PARASTOO ANOUSHAHPOUR [NOMINATED BY GELARE KHOSHGOZARAN]
On April 13, 2023, I asked Azi (my mother) to translate this text to Farsi.
The goose bump, is a sign of being touched by an other, an opening outwards~~~But it also marks the point of an afterwards that might still~~~if only bodily, unconsciously, involuntarily ~~~remember what it was like to once be touched by something different, unassimilated.
I continue reading:
The shudder indexes terror, a register of the uneasiness induced by strangeness.
Postscript (A Song)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On June 14, 2015, in the basement of my grandmother’s house in Shirvan, Iran which has been a kindergarten for the past twenty years, Mina sang a series of old Kurmanji songs for me. Afterwards I asked her to translate them to Farsi from Kormanji (a Kurdish dialect from Northern Khorasan) and I wrote the lyrics down in my notebook. This song is called Shevan (شوان.)
My voice is gone and I have become mute
My voice has gone to the mountains
Break the stone that has trapped my voice
My lover does not know that I am a shepherdess
I am in front of the herd and between the sheep
I am amongst the herbs and the flowers
I am a wanderer in the mountains
I hope that our hearts are one
I have many enemies in the village
Let them talk behind our backs
Until their eyes pop out like eggs
My lover does not know that I am a shepherdess
I am in front of the herd and between the sheep
I am a wanderer in the mountains
My dearest…
Let’s make a pact and run away from this village
Look at our bad fortune now even though we fled the village
My lover does not know that I am a shepherdess
I am in front of the herd and between the sheep
I am amongst the herbs and the flowers
I am a wanderer in the mountains
Tonight is the Master’s wedding
And they are being great hosts
I am not blind so why shouldn’t I attend the celebration
I am at the service of this crowd
My lover does not know that I am a shepherdess
I am in front of the herd and between the sheep
I am amongst the herbs and the flowers
I am a wanderer in the mountains
Whatever you say I’m in
Whatever you say I will respond to you
I am at my sister’s service
My lover does not know that I am a shepherdess
I am in front of the herd and between the sheep
I am amongst the herbs and the flowers
I am a wanderer in the mountains
—
Parastoo Anoushahpour is an artist originally from Tehran now based in Toronto working predominantly with film, video and installation. She was an artist in residence at the Mohammad and Mahera Abu Ghazaleh Foundation (Jordan), Tabakalera International Center for Contemporary Art (Spain), Taipei Artist Village (Taiwan), and Banff Center for Arts & Creativity (Canada). Her recent solo and collaborative work has been shown at the ICA, Berlinale, MoMA, The Flaherty Film Seminar, Punto de Vista Film Festival, Sharjah Film Platform, Viennale, NYFF, TIFF, Images Festival, IFF Rotterdam, Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Experimenta (Bangalore), and Media City Film Festival. Since 2013 she has been working in collaboration with Ryan Ferko and Faraz Anoushahpour. Their shared practice explores the tension of multiple subjectivities as a strategy to address the power inherent in narrative structures.