In September 2022, the death of 22 year-old Mahsa (Zhina) Amini in the custody of Iran’s morality police ignited a wave of protests that rapidly evolved into one of the most significant popular uprisings in the history of the Islamic Republic. What began as an outcry against the compulsory hijab became a broader demand for dignity, bodily autonomy and political freedom. Across cities, villages and universities, women removed their headscarves, cut their hair and occupied public space with extraordinary courage. Soon, the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom” echoed far beyond Iran’s borders, becoming a global call for solidarity with those risking everything to imagine a different future. It is within this urgent historical moment that Shirin Neshat presents Woman Life Freedom for CIRCA.

For more than three decades, Neshat has examined the relationship between gender, power, religion and political ideology. Working across photography, film and video, she has consistently explored the contradictions that shape contemporary Iranian identity, particularly the experiences of women whose bodies have become sites of political and cultural contestation. Few artists have traced these tensions with such sensitivity, complexity and persistence.

Rather than producing new imagery in response to events, Neshat returns to two pivotal works from her seminal series Women of Allah (1993–97): Moon Song and Unveiling. Created following her first return to Iran after the 1979 Revolution, these photographs emerged from an attempt to understand the profound transformation that had overtaken the country during her years in exile. At the centre of the series lies a series of unresolved questions: How does ideology inhabit the body? How does faith coexist with violence? What happens when personal identity becomes entangled with political power?

Three decades later, these images return with renewed urgency. In Moon Song, floral Persian ornamentation, handwritten Farsi text and the cold geometry of bullets coexist within a single frame. For Neshat, these elements speak to a cultural contradiction that has long shaped Iranian society: the coexistence of an ancient Persian tradition rich in poetry, mysticism and beauty alongside the rigid structures imposed by political fundamentalism. The work refuses simplification. Instead, it inhabits the difficult space between these competing histories, revealing the tensions that continue to define contemporary Iran.

The texts inscribed across the photographs are equally significant. Drawn from poems and literary writings by Iranian women, they introduce voices that operate beneath and beyond the image itself. Language becomes another form of resistance, another way of preserving complexity against ideological certainty. The written word is not illustrative but disruptive, opening spaces for reflection where fixed meanings begin to dissolve.

Presented on the monumental scale of Piccadilly Lights and screens across Los Angeles, Woman Life Freedom transforms public space into a site of witness. These are not images that seek to explain the present moment. Instead, they remind us that the struggles unfolding today have deep historical roots. The questions posed by Neshat’s work in the 1990s remain unresolved. Who controls women’s bodies? Who determines the conditions of freedom? How do people reclaim agency in the face of systems designed to deny it?

At the same time, the commission points toward something larger than protest alone. Throughout her career, Neshat has resisted reducing art to political messaging. Her work insists that aesthetics, poetry and imagination remain essential forms of resistance. If authoritarian systems seek to narrow the possibilities of life, art opens them again.

The title Woman Life Freedom is therefore more than a slogan. It is an affirmation of a future still being fought for. It speaks not only to Iran, but to universal aspirations for self-determination, equality and human dignity. Broadcast across public screens, Neshat’s images become both elegy and declaration: a gesture of solidarity with those demanding freedom, and a reminder that the struggle for liberation begins with the refusal to accept that the world must remain as it is.

As millions across the globe repeat the words “Woman, Life, Freedom”, Neshat’s work stands as both witness and companion to a movement that has transcended national borders. It reminds us that images, like acts of courage, can travel across continents, carrying with them the possibility of change.

Shirin Neshat is one of the most influential artists and filmmakers working today, internationally celebrated for a practice that explores the intersections of identity, gender, power, religion and exile. Through photography, film and video installation, she has created a body of work that gives visual form to the complexities of belonging, displacement and resistance, often drawing upon her experiences as an Iranian woman living between cultures.

Born in Qazvin, Iran, in 1957, Neshat moved to the United States prior to the Iranian Revolution and has lived in exile for much of her adult life. Her return to Iran in the early 1990s profoundly shaped her artistic direction, leading to the creation of the landmark Women of Allah series (1993–1997). Combining portraiture, Persian poetry and symbolic imagery, these works established many of the themes that would come to define her practice: the relationship between faith and politics, the role of women in society, and the tensions that emerge when personal identity intersects with larger historical forces.

Throughout her career, Neshat has moved fluidly between still and moving images, creating poetic works that resist simple political readings while remaining deeply engaged with contemporary realities. Her acclaimed films and video installations frequently examine the emotional and psychological dimensions of displacement, exploring how individuals navigate systems of authority, collective memory and cultural expectation. Through a visual language that is both intimate and monumental, she has become one of the defining artistic voices of the global Iranian diaspora.

In 2022, Neshat collaborated with CIRCA on Woman Life Freedom, an urgent public intervention presented across London and Los Angeles in solidarity with the movement that emerged following the death of Mahsa Amini. Drawing upon two pivotal works from her Women of Allah series, Moon Song and Unveiling, the commission amplified the rallying cry being heard across Iran and throughout the world. Presented in partnership with Human Rights Watch, the project transformed public screens into platforms for solidarity and collective action, demonstrating how art can respond to moments of crisis while affirming the universal struggle for dignity, equality and freedom.

Neshat has received numerous international honours, including the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale and the Silver Lion for Best Director at the Venice Film Festival. Her work has been exhibited at institutions including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Serpentine Gallery, Hamburger Bahnhof, The Broad and museums worldwide. Through a practice defined by both poetic sensitivity and political urgency, Shirin Neshat continues to create powerful images that challenge injustice while affirming the resilience of the human spirit.