These photographic works employ different means to evoke identity-forming functions of the past, while also inviting viewers to question the historical conditioning of their own familial, social, cultural and national identities. The exhibition shows selected works in dialogue with historical objects from the collection at the Museum für Islamische Kunst ( Museum of Islamic Art).

Taking up varying perspectives, four established, Iranian-born photo artists use their works to address the historical conditionality of Iranian Modernism. Their imagery treats the past as a foil for comparison, in order to question it on several levels through metaphors and allegories and draw on it to make statements about the present. These artists employ different visual strategies while making reference to diverse pasts. The timeframe extends from Iran’s beginnings with photography in 1842 up to the Iran-Iraq War (1980–88).

In Hall of Reflections (2000–12) Taraneh Hemami transformed the photographs and letters of Iraninan émigrés to the USA into mirror assemblages. These reveal the pain of not belonging brought about by emigration as well as the loss felt over a missing a place that is now a thing of the past.

Where: Pergamonmuseum Berlin / When: 07.11.2019 bis 26.01.2020