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Reciting Freedom ( آزادی – Āzādī)
March 8, 2023 @ 11:00 am - 4:00 pm
FreeReciting Freedom ( آزادی – Āzādī) consists of forty-four 22cm x14cm Lino embossments on paper as well as a one-day participatory performance on March 8th, 11 am-4 pm. This work is the reflection of my ongoing entanglement with freedom.
Since the beginning of the Women, Life, Freedom uprising in Iran, between the three words, the concept of freedom has challenged me the most. I recited freedom over and over in the past six months with the hope of disentangling and distilling the essence of it for and within myself. With each repetition, it became more complicated, twisted, turned, reshaped, reformed, regenerated, and multiplied as a question from inside of itself.
How to make freedom possible? How to find freedom? How to create freedom? How to practice freedom? How to teach freedom? How to learn freedom? How to have freedom? How to sustain freedom? How to define freedom? How to know the limitations of one’s freedom? How do I perceive my own freedom?
What is freedom?
After arriving at the last question, I found Hannah Arendt’s words: “to raise the question, what is freedom? seems to be a hopeless enterprise.” I let go of seeking between the lines of never ending questions by populating the word itself…one freedom at a time. Paper acted as a surface of a body, and lino became an active agent to implant the seed of freedom.
I decided to re-transcribe the only form of freedom I know – آزادی – and share it with one human being at a time.
● The freedom ( آزادی – Āzādī) wall is meant to be touched so I invite the audiences to close their eyes for a couple of minutes and feel the freedom on their skin by gently touching the wall.
● For the performance piece, I ask the audience to join me for a symbolic practice of freedom.