ST. GALLEN.- The Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen is presenting Octogone, the first solo exhibition in Switzerland by French-Iranian artist Chalisée Naamani (b. 1995 in Paris). The exhibition showcases recent textile works, sculptures and site-specific installations by the artist.
Through layering and collaging fabrics, images and texts, Naamani creates objects reminiscent of garments or closely connected to the body. Carefully sewn and embroidered by hand, Naamani assembles appropriated, used and reproduced materials to create “vêtements-images”. These “image-garments”, as the artist describes them, are not intended to be worn, however. Freed from their utilitarian value, they become sculptures in which the symbolic and political significance of clothing is condensed and reflected.
Naamani’s references range from international protest movements, such as the emancipatory “Women Life Freedom” movement in Iran and the “Gilets Jaunes”/“Yellow Vests” movement in France, to ornamental textile traditions and religious iconography, as well as pop-cultural references, brand logos and her personal family archive. By combining these diverse sources within the textile medium, Naamani on the one hand addresses the constant circulation and appropriation of images and symbols in a globalised world shaped by migration, social media and the accelerated cycles of the fashion industry. On the other hand, fashion is reframed as a fundamentally political arena in which overarching power dynamics are articulated alongside practices of individual expression and collective resistance.
The exhibition's title, Octogone, refers to the “Zurkhaneh” (“House of Strength”), a traditional Iranian training space with an octagonal ring in which the martial art of “Varzesh-e Pahlavani” is practised. This historic site of physical and cultural resistance — the pre-Islamic sport was banned in Iran for centuries due to its “revolutionary potential” — provides the exhibition with its formal and conceptual framework. In other sporting contexts, such as boxing or football, Naamani explores gendered body images and societal logics of optimisation. For example, by bringing together training equipment and objects associated with early childhood learning, she interweaves her experience of motherhood with reflections on normative notions of performance, growth and physical autonomy. Through quotation and recombination, Naamani thus opens up a space for the destabilisation and reinterpretation of these categories.
Chalisée Naamani (b. 1995 in Paris) lives and works in Paris. Solo exhibitions (selection): Octogone, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2026); Goodwill, Ciaccia Levi, Paris (2025); Octogone, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2025); Week-ends éphémères, La Galerie – Centre d’art contemporain de Noisy-le-Sec (2021). Performances and group exhibitions (selection): Wardrobe, Pavillon de l'Esprit Nouveau - Le Corbusier, Fondazione Furla, Artefiera Bologna (2026); Cabane, Le Delta, Namur (2025); Rayon Jouets, Hangar Y, Meudon (2024); After Laughter Comes Tears, MUDAM Luxembourg (2023); Power Flower, Biennale de Nice (2022). Chalisée Naamani has been awarded the Pista 500 Prize by the Pinacoteca Agnelli, Turin (2023) and the Benoît Doche de Laquintane Prize (2021).
The exhibition Octogone by Chalisée Naamani at Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen is organized in collaboration with Palais de Tokyo, Paris, and Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna.
