ArtDayMe: The 2026 Congress of the French Association for Semiotics, themed “Determination and Indetermination: Semiotics Between Predictability and Unpredictability,” will take place from June 17–20, 2026, at Université Paris Cité in Paris. The international gathering will explore questions of meaning, certainty, ambiguity, and interpretation across cultural, artistic, and social domains.

On June 18, Tabatabaei will participate in the congress as a featured speaker. Her presentation follows years of research dedicated to Mehdi Sahabi’s artistic practice. In 2021, Mojdeh Art Gallery published In Search of Meaning: A Semio-Semantic Analysis of Mehdi Sahabi’s Visual Artworks, a scholarly volume containing essays by three leading French semioticians.

Coinciding with the congress, an exhibition of selected works by the late Iranian artist Mehdi Sahabi (1944–2009) will be presented at Université Paris Cité on June 18. The program will include presentations by Mojdeh Tabatabaei and Sohrab Ahmadi, as well as a screening of a documentary film on Sahabi’s life and career.

A special session titled “Semiotic Perspectives” will bring together distinguished scholars Jacques Fontanille, Denis Bertrand, and Ivan Darrault-Harris, whose essays are featured in In Search of Meaning. The scholars will discuss the semantic and semiotic dimensions of Sahabi’s visual practice and his contribution to modern Iranian art.

The event is organized by the French Association for Semiotics, the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of Université Paris Cité, and Mojdeh Art Gallery in Tehran.

A Long-Term Commitment to Researching Iranian Art

In a statement released ahead of the Paris event, Mojdeh Art Gallery emphasized its longstanding commitment to promoting Iranian modern and contemporary art internationally.

As one of Iran’s most influential private galleries, Mojdeh Art Gallery has spent more than twenty-seven years organizing exhibitions, publishing scholarly resources, and supporting research initiatives aimed at introducing Iranian art to a wider global audience. Alongside collaborations with Iranian scholars, the gallery has consistently engaged leading international researchers and academics in the study and presentation of Iranian artistic achievements.

Among the artists receiving particular attention from the gallery in recent years is Mehdi Sahabi (1944–2009), a multifaceted cultural figure whose work spanned painting, sculpture, photography, literature, journalism, and translation. Sahabi is widely recognized as one of the key figures of Iranian modernism and an important bridge between Iranian and French cultural spheres.

Beyond his visual art practice, Sahabi made a lasting contribution to Persian literary culture through his translations of major French authors, most notably Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, as well as works by Gustave Flaubert, Simone de Beauvoir, Honoré de Balzac, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, and Stendhal.

From Museum Exhibition to Scholarly Publication

In 2021, a comprehensive monograph of Sahabi’s works was published through a collaboration between Mojdeh Art Gallery and the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, coinciding with a major retrospective exhibition dedicated to the artist.

The exhibition was accompanied by a series of scholarly panels examining different aspects of Sahabi’s artistic thought and production. One of the most significant sessions brought together French semioticians Jacques Fontanille, Denis Bertrand, and Ivan Darrault-Harris, alongside Iranian scholars Dr. Marzieh Attari Nik-Azam and Dr. Hamidreza Shairi.

The outcome of these discussions later evolved into the publication of In Search of Meaning: A Semio-Semantic Analysis of Mehdi Sahabi’s Visual Artworks. Published two years after the symposium by Mojdeh Art Gallery and the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, the book features essays by the three French scholars, translated by Dr. Marzieh Attari Nik-Azam and Iranian linguist Sohrab Ahmadi.

Now, in the third year since its publication, Mojdeh Art Gallery will officially introduce and present the volume within the framework of the French Association for Semiotics Congress.

The event will take place on June 18, 2026, from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Weiss Amphitheatre, Université Paris Cité, and will include the screening of a documentary on Mehdi Sahabi directed by Mehdi Rezakhani. A selection of Sahabi’s artworks will also be exhibited, providing an opportunity to revisit the legacy of one of Iran’s most influential cultural figures and to reflect on the enduring artistic and intellectual connections between Iran and France.

Iranian Art at the Center of Semiotic Inquiry

Hosted by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of Université Paris Cité, one of France’s leading academic institutions, the congress is among the most important international gatherings in the field of semiotics. Each edition is organized around a central theme and a series of specialized panels that bring together researchers and theorists from around the world.

The visual arts section of the 2026 congress is particularly rich, featuring more than fifteen scholars and speakers addressing painting, photography, curatorial studies, and related disciplines through contemporary semiotic approaches.

Two prominent Iranian artists are represented within the painting program. On June 18, Sohrab Ahmadi will present a paper examining the relationship between Behjat Sadr’s abstract paintings and the concept of indetermination. This session will be followed by the Mehdi Sahabi program, including the presentation of In Search of Meaning, an exhibition of selected works, and talks by the book’s contributors.

Notably, one of Mehdi Sahabi’s artworks has also been selected for the official visual identity of the congress and appears on the main conference poster.

The significance of the congress lies in its innovative and interdisciplinary approach, creating a valuable platform for advancing theoretical research in art and strengthening critical discourse—an endeavor that remains increasingly vital for both the academic and artistic communities.