refuses denial.”
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Nahid Hagigat’s art spans five decades, blending personal memory with social history. A pioneer of printmaking in Iran, her work explores identity, gender, and resilience—particularly the lives of women. From early etchings to recent symbolic imagery like trees, her practice remains a powerful testament to endurance, storytelling, and the evolving role of women in society.
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“‘Redrawing the Boundaries’ traces the emergence of modern art movements across Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, collectively referred to as the Khaleej. Rather than outlining a linear progression, the exhibition assembles practices that intersected during formative moments of nation-building, where the tension between tradition and modernity gave rise to distinct artistic vocabularies. The selected artists were not only influential in shaping modernist aesthetic languages but were also central to the founding of art institutions and the cultivation of cultural communities throughout the Arabian Peninsula.”
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The annual Art of Living exhibition: the latest in interior home design & construction projects. Get ready for the Art of Living Exhibition at the Art of Living Exhibition at Forum de Beyrouth.
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Pariyoush Ganji (b. 1945, Tabriz) is a celebrated Iranian painter and designer known for blending Persian traditions with global art forms. Trained in Tehran, London, Paris, and Japan, she has explored light, texture, and cultural symbolism through series like “Red” and “Night Windows.” A master of Sumi-e and Persian motifs, she continues to create and teach in Tehran.
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Assar Art Gallery presents The Time After, Hanie Soltani’s first solo show and the tenth in a series of collaborative exhibitions during its relocation. Featuring ten figurative paintings made over three years, the works explore human connection and emotional distance. Blending classical influences with modern textures, Soltani reflects on intimacy, memory, and time’s quiet transformations.
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Nazgol Ansarinia’s work examines the systems and networks that underpin her daily life such as everyday objects, routines, events and experiences, and the relationship they form to a larger social context. Born and raised in Tehran, Ansarinia’s practice reflects upon tensions between private worlds and the wider socioeconomic realm, and how local iterations of a culture might act as a site for the hopes and fears of those living in a (faltering) globalised world.
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Destination: Origin is a theatrical production by Mohammad Rasoulof, exploring themes of exile, identity, and artistic freedom. Featuring actors who, like Rasoulof, fled Iran, the performance delves into their journey from repression to self-determination. The event is presented in Farsi and German with English subtitles.
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