The Shiraz Arts Festival: Communication, Heritage and Technology in 97 ’s Iran CAA Annual Conference Ale andria Bro n-Hedjazi, PhD Student Stanford Uni ersit , Department of Art Histor Introduction: (Title Slide); Introduce logo slides without script (slide) (Slide) The Shiraz Arts Festival was one of the most radical cultural gatherings of the Cold War-era. Every summer, the Iranian government invited and hosted a diverse range of traditional and avant-garde artists from around the world to perform (slide) music, (slide) dance, (slide) film, and (slide) theater. (slide) The Festival began in 1967 (the same year as the Shah’s lavish coronation ceremony), (slide) and abruptly came to an end in 1977 (just weeks before the Islamic Revolution overthrew the Shah). For the eleven years in between, (slide) the Festival was a site of extraordinary intercultural exchange; an East-West dialogue with Iran as its center. The aim of the festival was to stimulate cross-cultural dialogue: to introduce modern and foreign modes of artistic expression to Iran, and to celebrate traditional arts of Iranian heritage to the outside world. (slide) This dichotomy between modern and traditional resulted in an almost unimaginable spectacle: Because of the unbearable heat of Persian summer days, the outdoor performances began at sundown. Lit by candle light and desert stars, artists performed to live audiences against the backdrop of ancient Persian monuments in Shiraz and Persepolis. (I want to show you some of the photographs to give you an image of the festival). (slides) (slide) While the artists performed in Shiraz and Persepolis, (slide) a simultaneous gathering of communication theorists (both Iranian and non-Iranian) met in the Universities of Mashhad and Tehran. It is crucial to emphasize that the festival was a state-sponsored event. (slide) The Shah’s Wife, Queen Farah Diba Pahlavi was the festival’s patroness. The original idea and funding for the festival was the result of a collaboration between Queen Farah and NIRT: National Iranian Radio and Television. (slide) Modernization was the defining feature of the Pahlavi dynasty. What role would tradition play in this push towards modernization? Where would cultural heritage figure into this image and identity of a Modern Iran? (slide) The communication specialists in Iran addressed these specific questions. How could new media technologies be effectively and ethically utilized in developing countries? They produced revolutionary work that pushed back against earlier media theory in one important way: whereas previous (namely, American theorists) favored total modernization as a remedy for undeveloped countries, the diverse group of scholars in Iran advocated for the preservation of culture as a crucial factor in the process of modernization. (slide) The Festival played out these questions and theories on an international stage. Yet, the festival was also a platform for Iran to reach its national audience. (slide) Because the festival was funded by NIRT, the entire production was broadcast into Iranian homes ​vis a vis​ radio and television. This brought cultural access to every class of the Iranian public. Those without financial means to attend the festival could consume the event visually and audibly from their domestic interior. I want to underline that the missions of NIRT and the Festival were connected and synonymous: to find a way of developing Iran’s future while not losing connection to the nation’s rich past. (slide) Anxieties of development erasing tradition were not unwarranted. It’s now a standard view that many Cold War modernization efforts came with the cloaked subset of cultural imperialism. The Shah’s close ties to the American government was a constant source of violent backlash, especially in relation to oil revenues and foreign profits. (slide) The state-funded Festival that invited foreign artists to perform in Iran- was, and remains, a hotly contested event. So much so that it is still forbidden in Iran to mention or discuss the festival in public. Communication theory is then a crucial piece in understanding the political and artistic climate of 1960s-70s Iran- yet, no art historical writing examines the festival’s link to media theory. (slide) The only book that examines media in 20th-ce Iran focuses on the event of the Revolution. The book argues that through surveillance and censorship the Shah’s repressive regime erased any public space that would have fostered political dissent. (slide) Protected by the shield of religion, the space of the mosque’s ​minbar​ was the only platform left for political discussion. (The mosque and minbar was historically used as a seat of legislation). (slide) The book also argues that while the Shah unsuccessfully utilized big media of television and radio to win public endorsement of state power, (slide) it was ultimately the small media of cassette tapes and copied leaflets that won public support of the Revolution. (revolution slides) (slide) My research builds on these provocative yet strict binaries. I see the Festival as an alternative space that perforated boundaries of big and small media. (slide) The performances were themselves sites of communication where dialogue was activated. This complicates the notion of the mosque as the only public space available to subversive politics. We will explore this in two performances: (slide) Peter Brook’s ​Orghast​, (slide) and Bijan Mofid’s ​Shahre Ghese. (slide) While the mosque vocalized and brought visibility to political opposition, the performance of ​Orghast ​was in many ways the exact opposite. By invitation of the Queen, Peter Brook was commissioned to create a play specifically for the Festival in Shiraz. The play was performed in two acts. Act I commenced at sunset on the ruins of Persepolis and began with a shrill scream that was said to evoke the voice of the sun. Orghast enacted the myth of Prometheus- the creator of mankind who gave humans the gift of fire and skill of metal work. An action for which he was punished by Zeus, who ensured everyday that an eagle ate his liver as he was helplessly chained to a rock. (slide) Written by Ted Hughes, ​Orghast ​sought out an empty space devoid of language barriers. Hughes wanted to depart from the limits and associations of the English language, and thus created an entirely fictitious code based primarily on ancient Avestan, Latin, and Greek. The entire narrative was communicated in this invented language- which relied on raw sound to transmit universal emotions. (slide) The performance’s connection to sound was also related to its chosen site. In the days leading up to the performance, Brook, Hughes and the entire group went in search of a landscape of sacred sound. After exploring various sites in the Persian desert, the site of Naqhshe Rostam was chosen. (slide) (This is the burial site of the Achaemenid Kings, dating back to 6rh ce BC). (slide) The myth of Prometheus was enacted amidst the tombs of ancient Persian kings and traveled down, with the audience, (slide) into the cube of Zoroaster. (slide) Orghast was Brook’s first experimental performance with his International Center for Theater Research- a group of multi-national, multi-racial actors. The goal of the group was to reexamine the purpose of theater, and to reveal the potential of performance to transcend cultural boundaries. Brook believed that true theater should mingle and blur with the everyday. In Brook’s theater, lines between actor and audience were erased, creating a multi-sensorial performance. (slide) This theater used performance as a vessel to invoke invisible worlds not immediately available to normative perception. ​Orghast ​uses myth to activate this heightened awareness, Prometheus himself becomes present in the Shirazi desert. The story of a man struggling between empathy for humanity and punishment from those in power becomes a living story in 1971 Iran. ​Orghast​ created a participatory and collective experience where ancient landscapes and sounds led to a state of shared transcendence over difference. The performance of Orghast then communicated across cultures, across space, and across ancient-modern timescapes. (slide) While the performance of Orghast used an invented language of raw sound to communicate cross-culturally and myth to communicate across time, Bijan Mofid’s play ignited dialogue in a much more localized and specific moment. ​Shahre Gheseh ​(City of Tales) premiered at the 1968 Festival. It was an allegorical satire written in the form of a musical play. This recalled the tradition of Persian folklore and storytelling. While the language was unassuming, socio-political commentary was embedded in the lyrics. Unlike the fantastical landscapes of the other performances, ​Shahre Ghese ​was performed indoors and the stage-set was simply composed of cardboard and papier-mâché. The architectural cutouts simulated both an outdoor Iranian village and indoor ​madrasah​ or Islamic school. The papier-mâché masks were the only costumes, and two child actors were the the only unmasked characters. (slide) While on the surface the play seemed intended for children, the play tapped into deep contemporary crises of Iranian identity. The masks both concealed the identity of the actors and represented various characters: the sly fox, a poetic parrot, a carpenter donkey, an intellectual monkey, and so on. (slide) The main character of the play is an elephant, a foreign visitor to the City of Tales, who falls and breaks his tusk upon entering the city gates. The animals ultimately “help” the elephant by fastening the broken tusk to his forehead and cutting off his trunk. By the end of the play, the disfigured elephant is no longer recognizable to himself. His image no longer matches that on his identification card, and the elephant is forced to take on a new foreign name and identification. Themes of identity alteration and distortion are represented in the character of the elephant. Throughout the play, multiple references are made to mismanagement of the Iranian government: the high unemployment rate; loss of traditional craftsmanship in favor of mass production; and rampant illiteracy. The play not only obliquely criticizes the policies of the Shah, but hints also at the corruption in the growing power of Islamic clerics. The character of the fox, who represents the Islamic mullah, is overridden with paranoia, superstition and xenophobia. When analyzed within its political context, it is a story of characters whose realities are inhibited by enforced practices and values. The characters of the City of Tales have grown blind and accustomed to their own society of trickery and deception. In contrast to inventing a new language transcendent of cultural barriers, ​City of Tales​ is composed entirely in Farsi. Not only Farsi, but in several dialects of different regions of Iran. The rhythmic verse of Classical Persian poetry is performed alongside the vernacular accent specific to Tehran. This allowed linguistic access exclusively to Iranian people. Many for whom the experimental language of the avant-garde was confusing and disorienting. Further, the fact that the play was performed indoors allowed for perfect audio-visual recording. City of Tales was a site of communication within the Iranian community, especially for those listening and watching from their homes who were able to pick up on specific socio-political references encoded within the allegory. These are just two performances of hundreds that took place in the eleven years of the Shiraz Arts Festival. The cultural impact of ​Orghast​ lives on in performance history, as the experience of traditional Iranian religious performance left a profound impact on Brook- so the notion of East-West cultural influence worked both ways. The Festival itself was a source of constant criticism by Ayatollah Khomeini. One of the first acts of violent uprising was the burning of Cinema Rex in August 1978. Anti-Shah Islamists blocked the exits where a film of Iranian avant-garde cinema was being screened. 500 civilians were locked inside the theater and killed. The Festival, scheduled to begin in weeks time, was indefinitely cancelled. The Islamic Iranian Revolution had begun. On the rooftops, opponents to the Islamic Revolution blared the songs of Bijan Mofid’s ​City of Tales​. The haunting lyrics of a play whose characters were stuck between the abrupt push towards modernization and the paralyzing stasis of traditionalism. The Shiraz Arts Festival was a site of communication that ignited exchange and political commentary. The 1978 Revolution left both cultural and communication projects never fully realized. This research seeks to resurrect the ideas of those theorists and artists that collaborated and sought to create a prismatic culture in Iran, with the hope that one day, the projects might be resumed and fully realized. Thank you. The Shiraz Arts Festival: Communication, Heritage and Technology in 97 s Iran Colle e2Art2Asso iation2Annual2Con eren e2 Cold2War2Alle ian es:2The2Red2‘ s Fe ruar 2 ,2 2 Ale andria2Bro n-Hedjazi,2PhD2Student22 Stan ord2Uni ersit ,2Department2o 2Art2Histor 2 Festival o Arts, Shiraz-Persepolis Graphi Desi n: Bijan Sa ari National Iranian Radio and Television Graphi Desi n: Mohammad Reza Aslani Islami Repu li o Iran Broad astin Graphi Desi n: famid Nadimi th Festival Poster 97 , Qobad Shiva; 7th Festival Poster 97 , Fereydoun 3ve; th Festival Poster 977 , Qobad Shiva John Cage and David Tudor Shiraz Arts Festival, 1971 Uma Sharma, Kathak Shiraz Arts Festival, 1969 Ingmar Bergman and Satyajit Ray, Shiraz Arts Festival, 1971 Pahlavi Coronation Ceremony Golestan Palace, Tehran, 19 Iranian Revolution Streets of Tehran, 1979 th Festival Poster 97 , Qobad Shiva; 7th Festival Poster 97 , Fereydoun 3ve; th Festival Poster 977 , Qobad Shiva Tehran Persepolis Shiraz Mashhad Tehran Mashhad Persepolis Shiraz Le t: Empress Farah Di a Pahla i ith Andy Warhol Ri ht: Empress Farah ith Mauri e Bejart Tehran Mashhad Persepolis Shiraz Le t: Reza Shah Pahlavi White Revolution Speech Ri ht: State Propa anda Poster or Modernization Contributors: Majid Tehranian Daniel Lerner Ithiel de Sola Pool Farhad Hakimzadeg Marcello Vidale Donald Meals Edward Ploman Abraham Moles Elihu Katz Ivor Davies Edwin Parker Ali Mohammadi Armand Defever Robert Filep Amin Banani Le t: Daniel Lerner, The Passin o Traditional Society 1 5 Ri ht: Comm. Policy or National Development 1 Tehran Mashhad Tehran Persepolis Shiraz Mashhad Anti-Shah Protest, 1979 Tehran Persepolis Shiraz Mashhad Ayatollah Khomeini at Mos ue in Qom, I an, 1963 Pahla i2 5 2Anni ersary2of2the2Persian2Empire2Cele ration The2entire2e ent2 as2 road ast2on2li e2TV ,2Persepolis,2 97 A atollah Khomeini in e ile Neauphle-le-Château, 1977 Khomeini supporters use copy machines to generate anti-shah protest, 1 Alfons2and2Aloys2Kontarsky,2 Stockhausen’s2Mantra Shiraz2Arts2Festival,2 97 Peter Brook, Orghast Shiraz Arts Festival, 1971 Bijan Mofid, Shahre Gheseh Shiraz Arts Festival, 19 Punishment of Prometheus Peter Brook, International Center for Theater Research Shiraz Arts Festival, 1971 Ted Hu hes Sketches and Script or Orghast at Persepolis, 1971 Pete B ook, Inte national Cente fo Theate Resea ch Shi az A ts Festival, 1971 Acoustics Check at Site of Na she Rostam Peter Brook, Orghast Shiraz Arts Festival, 1971 Peter Brook, Orghast Shiraz Arts Festival, 1971 Collaboration at Shiraz Arts Fetsi al: L-R Peter Brook, Arby O anessian, Jerzy Groto ski Peter Brook, Orghast Shiraz Arts Festival, 1971 Bijan Mofid, Shahre Gheseh Shiraz Arts Festival, 19 Bijan Mofid, Shahre Gheseh Shiraz Arts Festival, 19 Bijan Mofid, Shahre Gheseh Shiraz Arts Festival, 19 Burnin o Cinema Rex Abadan, Iran Au ust 1 , 1 Iranian Revolution, 1979 Bijan Mofid, Shahre Gheseh Shiraz Arts Festival, 19 Bijan Mofid, Shahre Gheseh Shiraz Arts Festival, 19