Siah Armajani

Siah Armajani (1939-2020) was an Iranian-American artist. After being harassed by the Shah’s police, he immigrated to the United States in the early 1960s and settled in Minneapolis. His American period began with him covering canvases with handwritten Farsi, in a style reminiscent of Pollock, Tobey, or Lettrist artists. In the cultural and linguistic context into which he was suddenly dropped, for the artist it was a matter of preserving the memory of Persian poetry that had informed his work.

Then Siah Armajani shifted the focus of his work to the issues of the time. He contributed to developments in conceptual art by participating in several of its seminal exhibitions. His political and philosophical reflections on American democracy and its thinkers (Jefferson, Emerson, Thoreau, Dewey, etc) distanced him, however, from that conception of art and its practice. Armajani turned instead to a wide-ranging investigation into forms of architecture without architects, or invented by engineers. He took a particular interest in the vernacular – the humble, simple and useful. Bridges were a particular focus. From 1974 onward, he referred to himself as a "public artist" and devoted his practice to pedestrian walkways, pavilions and gazebos, and reading spaces – facilities and installations provided for the use of passers-by rather than sophisticated visitors from the art world. This ethical commitment saw him work in Europe (France, the Netherlands, Germany) and Japan, as well as his adopted country.

Le Printemps de septembre presents various works from the 1960s, concentrating on the 131 models in the Dictionary For Building, which constitute an exceptional collection of notes and 3-D sketches made by the artist in the course of his inquiries into mainstream forms. Here, sculpture finds its most modest formulation at the same time as it marvels over anonymous discoveries. Pursuing his explorations, Armajani created different "reading rooms," including the Sacco and Vanzetti Reading Rooms. On view is one of these indoor installations, dedicated to American anarchists who were victims of repression, a frequent theme of the artist.

Siah Armajani always practiced art as a moral philosopher and engaged citizen in his adopted country. Attention to others is the cornerstone of his highly principled work.

In partnership with les Abattoirs, Musée – Frac Occitanie Toulouse