Nazanin Noori’s Acts of Witness

In 2022, Jina Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman, stopped by authorities in Tehran for allegedly not wearing the hijab to government standards, died after being severely beaten whilst in police custody. Amini’s death sparked the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ protests, calling for an end to the systemic oppression of women and girls within contemporary Iran.

At Auto Italia, Iranian artist Nazanin Noori’s first UK exhibition, ‘THE ECHO OF PROTEST IS DISTANT TO THE PROTEST’, responds to this recent political history. At the front of the gallery, THE PARTY OF GOD / WELL DID WE LIVE (2024) features the Farsi phrase معذرت (I’m sorry) in yellow acrylic against a green industrial tarp curtain, inverting the colours of the Hezbollah militant group’s flag. With this work, Noori posits the notion that despots might one day apologize, although the alternative future she envisions is an uneasy hypothetical – one that remains unrealized and is, perhaps, fundamentally unattainable. 

An alarming red glow emanates from the gallery’s second room, where the thick ruby carpeting of the first space is augmented by deep scarlet lighting. At the centre, in stark contrast, stands a circle of 12 white plastic Monobloc chairs. Suffused in red, once visitors assume their seats, the space looms with judgement, witness facing witness.

IF THERE IS GOD NO ONE WILL BE DAMNED / A HOLLOW SONG SUSPENDED (2025), the 27-minute sound installation that forms the core of this exhibition, begins with layered choral voices and sonic droning, the echo suggested by the show’s title filling the space. Included in this soundscape is the voice of female classical singer Samin Ghorbani, who recites the Shi’a ritual chant ای کوفیان بی وفا (O Kufians, You Who Are Faithless). This composition was originally written as a lament for the Battle of Karbala (680 CE), in which Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of the prophet Muhammad, was killed. These events marked the fundamental start of Shi’ism, the state religion of Iran. The Battle of Karbala is commemorated by Shi’a Muslims every year during the month of Muharram, when re-enactments are staged. 

Since the Iranian Revolution of 1978–79, this long tradition of ta’zieh (public spectacle) has been transformed into a theatre of protest. The original performance tradition acts as a space for remembrance and resistance against oppressive power. Following Amini’s death, some women, in both public and online forums, courageously removed their hijabs or chopped off their hair – part of the mourning ritual known as gisuboran – thereby multiplying visibility. These public rejections of the political restrictions on women’s bodies, enacted within the publicly performative mourning tradition of ta’zieh, function as a form of testimony – an echo across time. 

Stories from various sources state that, when Husayn died, the sky turned red, weeping and raining blood. In IF THERE IS GOD NO ONE WILL BE DAMNED / A HOLLOW SONG SUSPENDED, Noori implies that, for as long as the sky is red and we are witnesses, people will continue to fight injustices. There are many possible outcomes to this struggle for freedom but, overwhelmingly, Noori’s work conveys no neat ending. Regimes of power, we are reminded, are not exclusive to a single state or country: oppositional forces can oppress bodies near and far; ethnic cleansing, apartheid and genocide can be actioned both halfway across the world and next door. While the show’s opening space might hint at utopia, the second room presents a world marked by loss and grief. With ‘THE ECHO OF PROTEST IS DISTANT TO THE PROTEST’, Noori places threat and regret side by side, embodying both future and past, and asking: ‘What does it mean to be a witness?’

Nazanin Noori’s ‘THE ECHO OF PROTEST IS DISTANT TO THE PROTEST’ is on view at Auto Italia, London, until 22 June

^{Main image: Nazanin Noori, ‘THE ECHO OF PROTEST IS DISTANT TO THE PROTEST’, 2025, exhibition view. Courtesy: the artist and Auto Italia, London; photograph: Jack Elliot Edwards}