Beyond Borders
Conversations around the Festival of Arts, Shiraz-Persepolis (1967–77): an online mini-symposium of talks, a concert and films.
On this page: About Programs Film program Full schedule The Shiraz Arts Festival Press Credits
About
Bowerbird, in collaboration with Slought and co-curated with Vali Mahlouji / Archaeology of the Final Decade, presented Beyond Borders, a mini-symposium introducing and exploring the Festival of Arts, Shiraz-Persepolis, an international festival held annually in Iran from 1967 to 1977.
The Shiraz Arts Festival featured music, theater, dance, and film staged at ancient, medieval, and modern venues. The festival cut across time and musical boundaries, stimulating a dialogue among generations, cultures, and languages, and featuring a diverse lineup of artists that included Morton Feldman, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, the National Ballet of Senegal, and Iranian classical singers Mohammad-Reza Shajarian and Parisa, among many others. This series of events brought together an international network of artists, curators, and scholars to delve into the festival’s rich and contested history and artistic legacy, with rare archival materials including films, performance documentation, and concert ephemera.
Beyond Borders was planned for in-person audiences in Philadelphia; because of the pandemic, all of its programs took place online.
Programs
Program I · Sun, Mar 6, 2022 · 2 to 5pmShiraz: A History (Keynote)Lecture by Vali Mahlouji, conversation with Dustin Hurt, and archival footageOnline
Program II · Sun, Mar 13, 2022 · 2 to 5pmXenakis: Persepolis, an IntroductionTalk by Daniel Teige and a screening of Pierre Andrégui’s 1971 filmOnline
Program III · Wed, Mar 16, 2022 · 7 to 9pmAfter Shiraz: Music from ExileConversation with Anahita Abbassi and Sepehr Pirasteh, and an online concert by Arcana New Music EnsembleOnline
Program IV · Sun, Mar 20, 2022 · 2 to 5pmShiraz: Cultural SynthesisTalks by Armaghan Fakhraeirad, Bob Gluck and Joshua CharneyOnlineFilm program
Streaming on demand, March 6 to 20, 2022.
On demand · Mar 6 to 20, 2022The Color of PomegranatesDirected by Sergei ParajanovOnline
On demand · Mar 6 to 20, 2022The First World Festival of Negro ArtsDirected by William GreavesOnline
On demand · Mar 6 to 20, 2022Desert Equations: Azax AttraSussan Deyhim and Richard HorowitzOnline
On demand · Mar 6 to 20, 2022Reza Abdoh: Theater VisionaryDirected by Adam SochOnline
On demand · Mar 6 to 20, 2022The Hip-Hop Waltz of EurydiceDirected by Reza AbdohOnlineFull schedule
Program I. Shiraz: A History (Keynote)
Sunday, March 6, 2022, 2 to 5pm
- 2pm: “Excavating A Utopian Stage: Restaging the Festival of Arts, Shiraz-Persepolis.” Lecture by Vali Mahlouji
- 3:30pm: Vali Mahlouji and Dustin Hurt in conversation
- 4pm: Screening of archival footage
Program II. Xenakis: Persepolis, an Introduction
Sunday, March 13, 2022, 2 to 5pm
- 2pm: “Dead or alive. Aspects concerning the performance and interpretation of Xenakis’ polytopes today,” a talk by Daniel Teige
- 3:30pm: Screening of Iannis Xenakis, Persépolis (1971), directed by Pierre Andrégui
Program III. After Shiraz: Music from Exile
Wednesday, March 16, 2022, 7 to 9pm
- 7pm: Anahita Abbassi, Sepehr Pirasteh and Dustin Hurt in conversation
- 8pm: Online concert of Iranian contemporary music with Arcana New Music Ensemble
Program IV. Shiraz: Cultural Synthesis
Sunday, March 20, 2022, 2 to 5pm
- 2pm: “Shiraz Festival and Its Legacies Through the Lens of the Revivalist Trends in Iranian Folk Music,” a talk by Armaghan Fakhraeirad
- 3:30pm: “East and West, West and East: Alireza Mashayekhi, the Shiraz Festival, and the Origins of Electronic Music in Iran,” a talk by Bob Gluck
- 4pm: “The Shiraz Festival and Its Place in the Historical Narrative,” a talk by Joshua Charney
About the Shiraz Arts Festival
The Festival of Arts, Shiraz-Persepolis (also known as the Shiraz Arts Festival and the Shiraz Festival of the Arts) took place over eleven editions from 1967 to 1977. Accompanied by symposia and debates, the festival program included music, dance, drama, poetry and film, performed in a variety of venues in the central Iranian city of Shiraz and surrounding areas, including the ruins of Persepolis (ceremonial capital of ancient Persia), Naqsh-e Rostam, Hafezieh, Bagh-e Delgosha, Narenjestan, Bazaar-e Vakil, Jahan-Nama Garden, Saray-e Moshir and a concert hall on the Shiraz University campus.
Artists that were prominently featured included Iannis Xenakis, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Morton Feldman, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, John Cage, David Tudor, Abbey Lincoln, Yehudi Menuhin, Martha Argerich, Max Roach, Peter Brook, Peter Schumann and Bread & Puppet Theater, Robert Wilson, Ravi Shankar, the National Ballet of Senegal, and Iranian classical singers Mohammad-Reza Shajarian and Parisa, among many others.
Focused on both traditional and avant-garde arts, the festival brought internationally acclaimed artists from across the globe. The festival also sought out and showcased gifted Iranian artists old and young who relished sharing the stage with fellow artists from India, Japan, Indonesia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Latin America. The intentional mixture of East and West, traditional and experimental, created a platform for the bilateral exchange of creativity and inspiration.
While the festival had utopian aspirations, its founding and patronage by Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi (wife of the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi), and the fast-changing socio-political landscape in Iran (the rise of both anti-Shah sentiment and Islamic fundamentalism), led the festival to attract numerous controversies and, eventually, artist boycotts. The twelfth edition of the festival was canceled due to the onset of the Islamic Revolution in 1978.
Resources
- Perspectives on the Shiraz Arts Festival: A Radical Third World Rewriting, by Vali Mahlouji (PDF)
- Meta-Political Aspirations and Praeternatural Investigations: The Festival of Arts, Shiraz-Persepolis, by Vali Mahlouji (PDF)
Press
- Beyond Borders in the Pew Center’s spring picks (March 10, 2022)
Credits
Presented in collaboration with Slought. Co-curated with Vali Mahlouji / Archaeology of the Final Decade.
Support
Major support for Beyond Borders has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.
