Shamiran Istifan

About this place

Shamiran Istifan’s works develop from fragments of memory and the present. Starting from personal influences, she works with images and visual codes, condensing them into new constellations. Her installations, sculptures and textile works shift the focus onto social and structural connections. The artist often uses visual worlds from everyday life or references from pop culture and social media, which she turns into new, sometimes sacred-leaning meanings. Born in Baden, she grew up in a diasporic reality shaped by a minority perspective. In her new works, Aargau becomes a space of resonance: objects such as cobblestones or letterboxes – as a transition between private space and public life – meet the aesthetics of the cosmetics industry and motifs from teenage culture. This creates a layered constellation of images, materials and symbols in which different worlds of life exist side by side. Shamiran Istifan (*1987) is the recipient of the Manor Kunstpreis Aarau 2026, which is awarded every two years to support young Swiss art.