curated by Chus Martínez

I notice that in recent times I keep returning to the time I spent in my mid-twenties in Iran. I have never spoken about it publicly because I saw no reason to. Nevertheless, these months are of crucial importance both for my life and for my personal development. Nowhere else have I experienced such a brutal discrepancy between the mediated image of a place and the place itself. Nowhere else have I felt such a strong desire to share what I experienced and what I learned from the people and a culture with others. There I experienced poetry for the first time as a language of resistance. Poetry is fundamental to every culture, yet the knowledge that people there possessed about their poets was so powerful and unique that it deeply moved me. The poet who especially captured my heart was Forugh Farrokhzad. 'My whole being is a dark verse' or, depending on the translation, 'All my being is a dark verse' – so begins the first line of her poem Another Birth (Tavallodī Dīgar, تولدی دیگر). Another Birth was published in spring 1964 and comprises thirty-five poems created in the six years before publication. The book emerged at a moment of profound cultural change in Iran. In the early 1960s, the country under the Shah was undergoing a process of rapid modernization while also being marked by deep political, social and religious tensions. Another Birth fundamentally changed the perception of Farrokhzad as a poet. Until then she had often been regarded primarily as a 'woman poet'; afterwards she was increasingly perceived as a writer. For Farrokhzad, darkness signifies neither despair nor mere negation. Darkness is a state that points to an as yet unrealized potential – a space from which another form of perception

curated by Chus Martínez takes place on 24 October 2026 at Galerie Krinzinger.

24 October 2026

Galerie Krinzinger · Seilerstaette 16, 1010 Wien

This event is in the Innere Stadt (Wien) neighbourhood (1st district) – known as imperial, grand, bustling.

Nearest public transport stop: Weihburggasse (2), ~250 m.

Sights nearby: Kursalon Hübner, Stephansdom, Wiener Stadtpark.

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