Iranian artist Mahsa Aleph presents her latest solo exhibition, What is Washed Returns as Language, at Haus am Kleistpark in Berlin. On view from 10 July to 20 September 2026, the exhibition marks her first institutional solo presentation in Berlin and brings together two significant works: the installation Jowhar (2021) and the newly commissioned film Reanimation (2026). (Haus am Kleistpark)
Working at the intersection of film, installation, and text, Aleph explores the relationships between language, materiality, and memory. Her practice considers words, images, and objects not as fixed meanings but as fluid entities that continuously transform through processes of disappearance and return. The exhibition's title reflects this central idea: that what appears erased or forgotten does not vanish, but re-emerges in new forms. (Haus am Kleistpark)
In Jowhar, Aleph washes handwritten text from paper scrolls, collecting the dissolved ink in small vessels inspired by the Iranian tradition of "tear catchers," transforming the act of erasure into one of preservation. The accompanying film Reanimation, filmed on the outskirts of Tehran, follows fragments of demolished homes as they are repurposed into new shelters, reflecting on displacement, resilience, and the continual reconstruction of the idea of home. Together, the two works offer a poetic meditation on loss, cultural memory, and the enduring capacity for renewal. (Haus am Kleistpark)
