Since December 2019, two large arched windows in blue and red, designed with reproductions (cut-outs) of ink drawings by the artist Aatifi, have been shining in the staircase to the Museum für Islamische Kunst in the Pergamonmuseum in Berlin, Germany. In 2015, the artist was represented at the Pergamonmuseum with his large solo exhibition Aatifi – News from Afghanistan. The two originals 'Untitled 6, blue' and 'Untitled 3, red', which were chosen as the basis for the design of the windows, also date from that year.

There will be an opportunity to see the two impressive windows until 22 October 2023. After that, the Pergamonmuseum will be completely closed to visitors for several years due to renovation work.

to the exhibition page Aatifi – News from Afghanistan

The two-part painting 'Untitled I' has dominated the foyer of a new building for the engineering and technology division of the international Böllhoff Group in Bielefeld, Germany since 2016. The 3 by 3.80 metre painting is hung opposite the glassed-in entrance. It welcomes the management, staff and guests as they enter the building with its powerful, dynamic shapes and lines applied in sweeping gestures and bright colours.

Already visible from the street, the work is also a striking eye-catcher from the outside. Executed in acrylic on canvas in magenta, red, light blue, light brown and bright yellow, the large-format work is characterised by a dynamically rising main form in lapis lazuli blue.

The painting with its abstract-scriptural forms and lines and the intensive colour composition should, according to the management’s wish, visually expand the foyer area through its depth and spatiality and set a contrasting colour tone in the rather sober and functional architecture. In addition, Aatifi’s contemporary work of art, which unites tradition and modernity and two large cultural areas in its idiosyncratic visual language, is intended to serve as a cultural bridge for universal understanding between all people, as well as within the company itself. (maba)