“La calligraphie…c’est l’amour des mots.” An Interview with Atiq Rahimi

Abstract

In his recent publications, the Prix Goncourt-awarded Franco-Afghan novelist-artist Atiq Rahimi explores cross-cultural contemplations beyond linguistic signs. Across his bilingual calligraphies, inspired by European, Asian and African philosophies, Rahimi emphasizes the effects of war on marginalized groups beyond borders. In this interview, Rahimi allows insight into his lifelong practice of calligraphies. He comments not only on calligraphies published in L’Invité du miroir (Rahimi 2020) but also on callimorphies published in his latest piece Mehstî, chair des mots (Rahimi 2023), He further explicates the notion of translingualism and challenges the definition of ‘exoticism’ from his perspective as an artist in exile.