From September 18 to 27, 2026, more than sixty works created in Evin Prison bear witness to repression, solidarity, and resistance. A drawing by Gianluca Costantini is featured in an installation within the exhibition.
In Munich, art becomes a testimony to what happens behind prison walls. From Evin with Love – Handmade Testimonies from Evin Prison in Iran, presented from September 18 to 27, 2026, at Einstein Kultur, brings together more than sixty artworks and objects created by women imprisoned in Evin Prison in Tehran.
A drawing by Gianluca Costantini is also featured in an installation within the exhibition. His work on Woman, Life, Freedom forms part of an ongoing effort to document the Iranian protests and struggles for freedom of expression through visual art.
The works on display were created between 2010 and 2024 by women imprisoned for their involvement in human rights advocacy, social and environmental causes, or because of their religious affiliation. Paintings, woodwork, dolls, carpets, poems, and letters reveal individual experiences that imprisonment threatens to erase from public view. These objects were created under conditions of deprivation, yet they preserve gestures of care, human relationships, and imagination.
The exhibition’s title, From Evin with Love, introduces a fundamental tension: love and solidarity emerge from a place associated with repression. The works do not erase the physical and psychological violence endured by the prisoners, but they refuse to allow that violence to become the only way their lives are remembered. Each handmade object carries the presence of a person who continued to create, even in captivity.
The exhibition pays particular attention to the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, which emerged from the protests that swept Iran in 2022. In this context, the inclusion of Costantini’s drawing within an installation establishes a connection between the testimonies created by imprisoned women and drawing as a means of preserving public memory. The purpose is not to replace their voices with an image, but to help those voices travel beyond prison walls and national borders, ensuring that their stories do not disappear when international attention moves elsewhere.
The exhibition is curated by Mansoureh Shojaee and Parastou Forouhar. Shojaee is associated with the Iranian Women’s Movement Museum, while Forouhar is an Iranian-German artist and activist whose work also addresses the memory of political violence.
At the opening on September 18, the curators introduced the project and discussed the role of art as a means of survival and resistance. The programme also included a video message from Vida Rabbani, a former political prisoner and artist involved in the exhibition, and a contribution from Member of the European Parliament Hannah Neumann.
From Evin with Love extends beyond the exhibition itself. Its public programme includes discussions on feminist and decolonial cultures of memory, film screenings, conversations about activism, and events dedicated to literature.
On September 24, the programme includes a screening of My Stolen Planet by Farahnaz Sharifi, followed by a discussion with activists from Woman Life Freedom Munich. On September 26, the book Mapping Gender Struggles will be presented. The exhibition concludes on September 27 with From Evin to Munich to the World and a concert by Arash Sasan.
The exhibition is organised by Frauenakademie München, Woman Life Freedom Munich, and the Iranian Women’s Movement Museum, in cooperation with the Petra Kelly Foundation and with support from the City of Munich’s Department of Arts and Culture and Migration Advisory Council. Admission is free.
Throughout ChannelDraw’s work, drawing has often served as a way to keep people and events visible when they are at risk of being forgotten. The presence of Costantini’s artwork in From Evin with Love continues this approach, placing it within an exhibition built around the firsthand testimonies of Iranian women.
The artworks created in Evin do not simply ask to be seen. They ask us to remember the lives behind them.
Exhibition information
From Evin with Love – Handmade Testimonies from Evin Prison in Iran
September 18–27, 2026
Einstein Kultur, Einsteinstraße 42, Munich, Germany
Admission: Free
Full programme:
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