Parastou Forouhar is one of the most prominent voices in contemporary Iranian art. The artist and activist was born in Tehran, Iran. She successfully completed an art degree at the university there until 1990, followed by postgraduate studies at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Offenbach am Main from 1992 to 1994.
In 1998, a decisive event occurred that had a lasting impact on Forouhar’s life and work: Her parents, two leading opposition politicians, were murdered in their home by the Iranian secret service. The annual trips she has since made to her native country to commemorate the crime have become an act of resistance. Her artistic work is also decisively influenced by the murder. With drawings and photographs, computer-animated image sequences and installations, she reflects on social issues and grievances, drawing on the patterns and colours of Persian tradition. In 2000, Parastou Forouhar presented the ornament as camouflage for political statements at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin as her artistic signature and has continued to develop it ever since. The artist’s life and work are exemplary of the transcultural approach to traditional oriental and occidental formal languages.
The internationally recognised artist, who has lived in Germany since 1991, is also known for her political commitment against repression and violence and as a mediator between cultures. From 2019 to 2024, she taught a class in Fine Arts at the Mainz University of Art and Design as a Gutenberg Research Fellowship Professor, bringing her specific transcultural perspective on international contemporary art discourse to her teaching. In 2022, she was patron of the Days of Exile Frankfurt am Main and is a founding member of the collective Art-Cultur-Action.
