"Identities in Movement" collects a special group of interviews co-curated with Artemis Akchoti Shahbazi, published on Rondò Pilot 1.0/2020, with contributions from Kurosh ValaNejad, Amir Soltani, Hamed Noori, Gohar Dashti. In the research process we asked ourselves, what happens when you interview a group of artists based on their origin and hope to catch a glimpse of their common roots?
Contemporary Iranian artists lived through various aspects of our reality and Iran's executions, diaspora, revolution, displacement, exile, war and image. Each artist reveals deep differences of philosophy and of artistic, personal and societal aspirations. Bringing them together based on their origin seems to make visible the complexity of our global society.
It is not a surprise to find poetry as a common anchor that manifests itself in each of the artists’ answers. Rumi, Ferdawsi, Hafez, Khayyam, Saadi are Iranian poets, some from more than a thousand years ago, whose words are still alive in all Iranians and are widely read, even today, by Western audiences. This revelation makes us pause and wonder at the depth of our civilizations. How do culture and language transmit from one generation to the other and co-shape our identities? How does our identity survive executions, wars, displacement, exile, imperialism, revolutions?
What does all this have to do with the global society today?
What is the role that art plays?
The full chapter is available on Rondò Pilot no. 1.0/2020 via issuu.com, and all interviews are available on this website.