c/o Q18: The 40th Silence – Farzane Vaziritabar

In Iranian culture, Chehelom (the fortieth day of mourning) marks a space between emptiness and recognition - a moment that hovers between wound and memory. The number forty has always been symbolic of transition - spiritually, religiously and popularly: from rawness to maturity, from presence to absence, from catastrophe to contemplation. On the fortieth day, death is transformed from a personal event into a collective memory - carried in a silence that is not born of speechlessness, but of consciousness.

In this work, Chehelom takes on a new form - not as mourning for a single life, but as a confrontation with what has been lost and continues to be lost. This work invites participation in a grief that is neither purely private nor merely historical - a grief that is anchored in everyday life: in the unspoken silences, in the tragedies we normalize, in what disappears - without a candle, without a witness. Here, mourning is not just pain; it is an aesthetic and ethical act.

Opening performance: June 15, 2025, 5 pm | Q18
Opening hours: June 21, 22, 29, 2 - 6 p.m.

In collaboration with the Theodor Wonja Michael Library and a Library of Grief and Resilience.

The exhibition is supported by the Quartier am Hafen and the Cultural Office of the City of Cologne.