Leyla Emadi’s new exhibition HEMHAL proposes a field of balance in which opposites are able to coexist. The exhibition will be on view at MERKUR from January 17 to March 14, 2026.
Iranian-born artist Leyla Emadi’s new exhibition HEMHAL / Blended in Balance opens at MERKUR on January 17. Drawing on the artist’s multi-layered, multilingual existence, the exhibition approaches oppositions not as sites of conflict, but as zones of richness that deepen meaning. This perspective becomes visible in the exhibition through the coexistence, within the same space, of the fluidity of Sufi thought and the geometric, rigid aesthetic of Kufic script.
Balance Formed Through Oppositions
The concrete Kufic inscriptions featured in the exhibition render visible Leyla Emadi’s strong and deeply personal relationship with language. For the artist, concrete is not merely a material that makes words readable; it is a carrier that transforms language into a presence that spreads through space and is felt in the body. Concepts such as time, surrender, inwardness, and the micro–macro relationship become condensed in matter through the language Emadi constructs with sharp angles and hard surfaces. Confronting these rigid structures are the artist’s fluid and abstract alphabet sculptures informed by Sufi thought. Multiplied through light and shadow, these forms reflect Emadi’s approach of dispersing language into space rather than fixing it at a single point—turning language into movement, into breath, rather than structure.
Embroidered and woven surfaces form the exhibition’s more inward-looking and bodily layer. In these works, where Emadi binds the state of “being hemhal” to time, patience, and labor, the mirroring between above and below, inside and outside, part and whole is constructed stitch by stitch. Here, language is no longer merely an idea; in the artist’s hands, it becomes a surface that is touched, carried, and inscribed into memory.
Rather than proposing a conciliatory space that erases oppositions, HEMHAL reveals Emadi’s approach, which reminds us of the necessity of recognizing both ends as belonging to ourselves. The exhibition invites viewers to rethink balance not as a fixed destination, but as the courage to live alongside oppositions.
Between Two Cultures
Having grown up during periods shaped by political and ideological turbulence in both Turkey and Iran, Emadi carries into her practice the traces of these countries’ shared historical ruptures, along with the oscillations between identity and belonging. Centering issues such as gender inequality, justice and injustice, ideological frameworks, and collective trauma, the artist works across a range of media including fabric, metal, concrete, and printmaking techniques. In her recent production in particular, she brings together the weight of concrete with the oppressive force of language, producing works that question both individual and collective memory.
