artists
Parissa Charghi
Parissa Charghi © Niklas Hinterkeuser
New connections are formed wherever we open up spaces.
“Curating is the art of creating contexts.” For Parissa Charghi, this means not thinking of music in isolation, but weaving it together with visual culture, storytelling and cultural memory. With her platform HEAVY FEELINGS, the curator and creative director creates spaces for these connections – beyond genre boundaries and traditional event formats.
Her love of music dates back to her childhood: having grown up in a Persian household, family celebrations featuring music and dance were always an important part of Parissa Charghi’s social life. Her connection to Cologne’s independent scene and various collectives now stretches back over 20 years. As a creative director and designer, she has built up a broad network within the music and cultural scene; from time to time, she even takes to the turntables herself.
What she had been lacking up to that point were spaces where emerging and established artists, DJs, producers and musicians could naturally interact with one another. In 2022, she therefore launched her own initiative, HEAVY FEELINGS. Since then, she has developed the platform well beyond the confines of the club. Music meets visual culture, film, radio and storytelling; processes and perspectives are documented across various mediums – from printed magazines to video productions. “I see curating as the practice of creating contexts and documentation in which artists, musicians, cultural practitioners and audiences come together across generations, regions and disciplines,” says Parissa Charghi.
From Cologne’s jazz history to local hip-hop and reggae subcultures: Parissa Charghi’s musical upbringing is closely linked to various forms of diasporic music culture – and extends far beyond the city. She situates HEAVY FEELINGS as part of a Cologne tradition shaped by migration, movement and a spirit of experimentation. She wishes not only to preserve this history, but also to develop it further: “It is particularly important to me not to detach music from its historical, social and political contexts. For me, Black classical music and the diasporic musical cultures that have emerged from it exemplify how musical forms are developed across generations, interconnected and constantly reinterpreted.”
For Parissa Charghi, this means consciously building alternatives to established structures. With HEAVY FEELINGS, she has created a hybrid, evolving framework that not only enables artistic exchange and participation, but makes them essential. “Community is therefore not an add-on to HEAVY FEELINGS, nor is it an audience concept; rather, it is an essential part of this infrastructure,” says Parissa Charghi. “It brings together skills, creates new opportunities and keeps the movement open.”