/// Tempor(e)ality
In her lecture-performance, Azade Shahmiri examines the historically imagined representation of the West and at the same time reflects on the position of an Iranian performer on a European theatre stage today. Shahmiri’s notion of whiteness goes back to her study of Iranian plays and how the West is represented in them. Since theatre as an art form arrived in Iran in the 19th century, it has been a progressive tool in the hands of playwrights, pioneers in times of enlightenment and socio-political change. As a new means of communication, plays quickly became a medium that described the present and testified to the past. It is fascinating how this Western phenomenon of theatre became a modern means of portraying, praising and also criticizing the West. Plays began to construct the West and create an imagined reality of it. As it was for the first generation of Iranian playwrights, theatre today is still a place where the unbearable reality of today can be reimagined – remembered, re-read and re-performed without nostalgia for the past.
CONCEPT, TEXT, PERFORMANCE Azade Shahmiri DRAMATURGICAL CONSULTATION, OUTSIDE EYE Isar Aboumahboub LIGHT DESIGN Saba Kasmaei TECHNICAL OPERATOR Nazanin Mehraein VISUAL ADVISOR, IMAGE Leila Ahmadi Abadeh TRANSLATION Bahar Ahmadi Fard
AZADE SHAHMIRI “In recent years I have worked with various international festivals, theatres and organizations in Europe, the UK and Asia. I also have experience with funds, grants and commissions. For me, White Money is an opportunity to learn more about the unknown structures I have worked with. My experience as an artist from Iran, working and living outside Europe, can be useful to look at the problematics from another side. Also, the concepts of Othering and Exoticism have been two of my critical burning issues for as long as I can remember. What interests me about White Money is the effort to bring to the table the fundamental question of funding structures and the economics of intercultural performing arts. Another interesting point of this project is creating an alternative and building a network to keep the conversation going. I believe in uncomfortable dialogues.”
AZADE SHAHMIRI (director, writer and performer, Tehran/Iran) holds a BA and MA in Theatre Studies from Tehran University. Her book Postcolonial Theory and Criticism was published in 2010. She works on solo performances and collective projects. Her works Damascus and Voicelessness were shown at the Zürcher Theaterspektakel and Kunstenfestivaldesarts Brussels. Azade was artist-in-residence at Theaterformen Hannover 2011, and she was also on the juries of Theaterspektakel 2012 and at the Asian Arts Festival in South Korea. Her latest work Quasi premiered at the Wiener Festwochen 2021.
