Chalisée Naamani’s ‘Octogone’ transforms textiles into powerful reflections on identity, protest, and the politics of the body.
29 June 2026
What can a garment hold beyond the body that wears it? In ‘Octogone’, French-Iranian artist Chalisée Naamani invites audiences to consider clothing as a site of memory, resistance, and cultural transformation. Presented at Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, the exhibition marks the artist’s first solo presentation in Switzerland, bringing together recent textile works, sculptures, prints, and site-specific installations that blur the boundaries between fashion, image making, and political expression.
Layering fabrics, archival imagery, embroidery, and found materials, Naamani creates what she describes as vêtements-images, sculptural “image garments” that are never intended to be worn. Instead, they become vessels for stories that weave together international protest movements, Persian and Christian iconographies, popular culture, brand identities, and personal family histories. Through these richly textured compositions, fashion emerges as a language through which power, belonging, and collective resistance are continuously negotiated.
The exhibition takes its title from the Zurkhaneh, the traditional Iranian “House of Strength”, whose octagonal arena serves as both a physical and symbolic framework for Naamani’s exploration of cultural resilience. Produced in collaboration with Palais de Tokyo, Paris, and Kunsthalle Wien, ‘Octogone’ offers a compelling meditation on the circulation of images and identities in an interconnected world.
This exhibition is on view at Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen in Switzerland until 13 September 2026.
