Curator of the 2010 Lebanon Pavilion at Venice Biennial, writer and curator Georges Rabbath lays out ‘A Plot for A Biennial’, an interactive happening following Lebanon’s official retraction from the Venice Biennial, 11.
At the Sharjah Art Foundation, Georges explains how T H E S T A T E O F M I N D project at this year’s biennial will make a transferable collection of artworks for any place where the world of art has become, he quotes ‘a zoo’.
The Path To Cairo – Shawky
Ahead of his forthcoming talk at Delfina Foundation we’ve pulled out some audio from Emirates March Meeting 2011 where Wael presented his work on the crusades from an eastern perspective, as depicted through marionettes on film. One part of the quartet of film retraces events unfolding in the four years between (1096-1099) and which played a key role in subsequent historical developments, shaking to the core the Arab world and its relations with the West. Shawky was somehow given permission to use 200-year-old marionettes from the Lupi collection in Turin and was inspired by The Crusades Through Arab Eyes by Amin Maalouf, written in 1986. The book by Maalouf, a Lebanese writer, examines the historical points of the Crusades by going back to Arab historians and their writings, most of which have never been considered by historians in the West, although Maalouf does also reference some of the most acknowledged Western sources and studies and aim to give, finally, a balanced view to this too-long-one-sided episode in the history of humankind. Wael lives and work in Egypt.
Dr Shirin Ebadi, the First Iranian woman, indeed Middle Eastern woman, to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, spoke at SOAS on 2 February 2011 on ‘The Role of Women in Promoting Peace in the Middle East’.
Here she discusses the women’s movement in Iran and the difficulties she herself has faced in standing up for human rights in Iran.
This was originally broadcast on Six Pillars to Persia as part of a longer show, on Resonance 104.4fm.
Thanks to Marina Khatibi and Tom the engineer.
Women for Women organised a march from the Millenium bridge to Royal Festival Hall led by Annie Lennox. Fari Bradley spoke to some of the groups and individuals taking part.
Groups featured are: The Soroptimists, London Feminist Network, Refugee Council, Afghan Aid and Object.
This podcast also includes the speeches which took place at the end of the march, with Annie Lennox, Bianca Jagger, Lynne Featherstone (someone is shouting “get off the fence!” during this!), the highest positioned woman on the Afghanistan Refugee Council in Afghanistan, Helen Pankhurst from Care International (descendant of Emmeline), Berra Kabarungi, Natasha Walter, Judith Wanga, Liz Morgan-Lewis (The Soroptimist president), Sophy Ridge (Sky blogger), Cherie Lunghi.
Lynne Featherstone, and more.
This Torture
Why should we tell you our love stories
when you spill them together like blood in the dirt?
Love is a pearl lost on the ocean floor,
…or a fire we can’t see,
but how does saying that
push us through the top of the head into
the light above the head?
Love is not
an iron pot, so this boiling energy
won’t help.
Soul, heart, self.
Beyond and within those
is one saying,
How long before
I’m free of this torture!
(by Hafez, C14th)
American director Robert Adanto visits the UK while making his new film. Pearls on the Ocean Floor is a documentary looking at Iranian women artists, born both before and after the revolution, inside and outside of Iran. The narrative is made up of images by the featured artists and other female Iranian artists, and the women speaking to the camera, which affords the film a certain honesty and directness.
The film is screening at the School of Oriental and African Studies, Russell Square with a panel discussion on March 7th 2011, 7-9pm, all welcome.
On a visit to the UK, the founder of the largest website for Iranians in the world, Iranian.com visits the studio. Jahanshah Javid devotes his life to the website, known for its user generated content, and the catch-phrase ‘nothing is sacred’. Here the interview moves into other topics with interviewer Fari Bradley playing devil’s advocate on certain issues to scuffle up a debate.
After all, that’s what comment led content is about these days….
This show was originally aired on 104.4FM in February 2010
“History and geography are the basis of all the humanities.“
After falling in love with a map of Persia in Harrods, Dr Ala’i spent years researching the cartography of Iran and Persia before publishing two large volumes by Brill, on different maps of Persia from the 1400s to 1925.
Dr Ala’i was invited by Iran Heritage to give a talk in January 2011 on his extensively researched specialty, and Six Pillars interviewed him to find out more about this passion of his.
This is the whole interview, the first part of which was broadcast in January 2011 on Six Pillars to Persia, from the Resonance104.4Fm studios, London.
“Ideas worth spreading”. Prior to taking part in TED, David Toop discusses matters around opera, silence and his dog with Fari Bradley.
TEDx allows organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences, hence TEDx Aldeburgh.
Hosted by Thomas Dolby, Musical Director of the TED Conference, the event featured live talks by Louis Lortie, Martyn Ware, Tim Exile, Imogen Heap,
United Visual Artists, David Toop and others.
Prior to a talk arranged by Iran Heritage, the estimable Dr Alai discusses how phonetics, fashion, social hierarchies and myth enter the world Persian cartography. With perhaps the largest personal collection of Persian maps Dr Alai has published two immense volumes on the topic both of which have been included in Brills Handbook list for the Middle East.
His talk tonight: “Special Maps of Iran” in London, is free to attend at SOAS, University of London.
January 22nd 2011 Festival of Arts presents a night of improvised music and experimental Iranian dance: Sufi’s Night
Fusing the influences of disciplined dances such as tango and flamenco, Iranian dance takes on an almost Indian Kathak like energy, and the dramatic motions of the two performers Shahrokh Meshkin Ghalam and Karine Gonzales convey all the regal dignity of the epic stories and emotions they relate.
Here we interview daf impresario Hossein Zahavi, who is playing percussion on the night, and table maestro Yusuf Mamud who will be performing on vocals and tabla.
