"Jowhar" (Farsi) is an ambiguous term: ink, essence, gem, core and origin are translations that come close to what Masha Aleph wants to express. The artist presents an exploration of the mutual condition of the past and the future - using writing ink as an example. The installation consists of eight large rolls of paper on which the artist has written down a sentence from her own notebook over and over again, namely, "The future is only a part of the past that has been forgotten." Based on different washes, one can see that the writing has gone through stages of development. The artist washed the text with water, taking away the color of the writing and thus showing that changes do not happen invisibly, but leave traces. The diluted ink that came off was collected, stored as a recycled product in "tear catcher jars" and presented in the installation as a start for everything new.
Aleph locates in the ink both the captured essence of all the words already written and the potential to develop new, different stories. For Jowhar, Mahsa Aleph receives the "State of the ART(ist) - Main Prize 2023."

Photo: Valentin Wedde 2023