Tag Archives: Iranian arts

Magic of Persia and the Contemporary Art Prize

An interview with Shirley Elghanian from Magic of Persia.

Magic of Persia Contemporary Art Prize finalists exhibit in London this month, as do the artists involved in the Iran Unbowed exhibition which Magic of Persia have curated to coincide with the Frieze Art Fair.

With luminaries such as Abbas Kiarostami on board and Sheena Wagstaff chief curator of the Tate, Magic of Persia works to promote Iranian arts and culture outside of Iran.

This interview was broadcast live from the Resonance 104.4FM studios on October 5th 2009.

Six Pillars – Tangiers to Tehran and Patrick Monahan


Fari Bradley talks to Irish-Iranian-Jordie comedian Patrick Monahan live in the studio. The very spontaneously funny Patrick also muses on comedy as an art form and what it was in his upbringing that made him a comedian. Patrick proves that some comedians are full of repeated anecdotes, and others are just naturally funny.
This week’s show also features short interviews from the Tangiers to Tehran festival, celebrating women in cinema from the Middle East and Northern Africa. An amazing array of films were pulled together for the event, held at several venues across London. This unusual festival took palce mostly due to the hard work of Suzy Gillet from the French Institute and James Neil from Parallax Media. We interview them both, with a comment from Dr Kay Dickinson, one of the key speakers at the film symposium.

Six Pillars – Lekonik, Composing from Film

Clever boy Lekonik (Amir Heshmati) has his finger in several musical pies. He can make beats as well as the next man but uses his film background to create truly singular tracks that make your ears prick up as soon as you hear them.

One of those tracks is played here: “Kitchen” where each screen shot corresponds to the sound it produced until the sounds layer up to make an intriguing and singular piece.

Amir discusses his current project based on his home town Shiraz in Iran, his family, Iranian culture and film and we are treated to four of tracks.

Six Pillars – Persian Avant Garde Music 1960’s

Mashayekhi’s work is woefully unknown to us the in the west, despite his completely unique and innovative methods and career that spans back to a pre-Shah Iran. From score writing to painting Mashayekhhi’s work reflects the unique way he thinks. Many thanks to Sub-Rosa Records for allowing us to podcast these pieces.

We also hear a short interview with artist Anahita Rezvani on her work, recently shown here at the Paraava gallery. She is interviewed at our request by her friend, who remains unnamed.
This show was produced and presented by Fari Bradley and broadcast from the Resonancefm studios in 2007.