Shiraz

How do you pay tribute to ten years of artistic work and creativity brought to a halt? Is there a way to revive a festival through a dance performance? Armin Hokmi and the team answer these questions with intelligence and flair in Shiraz. It is almost like watching a sunrise or sunset: over and over again, this mysterious, captivating work reveals further nuances for the viewer to appreciate.

Six performers weave a pattern of movements, coiling and uncoiling to the pulsating beat of a captivating soundtrack, tracing fluid trajectories that bring them together in ephemeral constellations. With an unwavering affinity for the impulses arising between the dancers, Shiraz brings to the forefront the collective work of remembering and dancing together. A practice of love.

The point of departure for this work was an inquiry into the Shiraz Arts Festival. A historic event which took place between 1967 to 1977 in the south of Iran. The particular interest in this historic event lay in how the festival constituted a meeting place for performing arts from different genealogies, and aimed to transcend reductive modalities in regard to framing, presentation and orientation of artists and art works. Shiraz transposes this historic event to our contemporary times in the form of a revival, a tribute and a fictitious arena.