Graveless Lovers
Bauhaus Hybrid Atelier, Werimar, Germany, 2024
Concept and design: Leila Keivan
Voice: Rand Ibrahim, Raisa Bosich, Hossein Motahar, Leila Keivan
Sound composition: Rico Graupner
Book design: Gabriella ParaGraveless Lovers; a research on dynamics of disaster, denial, trauma, and the intergenerational transmission of suffering under oppressive regimes.Case studies from the mass killing which have been denied by the oppressive regimes serve as focal points for this exploration. Each of these tragedies occurred in distinct geographical and natural settings, yet they share a common thread: the persistence of memory through nature. The practical work seeks to visuallyrepresent this idea by using alternative print methods, such ascyanotype, soil-connected printing, and chlorophyll type and soon, to create images that are embedded in natural elements. Theseprints, supported by video footage and sound installations, aim tonarrate the ongoing life, hope, and death of the victims,reinforcing the concept that nature itself is a guardian of memory.
Shores of the body
Video installation, ACC gallery, Weimar, Germany, February 2024
Concept and video: Leila Keivan
Technical and instructional support: Rand Ibrahim
Photo credit: Svea Bennett"Birds construct nests for laying eggs and nurturing chicks, not for living. They abandon nests if disturbed or if the eggs are nonviable. Surpri-singly, they don't rest in nests except during egg incubation, preferring roosting spots, often the same nightly....as leaving somewhere and retur-ning, the urge of leaving again".Returning and nesting, enjoying the orientation, remembering random habits, using the same old mug, going somewhere without knowing the ad-dress, hoping to run into someone who died two years ago... we nest too.
'Shores of the body' is a video installation made from the artist's childhood photos, projected onto the fictitious corner of the home where the artist was born, which is now defunct.
Liebevoll, L.
Germany, Weimar, August 2023 - July 2024Liebevoll, L. is a conceptual series of handwritten postcards utilizing the artist’s personal archive of photographs from Iran, spanning the years 1960 to 1980. Conceived as a chain of "forgotten memories," the project weaves together an imaginary dialogue between the subjects of the past and the observers of the present. Through this intervention, the artist seeks to revive the untold narratives of unfamiliar lives, inviting the residents of Weimar to engage with the histories of a distant geographical landscape.
Beginning in August 2023 and spanning the duration of one year, the artist is disseminating monthly editions of 100 postcards. These cards, carrying unique narratives, are strategically placed throughout the city, effectively transforming the urban fabric of Weimar into a personal creative territory and canvas. Despite the 5,600 km distance from the archive’s origins, the local public becomes the primary audience and participant, engaging with revealed histories that transcend physical and temporal borders.
14.10.1964, Valencia
In collaboration with: Eunji Lee, Rand Ibrahim, Stefan Ralevic , Teresa Fischer
Public art garage Residency, November 2023, Barcelona,Spain"14.10.1964, Valencia" is a collaborative art project that aims to create a multi-sensory experience that bridges time and language, shedding light on emotions and stories that persist through the ages. The concept of the project emerges from the simple coincidence of finding a postcard, written on October 10, 1964, in a second-hand market in Barcelona on November 2, 2023. This postcard with the letter it carries will be the start point of the projects where the audience is asked to navigate their own imagination and understanding of time and human relations. Intrigued by the cryptic content of the postcard, which narrates a promise of a soon meeting, a group of artists pose questions around the uncertainties that surround the message’s delivery and whether the meeting ever took place. This mysterious letter from the past compels us to respond, to cherish these tiny fragments of human experience that might otherwise be lost in the annals of time.
The project starts with sharing the postcard with other artists, giving them time to examine it and investigate the data that can be gathered through it. Then the process of writing back to the person mentioned in the postcard starts; the collaborators, decide on the length or period of time they need to reply. After the writing phase is accomplished, the letters, written in the collaborator’s mother tongue will be read parallely and performed. As the vocal outcome may not be fully comprehensible, the purpose of the performance and its shape and construct is not only mere communication rather an amplification of the unheard, leaving the audience with fragments of memories that build time and space bridges.
Photo credit: PAG Residency
Photo credit: Eunji Lee
Sun of the Midnight
Sun of the Midnight
Archival Installation
Documentation: Hossein Motahar
Blumenladen – Weimar – 2022 | Found and Felt – Hongkong – 2025 | Maxim Gorki Theater – Berlin – 2025"Sometimes I look at the clock and try to guess your time. I think you’re too afraid to tell me that you miss me, that you want to see me…"“Sun of the Midnight” is an archival installation that combines mirrors, light, and photographs to explore the complex relationships between past, present, and self-perception. The work is rooted in Keivan’s personal archive—a collection of photographs of strangers gathered over five years in Iran, capturing intimate moments before the 1978 Revolution. Brought to Germany in a small suitcase, these images became more than a collection; they carry stories of departure, displacement, and longing, shaping her understanding of home.
By merging archival images with mirrors under soft, focused light, viewers encounter their own reflection alongside the gazes of those in the photographs, creating a space where unseen lives are brought into dialogue with the present.
Narration of the Lost Moment
Archival Installation
Documentation: Leila Keivan, Hossein Motahar
Bauhaus Museum,Weimar, Germany, September 2022This installation challenges the traditional sanctity of the archive, where the spectator is typically restricted by preservation protocols and visual distance. By removing the barrier of "prohibited contact," the work facilitates an immersive, non-traditional encounter with historical artifacts. The artist invites the audience to transcend visual perception, utilizing the sense of touch as a primary cognitive tool to engage with the past.
The project operates as an experiment in sensory empathy. Within this secluded environment, the audience is encouraged to perceive the "fingerprints of the past" through tactile exploration. By sliding fingertips across the surfaces of bygone lives, the participant becomes a conduit for narratives that exist beyond language. This intervention transforms the archive from a static collection of objects into a living, tactile experience, allowing the viewer to "remember" histories that were never their own.
No One Can Resist the Light
Public Intervention
Tehran, Iran, December 2021In this series of site-specific interventions, the artist projects their private family archive onto the architectural facades of Tehran at a monumental scale. By elevating intimate domestic snapshots to the proportions of public billboards, the work enacts a deliberate "domestication" of the urban environment. The project forces a confrontation between the state and the individual, utilizing the city’s own infrastructure to challenge the boundaries of what is permitted to be seen.
The installation functions as a critique of the patriarchal narratives and systemic erasures that shape mainstream media. By insisting on the visibility of Iranian women’s lives in all their complexity and contradiction, the artist transforms the city into a platform for reclaimed representation. Within these facades, prohibition and denial lose their efficacy; the work asserts that private memory is a persistent, luminous force that resists erasure.
Perfect Storm
Public space performance
Concept and perform: Leila Keivan
Other performers: Rand Ibrahim, Hala Masri, Katharina Hüttermann , Racheal Thorleifson
Documentation: Carlos Santos
Chemnitz, Germany, January 2022This is a never-ending trial: to find a way to feel at home. We buy small decorative objects, paint walls, hang photos... but what if you want to make an entire city feel like home? How do you overcome the unknown and make it your own?To render the unfamiliar, a companion of kin, I draped the city in a gossamer veil woven of my tears. Amidst the tempest's fury, seeking solace, I fashioned a haven from these delicate fabrics. To soothe my molten heart, I bared it to the caress of the wind. I leaped into the realm of uncertainty, embracing doubt, and stripped myself bare. The sole adornment required was a cloak for my tears, swirling in a melancholic dance with the breeze.
Out of the Fog
Site specific Video Installation
Documentation: Hossein Motahar, Racheal Thorleifson
Bauhaus Museum, Weimar, Germany, May 2022"Artworks in museums are like fish in aquariums. They may be preserved, but they are also removed from their natural environment, drained of life, and reduced to mere spectacles for passive consumption."
Situationistische Internationale, 1960sWhat if archives could grace the public realm, free from the clutches of guarded institutions? What if, instead of commercial fare, people beheld their heritage adorning facades? Or perhaps, in a tender embrace, individuals unveiled their personal narratives, unveiling cherished archives for all to witness.
Weimar on Mirror
Sketch for a site specific installation
Concept: Leila Keivan
3D: Aboulfazl Karoubi
Graphic: Reza Farzanyar
December 2021The Weimar on Mirror art project seeks to create a distinctive and subjective encounter of the old town of Weimar. The emphasizes on the sense of place rather than the location itself by constructing a miniature version of the old town map.This project offers visitors a personalized way to engage with the city, regardless of whether they are citizens or tourists.The assembled facades of the art installation serve as a canvas for visitors to project their personal photos taken in Weimar. These projected photos are allowed to be manipulated and surreal, reflecting the unique and subjective way individuals perceive a place based on their psyche. This encourages visitors to feel a sense of belonging as their subjectivity is regarded as valid and acceptable.Moreover, the act of wandering and walking without any particular destination is a vital aspect of this project. By enabling visitors to explore and wander freely through the miniature version of the old town, they can discover and experience the city from a fresh perspective. This fosters a deeper connection with the city and enables visitors to immerse themselves in Weimar's rich cultural history.
About
Leila Keivan (b. Iran) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Germany. Her work explores the archive as a living psychological space, focusing on "emotional remains"—the fragments of memory, dreams, and unconscious wounds that linger after transitions.
Working as a "nomadic archivist" through an "adrift methodology," Keivan collects and assembles narratives that mirror the fluidity of contemporary life. Her practice seeks to narrate shared human vulnerabilities, creating immersive environments where the living and the lost coexist.
Keivan holds an MFA in Public Art and New Artistic Strategies from Bauhaus University Weimar (2024), alongside an MA in Photography and a BA in Carpet Design from the Art University of Tehran. Since 2008, she has participated in over twenty exhibitions and international residencies across Europe.
News
Kiosk for a Magic FutureInitiated by Danica Dakić, Ina Weise, Lea Maria Wittich & Arijit Bhattacharyya.
As part of the 7th Berliner [Herbstsalon ЯE:IMAGINE: THE RED HOUSE
From 2/Oktober to 30/November at KIOSK, Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin
FOUND & FELT brings together more than 20 artists, including participants based in Hong Kong, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, as well as others from across the world-Thailand, India, Iran, Australia, and beyond. Many works reflect diasporic experiences and personal journeys, travelling across continents to be found and felt.
Curators: Kylie Chung and Jennifer Yue
October - November 2025,Crash Space, Hong Kong
Pop-up-Ausstellung zum 276. Geburtstag Goethes auf der Terrasse des Goethe-Nationalmuseums
August 28th, Weimar
Übersicht der diesjährigen Weimar-Fellows, Nietzsche-Fellows und Bauhaus-Fellows in chronologischer Reihenfolge
Für den Einstieg in die Promotion
THEMA: IN MEMORY OF GRAVELESS LOVERS - a study on roll of denied disaster in oppressive regimes and their effect on intergenerational traumas in future
Ausstellung Winterwerkschau der Bauhaus-Universität, Studierende des MFA-Programms «Kunst im öffentlichen Raum und neue künstlerische Strategien» sowie der Fakultät Kunst und Gestaltung der Bauhaus-Universität WeimarFr., 02.02.2024–So., 21.04.2024, Acc Gallery , Weimar
Curated by 11m3 projektraum , We are proud to invite you to Over and Over, An exhibition co-created with students and alumni of the MFA in Public Art and New Artistic Strategies at the Bauhaus Universitat weimar.
Over & Over is a one day group show that explores the conjunction of multiple identities and narratives, sewn together by acts of building and organizing.
If you are in Berlin please come visit the exhibition on the 25th of November from 14:00 at the OTTO in Haus der Statistik: Otto-Braun-Straße 70-72 10178 Berlin.
- Poster design: @jenniferyue
Mit dem Kreativfonds werden an der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar künstlerisch-gestalterische Projekte gefördert.
Warm invitation to the exhibition "Directly at the sun" // Opening 2.2 |/ 7pm //Blumenhaus, Poseckscher Garten 1, Weimar
"Why be a sunflower and turn to the sun? I myself am the sun." Ousmane Sembène, Caméra D'Afrique, 1983
Given the current confusion and challenges of the world that we live in, the exhibition "Directly at the Sun" serves as a greenhouse for blossoms of different colours and directions of artistic practice.
Throughout the winter semester, the artists of the MFA "Public Art and New Artistic Strategies" explored how art can contribute to societies shaped by heterogeneous experiences of displacement, migration, and confrontation with a past and present of war and violence. How can we, as people and artists, reorient and act in new, challenging situations, spaces, and complex thematic worlds? The exhibition shares the development of the artists' works after their two weeks of residency at Kunsthaus Dresden's "North-East South-West" exhibition project in Autumn 2022.
Throughout the semester, the artists engaged in a multifaceted discussion on "disorientation" concerning the structures and content of contemporary artistic practices. From this ground, intersectional methods of collaboration between the production of art and curatorial strategies are growing into a future in which hegemonies are dismantled. The works develop new strategies of spatial and social orientation and disorientation in the tension between self-location and global relationality. 'Directly at the sun' is an exhibition, that celebrates the pluralities of life and world views.
The exhibition showcases the works of the MFA programme "Public Art and New Artistic Strategies" of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. 'Directly at the sun' is organised by Vertr.- Prof. Ina Weise, Lea Maria Wittich, Arijit Bhattacharyya and Jirka Reichmann (Co-ordination). The exhibition is realised with the support of Kreativefonds.
Join us in this semester adventure together with Klassik Stiftung of Weimar in Bauhaus Museum
IMAGINARY BAUHAUS MUSEUM is a collaboration between the international MFA-Programme „Public Art and New Artistic Strategies" at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and the Klassik Stiftung Weimar.
Begun in 2015, it was designed as a long-term project with various exhibition locations. During the 2019 Bauhaus anniversary, it was presented in Weimar at the Schiller-Museum (April 3 to June 2) and in public spaces around the city (April to July), and will continue beyond the anniversary year.
It was with student works that the collection of the historic Bauhaus began in 1919 and with which the Weimar museum director Wilhelm Köhler realized an internationally significant museum policy. In 1925, during the politically forced relocation of the Bauhaus to Dessau, he and Walter Gropius selected 168 works from the workshops for the Weimar Museum.
Today, students, alumni and teachers of the international MFA-Programme are taking up the momentum for research and experimentation in order to test how the utopian potential of the Bauhaus can be activated for a museum collection of the future. Since 2015, the IMAGINARY BAUHAUS MUSEUM project has been tackling the social, economic and political issues of the present at selected exhibition stations in order to imagine 168 artistic works for a future Bauhaus collection. The internationality of the artists with their respective biographies and cultural backgrounds opens up different ways of seeing and acting.
How can we make our body and our clothes the carrier of images, thoughts, visions and desires? How do we place ourselves in our surroundings? How do we become visible as individuals in a community, in public space?
Based on the large textile and arts and crafts collection in the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, young international artists from the MFA
"Public Art and New Artistic Strategies" will explore current conflicts and contradictions of a complex society. Performative or participatory actions, research, interventions and installations will be developed in the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz and in urban space.
A discussion with the participating artists and the audience will take place on January 28, 2022 in the museum's Saulensaal. It will be moderated by the curator of the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, Dr. Sabine Maria Schmidt .
Come over:
Friday January 28th until Sunday January 30th from 11:00-18:00
DU KANNST DAS TRAGEN is a project of the MFA PANAS supported by the Kreativfonds of the Bauhaus-Universitat Weimar, idea: Ina Weise, direction:
Danica Dakić, Ina Weise, Lea Maria Wittich und Jirka Reichmann
In Zusammenarbeit mit 11m3 projektraum, DAZWISCHEN
Ein Gemeinsames Projekt von neue Studenten des Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (M.F.A.) programm an der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.
Dazwischen ist ein Gruppenprojekt, das 8 Personen verbindet, die nichts voneinander wissen. Im Schaufenster wird die Verbindung sowohl für das Publikum als auch für die Autoren durch die mitgebrachten persönlichen Objekte und Geschichten sichtbar.Wir eröffnen die Ausstellung als internationales Team, Freunde, Künstler, Fremde, eine Gemeinschaft.
04.10.21 - 17.10.21
