The exhibition and the carpets are the result of the collaborative research project “Weaving Memories” which provides weavers from the North Khorasan region in Iran with a platform to tell their stories by transforming their craft into a medium of storytelling and as works of art. "Weaving Memories" is a collaborative and multimodal project that examines the systemic marginalization and exploitation of carpet weavers who create handmade carpets. The project emphasizes the urgent need for a radical shift in the perception of weavers—from being seen merely as tools of production to being recognized as authors of their craft. The project adopts a co-curatorial research approach, transforming carpets from mere commodities into mediums of expression through storytelling. One of the outcomes of the project is the exhibition WE ARE NOT CARPETS. The exhibition was a collaboration between the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum (RJM), the Cologne International Forum, the Global South Studies Center at the University of Cologne, and the FWO-funded research project "Weaving Memories" at Ghent University.

For the "Out of Focus" exhibition, we showcase selected pieces from the project, including the carpet "I Want to Be a Gazelle" by weaver-artist Rabe' Rahimi, accompanied by a 3:45-minute video by Tahereh Aboofazeli and Arjang Omrani. Additionally, we present the unfinished carpet by Masoomeh Mohammadi along with an accompanying audio piece. These two carpets will be complemented by a sound installation featuring nine personal stories from the weaver-artists, creating a rich and immersive experience.

Arjang Omrani is an anthropologist–filmmaker, currently a postdoc researcher (FWO fellowship, “weaving memory”project) at the Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences at the University of Ghent/Belgium. In an interdisciplinary environment, he is engaged with multimodal, embodied, and collaborative modes of knowledge production within the framework of “shared anthropology” and “critical public pedagogy”. He is exploring the more-than-textual – multimodal – processes of research and publications and pursuing the creative application of anthropology that tends to be inclusive – both for the people who it works with and the wider public in general.

Tahereh Aboofazeli is a PhD student in anthropology at the University of Cologne and was a PhD fellow at the Integrated Research Training Group (MGK) at the CRC 1178, University of Siegen from 2024-2025. Her research draws on collaborative and multimodal forms of knowledge production, utilizing methods like the audio-visual and Theatre to actively engage the public in the creation of knowledge. In her PhD thesis, she employs a diverse range of mediums - textual, audiovisual, and textile - to explore collective multimodal autoethnography with female weavers in Iran, with a particular focus on addressing intersectional forms of oppression.

Simone Pfeifer is a social and cultural anthropologist specializing in the intersection of media anthropology, migration studies, and religious-political contexts. She is currently working in the project “Critical Anthropology” at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at Goethe University Frankfurt. Her work explores social, visual, and digital practices in post-migrant societies from a critical and curatorial perspective. Previously, her research focused on transnational social relationships between Senegal and Germany, the securitization of Islam, political violence, art and ethical challenges in ethnographic research. ORCID: 0000-0003-0367-9090, www.simone-pfeifer.de.