ERINNERUNGSRÄUME [TEHRAN], REVOLUTION SQUARE, 2008
After the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, the monument in Revolution Square "میدان انقلاب" was replaced by a completely new one. This new monument was narrative and featured Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic Republic, and the soldiers commemorating the eight-year war against Iraq. This monument has been overwritten several times in the last ten years and the square has been given a completely new identity.
In 2007, due to the construction of the subway station, this monument was removed from this square and was not returned. After a while, another monument was erected in the center of the square, which was spherical and not visible from a distance. Due to various controversies, such as the depiction of hundreds of six-pointed stars of the Israeli flag on this spherical surface, the monument was destroyed in 2011. In 2016, the city decided to replace it with a simple blue spherical monument with no special symbols or patterns.
I was first confronted with this monument in its absence when I could not find my way in the middle of Tehran. This confusing moment, the absence of the monument representing the most significant figure of the Islamic Republic, was the starting point for the theme of "memory and visibility" in urban public space and the resulting series of works “Erinnerungsräume” (Memory Spaces).