Auto Italia presents THE ECHO OF PROTEST IS DISTANT TO THE PROTEST, the first exhibition in the UK by Berlin-based Iranian interdisciplinary artist Nazanin Noori. The exhibition features newly commissioned works examining the emotional (im)mobilisation of the public in the context of political protest. Created in response to the death of Jina Amini and the uprisings that followed in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the exhibition reflects on the country’s sociopolitical landscape in recent years and explores the complexities of witnessing political events from afar—an experience shaped by paralysis, turmoil and longing.
Through a new sculptural intervention, THE PARTY OF GOD / WELL DID WE LIVE, and a sound and spatial installation, IF THERE IS GOD NO ONE WILL BE DAMNED / A HOLLOW SONG SUSPENDED, Noori imagines a fictional post-revolutionary, post-fascist political landscape in which failing despots mourn their own demise. By foregrounding the perspective of the oppressor rather than the victim, Noori’s installation repositions and complicates their status and exposes their vulnerabilities.
Noori’s sound installation, IF THERE IS GOD NO ONE WILL BE DAMNED / A HOLLOW SONG SUSPENDED, forms the centrepoint of the exhibition, intertwining electronic textures, orchestral swells and choral fragments. The composition features the voice of vocalist Rupert Enticknap, who performs an adaptation of T. S. Eliot’s The Hollow Men. Originally written as a reflection on the moral paralysis of the male condition after World War I, the poem portrays a group of spiritually hollow people, devoid of substance. Alongside Enticknap’s rendition, Iranian classical singer Samin Ghorbani recites parts of Shahab Mousavi’s Shia ritual chant ای کوفیان بی وفا (“O Kufians, You Who Are Faithless”) that was written as a lament for the Battle of Karbala, where Husayn Ibn Ali, the grandson of the prophet Muhammad, and his supporters were massacred in 680 CE. The Battle of Karbala is a pivotal event in Shia Islam that is commemorated annually during Muharram. ای کوفیان بی وفا was first performed during the 2012 ceremonies in Yazd and more recently adapted as a protest song against the Islamic Republic during the Jina Amini protests.
In the front gallery, THE PARTY OF GOD / WELL DID WE LIVE comprises a sculpture that prominently displays the Farsi phrase معذرت (“I’m sorry”) in yellow acrylic, set against a stark green backdrop. Referencing and reimagining the green-on-yellow of the Hezbollah flag, Noori envisions an almost unthinkable scenario—those in power issuing an apology, governing under a banner that both acknowledges past wrongs and commits to future justice. The seeming impossibility of such expressions of regret draws attention to paradoxical conceptions of political justice as an unattainable fantasy versus a tangible necessity. The phrase “I’m sorry” illustrates how, in a charged political climate, the challenge lies in navigating a hope that functions at once as a weapon and as an illusion.
Bathed in red light and a cacophony of sound, the back gallery could be understood as a waiting room, a sauna or a hell-like inferno. Plastic outdoor chairs reference Noori’s growing research archive of images of despotic political leaders, groups of protesters and religious followers sitting in such seats, defiantly and communally occupying public space.
Drawing on an expansive range of influences from theatre, film and experimental music, Noori’s work integrates pop-culture references, kitsch, exaggerated aesthetics and irony, all the while adopting a deeply critical and political approach to complex themes of gender, identity and resistance. Though rooted in the specific context of Iran, the works resonate with wider global movements for social justice and human rights, highlighting the means and tools—such as sight and sound—that mobilise or enable the general public to express their political attitudes in and around protests.
THE ECHO OF PROTEST IS DISTANT TO THE PROTEST was conceived and produced by Auto Italia in collaboration with CCA Berlin. IF THERE IS GOD NO ONE WILL BE DAMNED / A HOLLOW SONG SUSPENDED is co-commissioned and produced by Auto Italia and M Leuven. The exhibition is realised with the support of Arts Council England, Billy Wagner / Nobelhart & Schmutzig, Cockayne Grants for the Arts, Goethe-Institut London, KEF and The Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation.
Acknowledgements: Rupert Enticknap, Samin Ghorbani, Fabian Schöneich, Nan Xi, Franz Hempel, Billy Wagner / Nobelhart & Schmutzig, Andrea Belfi, Callie’s, Sebastian Grimm / Einklang Hifi, André Jürgens, James Ginzburg.
Auto Italia’s commissions are made possible through the generous support of our Exhibition Circle and Member supporters.
Nazanin Noori (b. 1991) is an Iranian artist based in Berlin. Her interdisciplinary practice spans sound art, live and lecture performance, installation, direction and text. Since 2016, Noori has also produced compositions for theatre and art film. Her debut album, FARCE, released on the enmossed label in 2020, was followed by her 54-minute sound piece, HAAL, which premiered in 2021 at the Berliner Festspiele exhibition The Sun Machine Is Coming Down at The Internationales Congress Centrum Berlin. HAAL was subsequently released by the Deutschlandfunk Kultur radio.
Noori was artist-in-residence at Junge Akademie der Künste, Berlin (2020-2022); Callie’s, Berlin (2024) and the radio platform Refuge Worldwide (since 2021). Her sound and spatial installations have been shown at EIGEN + ART Lab, Berlin; Akademie der Künste, Berlin; CCA Berlin; House of World Cultures, Berlin and Transmediale. Her performances have been presented at Villa Massimo, Rome; Berghain, Berlin; Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt am Main; Schauspielhaus Zürich; La Gaîté Lyrique, Paris; CTM Festival and The Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. Noori’s theatre works were staged at Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin; Deutsches Theater, Berlin; and Berliner Ensemble. Her ‘sound scenarios’ have been aired on international radio stations, including Mutant Radio, Deep House Tehran and Refuge Worldwide, among others. Noori also works collaboratively in jazz improvisations as a modular synthesist and vocalist.
