History and Memory Revisiting

History and Memory Revisiting (2014) engages with the Shahnameh, or The Book of Kings, the Persian epic poem whose illustrated manuscripts have served as important repositories of Iran’s cultural memory and pre-Islamic history. The project reworks ten printed folios by digitally removing their central figures, including kings, soldiers, and other human characters. The erased figures were then printed separately on individual white cards and displayed on the gallery wall without hierarchy. Together, they form a new archive, while the emptied folios reveal the architectural, spatial, and decorative structures that once framed their actions.

Removing the figures interrupts scenes of battle, ceremony, and kingship, leaving behind empty landscapes and architectural settings. The work asks what remains of history when its protagonists disappear and whether history belongs to them at all. As heroic figures are displaced, spaces, objects, and landscapes become the primary subjects, suggesting that history exceeds the individuals who traditionally occupy its center.

The project was exhibited as part of the artist’s MA thesis exhibition at AT Gallery in Poznań, Poland, in June 2014.