Seen and Unseen: Sufi Life in Frankfurt
Listening, Presence, and Community in Contemporary Germany
16 – 22 October 2026
Römerhalle Frankfurt · Römerberg 23, 60311 Frankfurt am Main
Open daily 10:00 – 17:00 · 16 October 2026 13.00 – 17.00 . 22 October 2026 10.00-13.00
Free admission · Complimentary exhibition catalogue available onsite
About the exhibition
Seen and Unseen is a photographic and ethnographic exploration of Sufi life in contemporary Germany, focusing on the MTO Shahmaghsoudi School of Islamic Sufism in Frankfurt. Curated by Negah Angha, the exhibition documents how Sufi practice unfolds through ritual, service, hospitality, and everyday life within the city.
The exhibition moves between what is visible and what remains unseen: gestures, atmospheres, thresholds, and the quiet rhythms of a community cultivating presence in an urban setting. Alongside Angha's photographs, the exhibition includes works by Aram Norouzi and Mehdi Varvani.
The project grows from Angha's doctoral research at King's College London and her 2026 Praxis Fellowship with the Academy for Islam in Research and Society (AIWG) at Goethe University Frankfurt.
Exhibition Themes
Seen and Unseen takes as its starting point the lived experience of Sufi practice in contemporary urban Germany. Rooted in sustained fieldwork with the MTO Shahmaghsoudi community, the exhibition is organised around four themes:
I. Ritual and Embodied Practice Dhikr (remembrance), samaʿ (listening), salat (prayer), and Tamarkoz® meditation explored through repetition, rhythm, breath, sound, and collective presence.
II. Belonging Sacred and everyday spaces across Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Düsseldorf: hospitality, shared meals, interfaith dialogue, and community life.
III. Service Khedmat The ethics of care expressed through everyday acts of preparation, responsibility, and support.
IV. The In-Between Portraits, thresholds, and transitions: shoes at the door, empty rooms, the quiet after gathering.
About Negah Angha
Negah Angha is a scholar, curator, photographer, and foreign policy expert whose work brings together visual storytelling, lived religion, peacebuilding, and public-facing scholarship. Her academic work focuses on Sufism, ethical self-cultivation, service, and peacebuilding, with fieldwork conducted in Germany and Morocco. For Seen and Unseen, she serves as curator, artistic director, and contributing photographer. The project grows from her doctoral research at King’s College London and her 2026 Praxis Fellowship with the Academy for Islam in Research and Society (AIWG) at Goethe University Frankfurt.
Exhibition Programme
Römerhalle Frankfurt · Römerberg 23, 60311 Frankfurt am
Vernissage | Thursday 15 October | By invitation
Public Exhibition Opens | Friday 16 October | 13:00–17:00
Public Exhibition open daily | 17-21 October | 10:00–17:00
Public Exhibition open | Thursday 22 October | 10:00–13:00
Finissage | Thursday 22 October | By invitation
RSVP details for invitation only events coming soon.
Artists
Negah Angha — Curator, Artistic Director & Photographer
Scholar, curator, photographer, and 2026 AIWG Praxis Fellow. Her work brings together visual storytelling, lived religion, peacebuilding, and public-facing scholarship.
Aram Norouzi — Photographer
Photographer and digital artist whose work explores spatial atmosphere, thresholds, interiors, light, and form.
Mehdi Varvani — Photographer
Director of photography and visual storyteller show images bring cinematic sensitivity to movement, presence, and communal life.
Supported by
MTO Sufi Verband e.V.,
Hessian Ministry of Science and Research, Arts and Culture, Office for Multicultural Affairs Frankfurt,
Academy for Islam in Research and Society (AIWG) at Goethe University Frankfurt