Parissa Charghi is an Iranian multidisciplinary artist based in Cologne. Her practice operates at the intersection of creative direction, curatorial work, cultural production, and artistic education. For over 15 years, she has developed an independent artistic position shaped by a deep connection to music as well as global and diasporic subcultures.
Her work can be understood as a holistic cultural practice. At its core are the development of formats, curatorial processes, collaborative methodologies, and intercultural production. Parissa initiates and shapes spaces — both physical and immaterial — in which exchange, collective knowledge production, and sustainable artistic processes can emerge. She combines music, visual culture, and social practice into multilayered contexts where content becomes experienceable as interconnected narratives.
A particular focus of her work lies in amplifying and strengthening marginalized perspectives, especially within the context of Black music and culture. Her practice not only creates representation but also enables active participation, co-creation, and the development of long-term, self-determined structures.
Central to her work is the platform she founded, HEAVY FEELINGS. It is far more than an event format; rather, it is a self-initiated and independently driven structure that creates autonomous production conditions while connecting different formats, practices, and communities. As a growing network and cultural ecosystem, HEAVY FEELINGS serves as the starting point for numerous collaborative processes and artistic developments.
Within this framework, Parissa also works in the fields of creative artist development, A&R, and mentoring. She accompanies niche artists over extended periods throughout their creative processes — from conceptual development and production to the release of collaborative works. This practice includes both local and international positions, connecting different scenes and turning Cologne into a central node and meeting point within these transcultural collaborations.
An essential part of her practice is her work as a vinyl selector. Drawing from her personal record collection, she creates musical sets that move between reggae, hip-hop, jazz, Afro-diasporic sounds, dub, and electronic music. Her selections follow a narrative logic in which rhythm, archive, and cultural references become intertwined. Since 2024, she has also curated and hosted the HEAVY FEELINGS radio show on Refuge Worldwide, which extends the platform into a continuous space for musical research, mediation, and community building.
Alongside this, she independently develops and produces projects in the field of archives and cultural practice, including within the “Vinyl Archive Sampling Residency” at the MARKK Museum in Hamburg. Her projects are consciously developed outside institutional constraints and realized through collaborative processes with an international network of artists and cultural practitioners.
Parissa Charghi’s practice is driven by the intention to build sustainable, self-organized structures that extend beyond individual projects — functioning as platforms, networks, and continuously evolving cultural ecosystems.
Alongside her artistic and curatorial work, Parissa is also active in education and knowledge-sharing. She works as a mentor, gives lectures, and leads workshops on topics such as creative direction, artistic practice, and sustainable structural development.