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When the Pergamon Museum reopens in 2027, visitors will once again encounter one of its most remarkable architectural treasures: the wooden dome from the Alhambra’s Torre de las Damas (Tower of the Ladies) in Granada. To deepen the experience of this historic object, a new artistic intervention is underway, an expansive mural by Imran Qureshi, one of Pakistan's most important contemporary artists. His abstract garden composition enriches the atmosphere of the entire space, offering shifting perspectives and moments of visual discovery for the visitors.
Gardens of Alhambra
The tower room of the Alhambra has been partially recreated in the new exhibition halls of the Pergamon Museum. As in the original setting, windows open in every direction, offering views into a room that once framed light, ornament, and landscape. The east wall, visible through these window openings now carries the new mural.
An Abstract Garden
The artist behind this mural is the internationally acclaimed Pakistani artist Imran Qureshi, known for his powerful reinterpretation of the Indian-Islamic miniature tradition and for his monumental garden paintings in public spaces around the world, including the rooftop of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the garden of the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto.
"This is my first permanent work outside of Pakistan. I was intimidated by the sheer size of the wall. I also had to get used to the scaffolding." Says Imran Qureshi
Qureshi envisioned an intense, abstract garden composition that complements and expands the contemporary presentation of the Alhambra dome. In this mural, his characteristic leaf and flower forms appear in concentrated clusters, from which colour and movement flow downward in splashes and washes. These extensions gradually fade out, ensuring that the stair structure remains untouched. From the numerous small flowers and floral elements, a garden scene emerges, contextualizing the Alhambra as an idealized and romanticized place of longing. The colour palette draws on symbolic hues central to Qureshi’s practice: red (the blood of our history) and shades of blue (the hopes and inspirations of our coexistence) blending into the green of the Alhambra gardens (evoking creation - rich and beautiful).
A time-lapse video brings to life the abstract gardens created by Imran Qureshi in November 2025.
The Artist Behind the Mural
Qureshi was trained as a miniature artist from National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan where he now teaches the discipline. The fragile beauty of Qureshi's work is modulated by socio-political reflections on contemporary life. The colour red is a clear allusion to the lifeblood that flows through our veins, while his flower motifs evoke the possibility of renewal and growth. A sense of balance is maintained between the dualities explored in these works, such as violence and beauty or death and regeneration, which are shown as opposing yet intertwined forces. For the artist, 'the flowers that emerge from the paint represent the hope that – despite everything – the people sustain somehow their hope for a better future'. Using the representational techniques of miniature painting to depict our modern reality, Qureshi's work speaks in part to the friction of a world in which novelty collides daily with orthodoxy.
In 2013, he was awarded the Deutsche Bank’s Artist of the Year and received his first solo exhibition in Europe at the Deutsche Bank Kunsthalle in Berlin. His work has since been shown in numerous solo exhibitions across the world.
His practice aligns closely with the museum’s mission of connecting artistic traditions across time, and using contemporary art to open new perspectives on historical objects. He is now one of 12 artists from the Islamic world whom the Museum for Islamic Art has invited to respond to the museum's famous exhibits with a work of art.
A Garden for the Visitors of Tomorrow
When the Pergamon Museum reopens in 2027, this abstract garden, measuring roughly 8x8 meters and created over two weeks in November 2025 will become an integral part of the visitor journey. It will expand the spatial and emotional context of the Alhambra dome. It invites visitors to look, pause, reflect, and consider the layers of history and artistic dialogue that shape the museum’s new presentation.
Spectacular Miniature Garden: Artist Paints Huge Wall at the Pergamon Museum
“When visitors sit beneath the carved dome and look out the window, they don't see the gardens of the Generalife in the Alhambra, but rather Qureshi's extraordinary flowers.
Huge mural in the north wing
Qureshi, born in 1972, is one of Pakistan's most important contemporary artists and now one of 12 artists from the Islamic world whom Weber invited to respond to the museum's famous historical exhibits with a work of art.”
Rolf Brockschmidt writes for the Tagesspiegel
More about Alhambra Dome
The Alhambra Cupola in the Museum for Islamic Art
This story tells of the origin and transfer of the Alhambra dome to Berlin.
Dismantling the Alhambra Cupola
The Alhambra cupola will be reinstalled in our future exhibition in the Pergamonmuseum’s north wing. Read about its dismantling process.
