How do loss and grief inscribe themselves into the body? How fluid are these traces? Iranian choreographer and artist Raha Dehghani Vinicheh has created a poetic duet with her younger sister Ala Dehghani Vinicheh that sets her mother's unpublished texts in motion. As part of a collective of female writers in Tehran, Afsaneh Irani comes to terms with the early death of her husband and her position as a single mother in a patriarchal society. Mirrored in these texts, childhood memories that were thought lost become tangible. “Sew Me to Your Pillow, Maman" is a touching portrait of solidarity, self-determination, sisterhood and the power of words.
Infos
- Duration: 60 min.
- Language: English and Farsi with translation
- On 10 May, discussion afterwards
- Mousonturm co-production
- Premiere
- As part of Fonds Zero - climate-neutral art and cultural projects
Accessibility
Accessibility of Location
Sponsors and Supporters
Title of the piece: Bahar Dehghani Vinicheh
Choreography & Concept: Raha Dehghani Vinicheh
Dance Performers: Raha Dehghani Vinicheh and Ala Dehghani Vinicheh
Choreographic Collaboration: Ala Dehghani Vinicheh
Text & Story: Afsaneh Irani
VHS Video Footages: Hadi Dehghani Vinicheh
Dramaturgy & Choreographic Mentoring: Katja Cheraneva
Scenography & Set Design: Lagha Ghavam
Costume Design: Niki Stäudte
Operative production management & Assistant: Melis Kara
Sound Design: Ali Choupani nejad
Light Design: Carlos Franke
Translation of "The Geography of Me" book by Afsaneh Irani:
* Persian to English: Alireza Akbari
* English to German: Alex Piasente-Szymański
Layout of the Book (English and German): Farideh Tehrani
Production Management: Take the money and run – Maren Küpper and Eva Streit
Poster design and illustration: Maryam Farahi
This piece is co-produced by Künstlerhaus Mousonturm.
Funded by Fonds Zero – climate-neutral art and cultural projects of the German Federal Cultural Foundation.
The Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the 1 Cultural Office of the City of Giessen fund the project.
With the kind support of Freunde und Förderer des Mousonturm e.V.
Prelude + Dedication
Prelude
It was Aban-rouz [1], in the month of Aban; the year ninety-eight of the solar Hijri calendar, in the company of “friends with whom we shared both the carriage and the chamber, as in the days of old.” [2] Every week, we held gatherings in a house named Sun and for years, it was this pact that kept us going.
The weather was cold and above us hung countless rainless clouds. For years, we had written and read our words to each other. That day, too, we had come together to share each other's stories. One had embraced herself against the chill. Another had poured her womanhood into a tale and was reading. We had already warmed up before her tale came to an end.
One of us said, "Let us read to those we don’t know; out loud; so that the city might be graced with rain."
We all united in this thought. Only a remainder of our narrative was left when our book of womanhood came to an end. In an era not so distant, and in a city not so far away — not beyond seven mountains, seven fields, and seven seas, but right here — six women read tales they had woven together, in the hope of rain; not in seven capitulums or in forty tales or in a thousand and one nights; for the era of ancient stories with sacred numbers has come to an end. Each spun several tales in six books.
[1] Refers to the 10th day of the Persian month Aban. In ancient Iran, it was a day of praise and offerings to the goddess Anahita, deity of flowing waters, fertility, and feminine power.
[2] From the preface (dibacheh) of Golestan by Saʿdi (13th century Persian poet).
The Geography of Me
Stories by Afsaneh Irani
For
Bahar
Raha
Ala
I come from midway down the road
From the struggle between a woman and her heart
I come from the soul’s essence
I am all heart
All sky
All cloud
Rooted in earth, a tree
fertile with seeds of humankind
This is my geography
The womb of all creation
All of Adam
All of Eve
A world of Abels
And one earth of Cains
— Sima Saniee
Kinderbetreuung 17. & 18.05.
Kinderbetreuung (für Kinder zwischen 2 bis 12 Jahren)
Sa. 17.05., 16–19 Uhr
So. 18.05., 15–19 Uhr
Wir bitten um Anmeldung an mika.boes@mousonturm.de, mit folgenden Infos, damit wir gut planen können.
- Name der Eltern
- Name des Kindes
- Wer holt ab
- Alter des Kindes
- Welche Sprache(n) spricht das Kind?
- hat das Kind Betreuungserfahrung?
- besondere Bedürfnisse, z.B. Allergien