Live sketchbook
by Nargess Behrouzian02.09.2026
where
Cardinal Ferrari Oratory, via Cesare Cantù, 23851 Galbiate (Lc)
catechism classrooms
when
02.09.2026
hours
10.00am – 10.00pm
info
drawing performance
it will be possible to book your slot by writing your name on a board at the entrance of the catechism classrooms
03.09.2026
07.00pm – 08.30pm
public conversation between Giulia Casartelli and Nargess Behrouzian
Cardinal Ferrari Oratory, via Cesare Cantù, 23851 Galbiate (Lc)
catechism classrooms
instructions
You sit down. I watch you for five minutes, in silence.
Then I turn toward the paper. I draw from memory, without looking back.
For five minutes, you watch me: what my hands remember, what they lose, what they keep.
What appears is not a portrait. It is what remains after observing a posture, a weight, the impression of a person who is already becoming the past.
Throughout the day, each drawing joins the others. The paper stretches from floor to ceiling. The bodies accumulate.
The drawings will be on display on September 3.
The following day, each drawing will be available for purchase.
Write your name at the entrance.
Each session lasts ten minutes.
Cardinal Ferrari Oratory, via Cesare Cantù, 23851 Galbiate (Lc)
catechism classrooms
when
02.09.2026
hours
10.00am – 10.00pm
info
drawing performance
it will be possible to book your slot by writing your name on a board at the entrance of the catechism classrooms
03.09.2026
07.00pm – 08.30pm
public conversation between Giulia Casartelli and Nargess Behrouzian
Cardinal Ferrari Oratory, via Cesare Cantù, 23851 Galbiate (Lc)
catechism classrooms
instructions
You sit down. I watch you for five minutes, in silence.
Then I turn toward the paper. I draw from memory, without looking back.
For five minutes, you watch me: what my hands remember, what they lose, what they keep.
What appears is not a portrait. It is what remains after observing a posture, a weight, the impression of a person who is already becoming the past.
Throughout the day, each drawing joins the others. The paper stretches from floor to ceiling. The bodies accumulate.
The drawings will be on display on September 3.
The following day, each drawing will be available for purchase.
Write your name at the entrance.
Each session lasts ten minutes.
Nargess Behrouzian
Sarajevo, 20.06.2026
Nargess was one of my students at the Institute for Applied Theater Studies at the University of Giessen, in Germany. I met her shortly after our birthdays in 2023, at the beginning of the spring semester. We are both born on April 15. I watched her at work, read her writings, and leafed through her notebooks filled with drawings. I was her guest: after I finished teaching, during my subsequent brief visits to Germany, she welcomed me into her home, making it one of my 55 caves.
In June 2025, I saw her for the first time performing The Living Sketchbook, during a theater festival: for an entire day, she was shut away in a studio completely covered in wrapping paper, silently observing the people who came to visit her and drawing them in charcoal: “What appears is not a portrait. It is what remains after observing a posture, a weight, the impression of a person who is already becoming the past”, says Nargess.
In June 2025, I saw her for the first time performing The Living Sketchbook, during a theater festival: for an entire day, she was shut away in a studio completely covered in wrapping paper, silently observing the people who came to visit her and drawing them in charcoal: “What appears is not a portrait. It is what remains after observing a posture, a weight, the impression of a person who is already becoming the past”, says Nargess.
An artist’s work has to do with the practice of pure attention. Looking in a certain way is a form of gymnastics for attention: looking without seeking interpretation, until the light bursts forth. Looking while leaving the mind empty, open, and receptive to the object. It is not a matter of technique, nor even of will, but of an exercise in presence, in time and space. Will has to do with rigidity; attention with openness. And with trust. [I am indebted for this reflection to a text by Simone Weil, Waiting for God, Routledge, 2021]
“I became a writer—or, more precisely, I let myself become a writer—in order to have pure time, stripped of every serious occupation”, wrote Christian Bobin. [Christian Bobin, Autoritratto al radiatore, AnimaMundi Edizioni, 2012, p. 16 my translation from Italian]
I believe many artists could say the same. Pure attention, in pure time: Nargess observes a person for five minutes; she turns around and portrays that person as she or he, in turn, observes her, with the same gaze. There it is, “pure time.” It is time that is not questioned; it is time that we know will pass; it is time in which we simply are, without distraction, and in which we welcome whatever comes.
“I became a writer—or, more precisely, I let myself become a writer—in order to have pure time, stripped of every serious occupation”, wrote Christian Bobin. [Christian Bobin, Autoritratto al radiatore, AnimaMundi Edizioni, 2012, p. 16 my translation from Italian]
I believe many artists could say the same. Pure attention, in pure time: Nargess observes a person for five minutes; she turns around and portrays that person as she or he, in turn, observes her, with the same gaze. There it is, “pure time.” It is time that is not questioned; it is time that we know will pass; it is time in which we simply are, without distraction, and in which we welcome whatever comes.
Everything happens in silence. “Silence is a living thing” for the poet Chandra Livia Candiani:
Essentially, this is what spending time in silence and letting things be as they are creates: trust. It doesn’t really matter in what, just a trust that is both radical and minimal, even if it’s simply that there is a path and that it’s passable, that there is a room, that we can sit down, that pain or joy can sit with us, within us, in the room, and that they can be understood. [Chandra Livia Candiani, Il silenzio è cosa viva, Einaudi, 2018, p.13, my translation from Italian]
I invited Nargess to GalbiArte, thinking she could create this space for all of us—a space where we can simply be.
Giulia Casartelli
Essentially, this is what spending time in silence and letting things be as they are creates: trust. It doesn’t really matter in what, just a trust that is both radical and minimal, even if it’s simply that there is a path and that it’s passable, that there is a room, that we can sit down, that pain or joy can sit with us, within us, in the room, and that they can be understood. [Chandra Livia Candiani, Il silenzio è cosa viva, Einaudi, 2018, p.13, my translation from Italian]
I invited Nargess to GalbiArte, thinking she could create this space for all of us—a space where we can simply be.
Giulia Casartelli
Biography
Nargess Behrouzian is an artist and choreographer based in Giessen, Germany. Her work moves between drawing, painting, performance, and choreography, bringing together visual art and movement. After studying visual arts and theatre, she developed an interdisciplinary practice that explores the relationship between body, memory, and imagination. Through her work, she is interested in how personal experiences, emotions, and stories can be expressed through both images and movement.
She is currently pursuing an MA in Choreography and Performance at the Institute of Applied Theater Studies of the Justus Liebig University of Giessen.
She is currently pursuing an MA in Choreography and Performance at the Institute of Applied Theater Studies of the Justus Liebig University of Giessen.