Archive for the 'Six Pillars to Persia' Category

The Art of Improvisation

Cousins Adib (UK) and Mehdi Rostami (Iran) take the closeness of their family ties into the realm of improvisation, where trust and understanding between musicians is paramount to success. Prior to a London performance we talk to them in the studio about the preparatory process for an improvising musician, the instruments they play – the [...]

Six Pillars – Crossroads of the Ancient World

                  A personal tour of the British Museum’s major show in 2011 on Afghanistan: Crossroads of the Ancient World. This awesome and massively educative exhibition is brought to us thanks to the amazing bravery of a few men who took care of these objects in great secrecy [...]

Six Pillars – Women and Sex in Iran

Fari Bradley talks to Dr Pari Esfandiari PHD about her website Irandokht, one of the 34 websites showcased by UNESCO. The website creates dialogue and space for expression for Iranian women all over the world and is a resounding success. Dr Esfandiari also co-wrote a 7 page article in Playboy Magazine in 2007 about an [...]

Six Pillars – Slavs, Pistons and a City of Leaves

Interviews recorded in UAE with artist Bahar Behbahani, the Slavs and Tatars collective and tracks from the new album by singer Sussan Deyhim. The film by Behbahani at Sharjah Biennial involved a collaboration across the Caspian sea while the installation by the Slavs and Tatars created the setting for ‘Friendship of Nations’, a work looking [...]

Six Pillars – Entee aka Sarmastian

Our interview with new producer Entee aka Sarmastian, who visited the studios in July 2011. Here we sample some of his tracks and detail the rap/singing/remix competition open until August for any budding musicians out there who want some air time on 104.4FM

Six Pillars – A Lebanese State of Mind

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 [...]

Six Pillars – Poland 3 Iran 2

A lively (and long!) chat with Mehrdad Seyf, founder of 30 Bird Productions, UK’s leading Anglo-Iranian theatre company. Fari met with Mehrdad at the beginning of his latest tour: Poland 3 – Iran 2, a multimedia piece performed in pubs with audience interaction and involving a sculpture piece containing a toilet and a toy train. [...]

Six Pillars – Wael 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 [...]

Six Pillars – Nobel Peace Prize Winner: Shirin Ebadi

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 [...]

Six Pillars – Pearls on the Ocean Floor

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 [...]