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Anahita Razmi
Roof Piece Tehran
The project "Roof Piece Tehran" is taking
Trisha Brown's 1971 setup for the work
"Roof Piece" out of its original New York
context to the city of Tehran / Iran. For
Brown's piece, 12 Dancers telegraphed
sequences of large gestural moves from
one to another on NYCs rooftops.
Tehran's rooftops recently got known as a
'performance space' in a different context:
they gathered attention in relation to
the protests after the Iranian presidential
election 2009, where protesters were
standing on their rooftops at night shouting
paroles like "Death to the Dictator"
and "Allahu Akhbar" throughout the city,
which were echoing from one roof to
another. The reenactment of Browns performance
in Tehran is making use of that
autonomous performance space in a
country, where dance itself and artistic
performance non-conforming to the regulations
of the islamic regime, is forbidden.
The choreography in Tehran was carried
out by local performers creating a new
'Roof Piece version' within the restrictive
circumstances of the city. No audience
could attend the performance, instead
there was video documenting. The video
material was then transformed into a
video installation on twelve screens,
which was first shown within the framework
of the Emdash Award at Frieze Art
Fair 2011. The step from Tehran to
London automatically produced another
cultural transfer within the work, - from a
hidden guerilla act to the reception of a
mass audience at the art fair.
Anahita Razmi, Roof Piece Tehran, video installation, 12 video loops, 18' 11", 2011. The Emdash Award 2011.
Commissioned and produced by Frieze Foundation for Frieze Projects 2011.
In cooperation with Hasti Goudarzi. Courtesy of the artist.
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