Nazanin Noori
THE ECHO OF PROTEST IS DISTANT TO THE PROTEST
Location: Chapel (Kapelle) of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church
Breitscheidplatz, 10789 Berlin
On the occasion of the book launch, Nazanin Noori will present a new sound work—IF THERE IS GOD NO ONE WILL BE DAMNED / A HOLLOW SONG SUSPENDED—followed by a conversation with Nan Xi, Assistant Curator of CCA Berlin.
Nazanin Noori’s artist book THE ECHO OF PROTEST IS DISTANT TO THE PROTEST is an expansion of her solo exhibition of the same title at CCA Berlin in 2024, where the artist merged sound, sculpture, and text to create an immersive installation addressing the psychic aftermath of political protest. While emerging from the recent resistant movement against the Islamic Republic of Iran sparked off by Jina Amini's death in 2022, the sonic-poetic assemblage also goes far beyond this context, delving into the digital dissemination of protest more broadly, the emotional (im)mobilization of the public, and the spectatorship of suffering.
At the heart of the book is a graphic poem composed by Noori in English, which extends the exhibition’s word sculptures (MY HEAVY HEARTED HEAVY HOME WALKS ON HEAVY HEARTED HEAVY FEET). Across the pages, words from the long poem overwrite a Shia ritual chant in Farsi, ای کوفیان بی وفا (“O Kufians, You Who Are Faithless”). Originally written by Shahab Mousavi as a lament for the Battle of Karbala—a tragic event in Shia Islam commemorated annually during Muharram—the chant was first performed during ceremonies in Yazd, Iran in 2012 by an all-male choir, and later repurposed as a political slogan in the Jina Amini protests: بیزارم ("I'm tired / I'm fed up/ I hate").
In a graphic polyptych dialogue, the Farsi chant embodies a patriarchal chorus, while the English poem offers a subversive feminist commentary, voiced by the artist herself.
Alongside the main book, a supplementary booklet features essays by Athena Athanasiou, Rosa Burç, Nan Xi, and an introduction by Fabian Schöneich, presented in both German and English. These contributions contextualize Noori's work through the lenses of social anthropology, sound studies, political science, and contemporary art.
This book is funded by Stiftung Kunstfonds. Published by Spector Books.
Nazanin Noori (b. 1991) is an artist living and working in Berlin. Her interdisciplinary work encompasses sound art, live and lecture performance, installation, direction, and text. Her most recent sound work HAAL was commissioned by Deutschlandfunk Kultur in 2022. Her debut album FARCE was released in 2020. In the same year she was artist-in-residence at the Junge Akademie der Künste in Berlin. Nazanin Noori’s sound and spatial installations have been on view at EIGEN + ART Lab, Akademie der Künste, and as part of Transmediale. She has presented sound performances at the Berliner Festspiele, Villa Massimo, Halle am Berghain, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Museum Angewandte Kunst, Schauspielhaus Zürich, and as part of CTM, among others. Her theater works have been performed at the Deutsches Theater and the Berliner Ensemble. Her sound scenarios have been presented on various radio stations in Africa, Asia, America and Europe, including Refuge Worldwide, Mutant Radio and Deep House Tehran. Nazanin Noori is also part of the improvisational trio Parvaresh/Noori/Zahedi and performs as a modular synthesist and vocalist, alongside bass clarinetist and clarinetist Shabnam Parvaresh and Azin Zahedi, who plays santoor, bansuri, and flute.
Nazanin Noori's solo exhibition THE ECHO OF PROTEST IS DISTANT TO THE PROTEST is currently on view at Auto Italia in London, which is realized in collaboration with CCA Berlin. She recently received the ars viva prize 2026.