Siah Armajani: Follow This Line

Organised in collaboration by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, “Follow This Line” constitutes the first major U.S. retrospective dedicated to Siah Armajani (1939).  The exhibition features more than one hundred works produced over the last sixty years by this Iranian-American artist, who begun is career back in the 50s, while still a student and activist in Tehran.

The display collects mostly never-seen-before or recently discovered pieces from the 60s and 70s, besides the iconic “Dictionary for Building” series (1974–75), consisting of several small-scale maquettes. The selection investigates the topic of exile in Armajani’s research, isolating in particular the techniques through which he built this aesthetic. For the first time, the exhibition presents also his pieces as props for future actions, such as public performances, official speeches, magic spells, veiled calls for political activism and poetry readings.