ArtDayMe : The Raha Gallery Collection, founded and directed by Mohammadreza Ghaemmaghami, has been dedicated to promoting Middle Eastern art for over two decades.The collection preserves an outstanding range of modernist and contemporary masterpieces by Iranian and Arab artists.

Among its remarkable works is “Iran, The Endless Poem” by Bita Vakili, created with mixed media on canvas (200 × 200 cm) over five months.

Bita Vakili, born in Tehran in 1973, has lived with painting for more than three decades. With academic education at both bachelor’s and master’s levels and a strong presence at the highest levels of the Middle Eastern art scene — from remarkable sales at international auctions to exhibiting her works in over 80 exhibitions across the UAE, Canada, the USA, China, Monaco, Armenia, Malaysia, France, Germany, the UK, Oman, and Iran — she is among the most prominent Iranian contemporary painters. Vakili has achieved six notable sales at Christie’s, with her record dating back to April 18, 2012, when her work “New York Dream” sold for 45,000 USD. Her works are held in major collections such as Pasargad Bank, Tourism Bank, and by leading Iranian collectors.

The painting “Iran, The Endless Poem” in the Raha Gallery Collection is, in fact, the fifth work by Bita Vakili inspired by the map of Iran and differs from her previous ones in at least four aspects. The first distinctive feature is the relief execution of Iran’s map and the effort to illustrate various climates and geographical features, including mountain ranges, plains, lakes, and deserts. Another unique aspect is the circular text band made from papier-mâché, painted in green, white, and red — the colors of Iran’s flag — which seems to embrace the map of Iran while featuring a song written about the homeland.

The third and truly unique feature is the original music and song composed specifically for this painting by the well-known Iranian musician Mohammadreza Ebrahimi, which can be heard when viewing the artwork at Raha Gallery Collection.

The fourth distinctive aspect is revealed in the artistic analysis of the work. This large and mesmerizing piece presents the map of Iran in a completely innovative and multilayered form. By employing diverse materials and techniques, Vakili eliminates the boundaries between painting, sculpture, and industrial design, creating a work that holds artistic value in aesthetics, meaning, and structure. One of the most remarkable characteristics of the work lies in the variety and complexity of its materials. The painting incorporates approximately 5,000 metal washers of different sizes, staples, bolts, industrial paints, various textures, and papier-mâché techniques. This combination creates a vivid, detailed surface reminiscent of geological erosion, soil layers, and the mechanical pulse of civilization.

The canvas and frame have been specially designed to bear the 80-kilogram weight of the metallic materials — itself a sign of the artist’s sculptural approach to painting. At the center lies the map of Iran, formed with natural tones of brown, beige, ochre, blue, and green, evoking a topographic and geological quality. The composition expands radially from the center outward, as though Iran were a living heart sending its energy to its surroundings. The borders appear as fine metallic lines, while the periphery is decorated with calligraphic and organic shapes, alluding to the continuity of the nation’s culture, language, and history.

The color palette blends earthy and mineral tones at the center — symbolizing Iran’s soil and nature — with metallic and turquoise hues along the edges, reminiscent of Iranian artistic heritage. The gleam of metals and shifting reflections across the surface give the piece a dynamic, ever-changing quality that transforms with each viewing angle. The map of Iran here is not merely a depiction of geography but a metaphor for collective identity — a body representing endurance, diversity, and unity. The use of industrial, rigid materials conveys persistence and creativity, while the multiplicity of layers emphasizes Iran’s cultural and historical complexity.

This painting exists on the boundary between painting and relief. Through its dense layers of paint, metal, and washers, it creates a rhythmic mechanical texture that contrasts with natural, flowing forms — a visual dialogue between nature and industry that defines the work’s aesthetic power.

From a symbolic perspective:

Washers and bolts recall industrial and social structures, connecting humankind to civilization.

Papier-mâché signifies birth from paper and thought — a bridge between Iranian tradition and modern methods.

The map of Iran symbolizes a living body that carries the layers of earth, memory, and culture within itself.

This painting can be viewed as a reinterpretation of national identity from a contemporary, multimedia viewpoint. Bita Vakili, by merging material science, cartography, and conceptual art, portrays Iran not as a geographical boundary but as a living, dynamic, and multilayered being. In her vision, metals flow like the veins of civilization through the body of the soil, and each washer and bolt is a symbol of effort, endurance, and history. Vakili’s work is a fusion of painting, sculpture, industrial design, and conceptual art — a harmony of tradition and modernity, of earth and humanity. The map of Iran thus becomes a metaphor for resilience, diversity, and national unity — a space where form and meaning intertwine.

Surrounding the work are repetitive patterns and written symbols that evoke cultural, linguistic, and historical continuity — as though the artist has transformed the map into a spiritual and cultural emblem of Iran. 

The text of the song inscribed around the painting reads:

Iran, my land,

Your soil, the collyrium of my eyes,

Eternal paradise of mine,

Your love, my alchemy.

O boundless homeland,

Legacy of lovers,

Within you rest

A hundred kind hearts,

Thousands of innocent martyrs,

Thousands of lovers who gave their lives for you.

Bita Vakili’s note on her painting “Iran, The Endless Poem”:

Sometimes, colors become language, and the canvas becomes the page of a heart longing to speak of its homeland. This work is my story of a land where the sun rises anew each day. Iran, to me, is not merely a home — it is a melody that flows through my veins, the scent of rain-soaked soil, and the light that shines from the ancient walls of history upon the face of today. In every hue of this work, there is the pulse of life: the blue of Shiraz’s sky, the gold of the desert, the green of northern forests, and the red of a heart that still beats for tomorrow. I see Iran not on a map, but in the eyes of its people — in the hands that work, in the smiles that survive hardship, in the hope that never fades. Why Iran? Because no art can grow without roots. Because every artist, deep within, returns to their first home. And in that return, I found my homeland — Iran, beating through history and living within me.

This work belongs to the Raha Gallery Collection of the Middle East.