Tehran, Iran — April 2025 — Aliha Gallery is set to present “The Blind Owl,” a group typography exhibition curated by Niloofar Gheysari, opening on Friday, May 16, 2025. This unconventional exhibition takes inspiration from the haunting atmosphere of Sadegh Hedayat’s legendary novel, The Blind Owl, inviting audiences into a world where letters, forms, and empty spaces speak louder than words.
Far from being a direct visual representation of Hedayat’s text, this exhibition is an artistic exploration of the foggy, fragmented, and deeply psychological universe that emanates from between the lines of the novel. Rather than focusing on the story itself, the participating artists delve into the author’s inner world — a space shaped as much by silence, solitude, and failure as by narrative.
Typography, in this exhibition, becomes more than a visual form of language. It transforms into a second, visceral language of feeling, where composition, distortion, and the careful use of empty space evoke the novel’s undercurrents of anxiety, isolation, and latent dread. Each artwork becomes an attempt to feel the novel rather than read it, challenging viewers to engage with The Blind Owl beyond its written form.
Curator Niloofar Gheysari describes the project as a response to an elusive question: If we chose not to read The Blind Owl, but to sense it, what would we see?
The exhibition will run from May 18 to 26, with daily visiting hours from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM, except Saturdays when the gallery is closed. An opening reception will be held on May 16 from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM at Aliha Gallery, located in northern Tehran.
Address: No. 31, 1st Floor, Ahmadi-Moghadam St. (Izad), off Ramazanian Alley, Mahroozadeh Alley, before Ghods Square (Tajrish), Shariati St., Tehran
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