image: Maryam Mottalebzadeh- (Berlin Artist) Between Coloures and Memories - A Self-Portrait. foto: Courtesy of Maryam Mottalebzadeh. Copyright 2025 imagofeminae summer 2025 XLV. foto: MEYER ORIGINALS

Maryam Motallebzadeh is an Iranian-German artist whose practice spans painting, installation, video, performance, and conceptual art

Between Coloures and Memories

By Maryam Motallebzadeh

A journey through memory, art, and identity

A Self-Portrait 

I was born in Tabriz, a city known for its ancient poetry, its fine breeze, and the scent of roses – a place where the soul, the mountains, and the rhythm of language shaped my way of seeing, feeling, and creating from an early age. Even before I had the words for it, I knew that color has its own breath, that it can carry memory, and that art is inseparably connected to life – as vital as breath itself. At the age of 13, in 1974, I received the Hadaf Prize for Painting in Iran. A year later, one of the travel grants I received allowed me to travel to Ramsar. This moment of being “invited” to see differently was my first step toward what would later shape my artistic identity. My work is based on the principle: to move means to learn new cultures and alphabets. To open oneself, to see anew – and to see means to remember. At 18, I became self-employed. From 1979 to 1999, I directed the Khanne Chob Gallery in Tehran – a space for exchange among artists, writers, musicians, and philosophers, which served both as a refuge and a mirror. It reflected the cultural, political, and aesthetic upheavals in Iran. During this time, I came to understand curation as its own art form – an art of listening, connecting, and daring. In 1995 and 1997, I participated in the Painting Biennale at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran. After relocating to Germany in 1999, I began studying at the University of the Arts in Bremen, graduating with a diploma in 2007. During my studies, in 2003, I was admitted to the International Academy of Arts in Valauris, France. There, under the influence of Picasso, I began painting on ceramics. I also received a travel scholarship to Bangkok, Thailand, as part of an exchange program between Bangkok University and the University of the Arts Bremen.

This experience deepened my engagement with script and writing. Through this journey, I discovered a new form of communication in script – my own personal set of symbols. I created audiovisual performances and led projects with over 23 international artists for the John Cage Festival as part of the university days at the Academy of the Arts Bremen. In 2009, I was granted German citizenship. Since then, I have taken numerous study trips to Asia, Africa, Russia, the USA, and many European countries. These travels broadened my horizons and deeply influenced my artistic practice. Over time, my international artistic voice began to take shape – a voice that mediates between East and West, exile and arrival, the old and the new. This voice found recognition in numerous international exhibitions in Norway, Canada, Thailand, Austria, Switzerland, France, Spain, and China. My works span installations, performances, video pieces, and paintings, and have been shown in renowned exhibition spaces such as the Loop Festival in Barcelona, the Underground Film Festival in Vienna, Filmhaus Cologne, Kino 46 and Schauburg Bremen, as well as on international platforms such as the Munich Film Congress and 451° Film Portal in Zurich. I work with memory as material – folding time, tracing the contours of loss, intimacy, exile, and the fragmented female self. Projects like the one at the Art Museum in Mülheim an der Ruhr pose the questions: What remains? What moves? What transforms? A journey toward the self. Mythology and philosophy have always influenced my work. When I was invited to an exhibition for the Paula Modersohn-Becker Art Prize, they played a central role.

For that exhibition, I created a spatial installation titled "The Wanderer and His Shadow", in which I referenced the philosophy of Zarathustra. This connection between mythology and philosophy was a profound experiment for me, reflecting questions of identity, loss, and the search for one's path within a symbolic space. In 2014, I received a residency grant in Berlin, and in 2015, catalog funding from the Berlin Senator for Culture. Since 2017, I have lived in Berlin, though my creative geography stretches from Bremen to Chengdu, from Worpswede to Tehran. What drives me is not the pursuit of mastery, but the search for a connection with light, with the invisible threads that bind memory to the body and the body to the world – a space for reflection to create peace. In 2021, I was awarded an artist studio grant by the Berlin Senate. In 2022, I received a five-month artist residency from the German Artists Association as part of the Neustart Kultur program. These recognitions not only gave me acknowledgment, but more importantly, the space to explore, build, and achieve. For many years, I have been engaged in teaching, curatorial work, and community projects. I led art projects with refugees at the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven, where I held a major year-long exhibition using the museum's collection. I gave seminars in Chengdu and curated intercultural exhibitions such as "Elsewhere."

I also served as a juror for the film festival at Kino 46 in Bremen and organized public performances with over 23 international artists. In 2018, I led my own project for the Long Night of Culture in Bremerhaven. The most significant experiences were those where art directly touched life: working in public spaces (between two linguistic spheres), across boundaries – such as new exhibitions and paintings at the Humboldt Library in Berlin, or 70 paintings for justice at the District Court in Dresden, or the project with the German Consulate in Chengdu, between Germany and China, at the Moma Museum Chengdu. My works, including the exhibition "Spontaneity Meets Tradition" at the Nanning Museum in China, explore themes that are universal and inseparable from the human experience. My art is a continuous dialogue. It lives in many forms: on canvas, in expansive installations, in soundscapes, and in performances that traverse urban spaces. It challenges not only the viewer, but also myself – to constantly seek new spaces and possibilities for connection.

My work is never complete; it continues – in new spaces, new cities, and new forms. Art, to me, is a dialogue that unfolds through stories and touches the invisible. It remains always in flux, like Heraclitus’s philosophy, and will always remain in conversation. Turning Point: From Roots to Artistic Evolution The move to Germany in 1999 was a crucial turning point in my life and artistic practice. In Bremen and later in Berlin, I was not only able to deepen my academic education but also to further develop my artistic language. It was a process of discovery – the freedom to think and create beyond cultural and linguistic borders. This freedom made me a transnational voice in the art world, and my work reflects this dual heritage: a deep rootedness in Persia and a continuous artistic unfolding in Germany. Memory as Material: A Reflection on Identity and Loss In my installations, performances, and video works, memory is my primary material. I consider it a raw substance through which I fold time, sketch loss, and bring together the fragments of a torn identity. As a viewer of my own work, I would say my art addresses the complexity of human experience – the tension between closeness and distance, loss and new beginnings, the search for truth and for love… Art in Constant Transformation: Seeking Connection For me, art is never finished. It lives in a continuous process where the personal and the universal merge. It’s not about the pursuit of perfection, but about the ongoing search for connection – with history, with the present, and with the people who share these stories. Art becomes a space where memories and emotions are negotiated, and where silence is as present as the sound of colors. Art as a Bridge Between Past and Future I believe in art as a means of shaping and understanding life. It is never only a backward glance, but always also a look into the future. In this spirit, I continue – between colors and memories, between what has been and what is yet to come.

VIDEO: "REDE MIT MIR" by Maryam Mottalebzadeh. imagofeminae summer 2025 XLV.