Istâdegi (ایستادگی) – Iran: standing firm

© Yalda Moaiery

FROM OCTOBER 5 TO NOVEMBER 8

Istâdegi (ایستادگی) – Iran: standing firm

Curators : Mariam Pirzadeh, Julie Dungelhoeff
Designer : Laurent Hochberg

In the space of a year, from June 2025 to June 2026, the Iranian people endured two wars and a mass massacre. To the sound of Kalashnikovs raining down on them on 8 and 9 January 2026 – as they hoped to overthrow, single-handedly and with their bare hands, a repressive and totalitarian regime – was added, on 28 February, the sound of bombs, echoing the Twelve-Day War of June 2025.
What remains for a people who, despite wars and uprisings, are unable to overthrow a theocratic and military regime that has been in power for 47 years?
What remains is resistance, in all its forms: poetry, song, and daily acts of defiance through the reclaiming of one’s body, one’s voice, and the public space confiscated by the Islamic Republic.
This resistance is illustrated through the photographs of Yalda Moaiery, one of the few present on the streets alongside the demonstrators in January, who has since been stripped of her passport and her tools of the trade; the perspective of Maryam Rahmanian, who seeks to show the complexity of a society of 93 million people torn by conflicting emotions; the images by Ahmad Halabisaz, a World Press Photo 2023 award-winner, which bear witness to the freedoms hard-won by Iranian women following the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022; the drawings by Bahareh Akrami and poetry that is both fiercely topical and yet so timeless.
You are about to step into the life of an Iranian, in one of the most closed-off countries in the world.
Despite the scent of death that has replaced that of roses, the Iranian people stand firm. Istâdegi.

—

Hôtel du Doyen
Rue Lambert-Leforestier

Open everyday from October 5 to October 11
10 am to 12.30 pm and 2 pm to 6 pm
Open Wenesday to Sunday from October 12 to November 8
2 pm to 6 pm

Exceptionally open Friday October 9th until 7 pm and Saturday October 10th from 10 am to 6 pm.
Free admission