Location: KURDISTAN

“Two plus two equals one” were the last words spoken by Qazi Muhammad, the former President of the Mahabad Republic, before being hanged by the Shah’s army in 1947.

The Soviet-backed Republic of Mahabad was one of the few attempts to establish a Kurdish state. It was founded on January 22, 1946, in the Iranian Kurdish region and lasted only 11 months. No foreign country ever recognized it, and its survival depended entirely on Soviet support.

Despite its short-lived existence, Kurdish nationalism continues to hold strong appeal, particularly among the Kurdish diaspora. The historical region of “Greater Kurdistan” is currently divided among Turkey, Iran, Syria, and Iraq. However, the aspiration for an independent Kurdish state remains a dream for many within the largest stateless ethnic group in the Middle East.

2+2=1 is an exhibition inspired by the book Nergiz by Italian photojournalist Eugenio Grosso. The book is a collection of autobiographical stories drawn from the author’s personal and professional experiences during seven years of living, working, and traveling extensively across the region (2016–2023).

The exhibition features images from the conflict against the Kurds in Turkey, alongside depictions of mountain villages, ancient temples, guerrilla fighters, and everyday rural life. Through this collection, the exhibition seeks to showcase the diversity of Kurdish identity and challenge the stereotypes that too often define the Kurdish people in Western narratives.

ABOUT EUGENIO GROSSO

Eugenio Grosso is an Italian photojournalist based in Milan, focusing his work on conflict and social issues. In 2015, he extensively covered the refugee routes across Europe.

Between 2016 and 2017, Grosso lived in Iraq, documenting the offensive to liberate Mosul from ISIS occupation. In November 2018, he published Kurdistan Memories, his first photo book with the German publishing house Kehrer Verlag, about his experience in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Grosso continued to cover the “Kurdish question,” and in 2023, he published Nergiz, a collection of behind-the-scenes stories from his work in the four countries that make up “Greater Kurdistan”: Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.

Since 2018, he has also worked in the area of the former Persian Empire and, since 2019, in Central Asia. In recent years, he has resumed his visual research on the southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea and immigration in Europe.

His work has been published in national and international media outlets, including BBC, CNN, The Washington Post, and Bloomberg, and has been exhibited in both solo and group shows in Italy and abroad.