Iran Cultural Programme
Visiting Arts’ work with Iran 2001-2009
Context
Edinburgh 2008 Activity
Iran: New Voices at the Barbican 25 Nov – 7 Dec 2008
New Work Planned for 2009
Iran Producers’ and Curators’ Network
UK Media Coverage
Quartet: A Journey North production
Photo: Shokoofeh Hashemian
Context
Visiting Arts began working with Iran and Iranian arts organisations in the late 90s in order to develop cultural links and intercultural dialogue between the UK and Iran. This activity included the organisation of promoters’ visits to Iran, facilitation of artistic residencies of young Iranian artists in the UK and the funding of significant presentations of Iranian contemporary art in the UK. Additionally, Visiting Arts also coordinated and delivered workshops in Tehran for Iranian theatre practitioners beginning in 2007.
Through our ongoing work with Iran, Visiting Arts aims to:
- Help build a network of interested UK and Iranian artists/producers
- To ensure that initial cultural relations were established through person to person relationships at a time when Iran is beginning to forge international relations.
- To achieve this by bringing together the expertise of UK professionals with those of the host country on an equal platform.
- Build capacity in the Iranian theatre sector
- To create future opportunities for joint projects between specialists in the UK and abroad
- Raise awareness in the UK of Iran’s artistic and cultural heritage
- Develop cultural relations between the UK and Iran by providing positive experiences for future working practice.
Edinburgh 2008 Activity
Iranian Theatre Seminar
In August 2008, Visiting Arts organised an Iranian Theatre Seminar in the context of the Edinburgh Festivals. Visiting Arts secured support from British Council and DCMS in order to deliver this activity.
The objectives of the project were as follows:
- To bring together theatre producers from Iran, the UK and the British-Iranian Diaspora, enabling them to discuss their works, forms of practices and cultural environments that influences and characterises their production
- To further professional development through exchange of ideas and information
- To establish a basis for further artistic collaborations to build cultural links between Iran and the UK
- To raise awareness of Iranian theatre productions within the UK through networking opportunities with theatre directors and cultural attachés
The symposium invited between 7 Iranian theatre makers to the Edinburgh Festivals during the period 19-26 August. They were joined by a further 2 Iranian artists performing at the Edinburgh Festivals, 6 UK and diaspora theatre artists, and a number of UK producers, theatre programmers and directors. The seminar took place on 20 and 21 August in Dance Base, Edinburgh, and covered issues relating to intercultural collaboration including: translation, form, artistic and cultural identity, the creation of new work, performing existing works, social context, practical issues of taking productions from one country to the other, the logistics of collaboration, and the concept of collaboration itself.
The artists had opportunityies to network with UK professionals and other artists and see shows on offer in the Festivals.
Producers’ Breakfast
On the morning of 22 August, a Visiting Arts Producers’ Breakfast, focused on the Iranian artists’ presence in Edinburgh, took place at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre and was attended by over 60 UK and international producers.
VA Reception
That same evening, a reception was held in honour of the Iranians at Dance Base in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket.
Iranian Media Coverage of the Festival
Iranian artist Sasan Pirouz wrote on his experience with Visiting Arts at Edinburgh 2008:
Iran: New Voices at the Barbican 25 Nov – 7 Dec 2008
Visiting Arts has supported the Barbican’s upcoming season of Iranian work, which includes:
- Daedalus and Icarus (play), Mungo Theatre Company, Directed by Homayun Ghanizadeh, 25-29 Nov
- Iran: New Voices Symposium, 29 Nov
- Quartet: A Journey North (play), Mehr Theatre Group, Directed by Amir Reza Koohestani, 2-6 Dec
- An audience with Shirin Neshat, contemporary artist, 5 Dec
- Bedün´ə Onvän´, a series of new films from Iran, 6 Dec
- Power of a Cliché (spoken word performance), by Haleh Anvari, 7 Dec
- Kiarostami Double Bill (a screening of 2 films from the award-winning Iranian cinema director), 7 Dec
Click here for full programme
Haleh Anvari Chador-dadar 2006
New Work Planned for 2009
The following projects are to be delivered in 2009
- Producers’ Visit to Iran 2009 – we are planning to take a group of up to 6 producers out to Fadjr Festival 2009
- Curators’ Visit to Iran 2009 – we are planning our first curators’ visit to Iran, which will see up to 6 curators travelling to Tehran in the next couple of months
- Capacity Building Workshops (Tehran) 2009 - we have kindly been invited by the DAC to execute two capacity building workshops at the Fadjr Festival 2009
- Iranian Theatre Seminar 2009 – following on from the 2008 seminar, we aim to run another seminar in the context of Edinburgh Festivals 2009
Producers’ Visits to Iran (2001 – 2009)
Between 2001 and 2007, Visiting Arts organised a total of twenty-one visits for UK producers and journalists to Tehran. These visits have usually been timed to coincide with the International Fadjr Theatre Festival (Tehran), which takes place in late January every year.
The visits were organised in partnership with Dramatic Arts Center Tehran and British Council Tehran, with additional support from the UK’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
We are currently planning a producers’ visit to the 27th International Fadjr Theatre Festival 2009.
Curators’ Visit to Iran (2009)
We are currently planning our first curators’ visit to Iran which will take up to 6 curators to Tehran, where they will engage with Iranian artists, curators and arts organisations.
PAST WORK
Capacity-Building Workshops in Tehran
2007
In February and March 2007, Visiting Arts delivered two capacity building workshops with the aim of sharing expertise with Iranian theatre practitioners and creating sustainable relationships between Iran and the UK in the contemporary performing arts. The workshops were developed in partnership with the Dramatic Arts Center Tehran following a visit by Nelson Fernandez - former Director of Cultural Operations - to Tehran in November 2006.
The key objectives were two-fold: to empower Iranian and UK producers, artists and managers to develop and present their work in a confident manner, both nationally and in each others’ countries and to develop a framework that nurtured and sustained links between participants through artistic exchange and dialogue.
The first workshop explored general principles of arts production and management, and the second concentrated on developing a plan to take a project from concept through to delivery, with participants undertaking personal work in between.
A total of twenty seven participants from all over the country attended the workshops, which were facilitated by a core team of three, supplemented by a further four UK theatre director and producers, as follows:
- Rose Fenton (Independent Arts Producer)
- Stella Hall (Creative Director, Newcastle Gateshead Initiative)
- Greg Thompson (Artistic Director, Tron Theatre)
- Kerry Michael (Artistic Director & Chief Executive, Theatre Royal Stratford East)
- Mehrdad Seyf (Artistic Director, 30 Bird Productions)
- Nelson Fernandez (Director Cultural Operations, Visiting Arts)
- Roger McCann (Independent Arts Manager & Trainer)
2009
We have now received an invitation from the DAC to conduct a further two capacity building workshops in Tehran at the 27th International Fadjr Theatre Festival 2009.
These workshops will be facilitated by Rodger McCann and a team of trainers who will be confirmed imminently. The first workshop will serve as a continuation workshop for the artists who participated in the 2007 workshops. The second will be designed for a new group of participants.
Iran Producers’ and Curators’ Network
In light of the long-term relationship we have built with Iran over the past decade, Visiting Arts has set up a network for the producers who have taken part in VA producers’ visits to Iran. It will gradually expand to include individuals who have not taken part in VA visits but who are dedicated to working with Iran.
The objectives of the network are as follows:
- Provide opportunities for information sharing and open dialogue
- Sustain enthusiasm for and increase awareness of Iran and Iranian art
- Build and support professional networks between the UK and Iran
- Foster collaborative working
- Collate information about artists, groups, festivals, organizations
- Encourage the presentation of new, contemporary work in the UK
As Visiting Arts launches the planned curators’ trips, curators will be invited to join the network also.
The first producers’ meeting will take place on 28th Nov at the Barbican as part of the Barbican’s Iran: New Voices season of work. Members will meet and network before going to watch the Iranian production of Daedalus and Icarus, directed by Homayun Ghanizadeh.
Outcomes of Iran Activity Since 2001
The activity outlined has resulted in a number of very significant outcomes, all of which have been supported by Visiting Arts:
- The first presentations of Iranian theatre in the UK in over 20 years. In April 2002 Theatre Bazi’s The Mute Who Was Dreamed and That’s Enough Shut Up were presented at Castle Theatre Aberystwyth and then (through a tour organised by the Centre for Performance Research), at CCA, Glasgow; Riverside Studios, London; and Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff. Both productions were poetical works from one of the leading figures in contemporary Iranian theatre: writer, director and actor Attila Pessyani and his Bazi Theatre.
- In August 2002 The Mute Who Was Dreamed was toured by Jane Frere to Aurora Nova as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
- In 2005 The Royal Court in association with LIFT presented the UK premiere of Amir Reza Koohestani’s production of Amid the Clouds. The work was performed by his company, Mehr Theatre, over a two week run, with an associated programme of workshops and debates.
- There were also a number of invitations to Iranian artists to participate in workshops, and residencies throughout the UK.
- The Centre for Performance Research hosted two young Iranian directors at their summer school in 2002.
- The playwright and director Amir Reza Koohestani and the director Vahid were invited to participate in the LIFT ‘03 International Residency and Debate on the rights and roles of young people as arts makers (Battersea Arts Centre London).
- In 2004, as a result of his visit to LIFT ’03, Amir Reza Koohestani was invited onto the Royal Court’s International Playwriting Residency where, working with British and international colleagues, he developed the script for Amid the Clouds.
- The Tron Theatre in Glasgow created a staged reading of Amid the Clouds directed by Nicola McCartney and translated by Vali Mahlouji.
- In June 2005, as part of the launch of ZENDEH at the Traverse, ZENDEH created a showcase evening of international staged performed readings of new works including Dance on Glasses by Amir Reza Koohestani, with translation by Vali Mahlouji and directed by Artistic Director Nazli Tabatabai.
- In May 2007, Amir Reza Koohestani was invited as John Thaw Artist-in-Residence to Manchester International Festival and as MA student at Manchester University (starting in September 2007)
- Visiting Arts funded a preliminary visit to London and Cambridge by Sarah Reyhani and Arvand Dashtaray to develop a project with UK partners (summer 2007).
- Edinburgh-based ZENDEH were awarded Visiting Arts support to collaborate with Iranian theatre artists on joint research for a dance theatre piece at Dance Base in Scotland (winter 2007).
- Centre for Performance Research in Wales were awarded support for a performance and workshops by the Vahdat Ensemble at the International Festival of the Voice (April 2008).
- 30 Bird Productions were awarded support for a collaboration with Virgule Theatre Company from Tehran (March 2008).
- The Theatre Royal Stratford East was awarded support to co-produce and present the work of Virgule Theatre Company as part of their International Festival for Emerging Artists, taking place in July 2008.
- In April 2008, a three-day workshop on Collaborative Practice was delivered during the Iran International Festival of University Theatre (IIFUT Festival). The training team consisted of Roger McCann and Nelson Fernandez, Director Cultural Operations, Visiting Arts. Additionally, Chris Taylor, Director, New Writing South in Brighton attended the festival and offered a separate three-day Playwriting Workshop.
- In August 2008, the Edinburgh International Festival will present two Iranian works: The Devil’s Ship by Attila Pessyani and a Tazieh installation by Abbas Kiarostami. These are the first presentations of Iranian theatre
UK Media Coverage
- Martin Sutherland wrote an article on the Fadjr Festival for the Newbury Weekly News (spring 2007).
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