Iman Issa

The interaction between objects and their surroundings is at the centre of Iman Issa's work. After studying philosophy, which visibly characterises Issa's work structured in hypotheses and evidence, the artist, who was born in Cairo in 1979, worked primarily in the medium of photography. Today, her studies mostly take on a sculptural form, with photography, video and the written word forming further constants.
Issa deals with the question of the extent to which the perception of objects is characterised by their geographical, historical and social circumstances: Is an object or is an image at the mercy of the interpretations of its viewers*, so that its meaning is constantly changing? Conversely, to what extent does an object - such as a monument or a historical building - shape memory? This raises the question of whether there are forms that have such a fundamental relationship to their meaning that they are immune to arbitrary interpretations.
Issa pursues these considerations using various methods: In her work series Heritage Studies (since 2015), she draws on existing historical artefacts. Although her own objects, or "displays" as Issa calls them, do not resemble their models in size, colour or material, the artist considers them to be fundamentally identical.
Her proxies play with the genre of the self-portrait: the abstract sculptures bearing names such as William S. Burroughs, Georges Henein or Hannah Arendt are accompanied by short aphorisms that can be read as a condensation of the respective work of thought. What would a monument to a thought look like, these sculptures seem to ask, detached from conventions of representation, which always proceed physiognomically, motivically or metaphorically.
Works by Iman Issa from the past ten years can be seen at the Lenbachhaus. The exhibition is accompanied by a publication.
Curated by Stephanie Weber
With the kind support of the Förderverein Lenbachhaus e.V.

Last edited on 28.04.2025