ZONES OF SENSITIVITY - An Afternoon of Texts and Voices
Took place as part of the Transart Triennale 2016 in Berlin and at the Bellevue Art Museum in 2017
In the beginning the gesture of writing is linked to the experience of disappearance, to the feeling of having lost the key to the world, of having been thrown outside. Of having suddenly acquired the precious sense of the rare, of the mortal. Of having urgently to regain the entrance, the breath, to keep trace. – Hélène Cixous
What is more ephemeral than the Self? The moment we arrive, we are already departing. But while we are here, a language emerges from within us. It springs from the mysterious depths of our beings. This language is inherent. It’s curious. It’s brave. It’s adventurous. It’s ancestral. It’s spiritual. It testifies and it connects. It suffers yet persists. It takes its pleasure. It remembers. It is honest and it is urgent. It is liberated and therefore liberates.
One afternoon. Five writers. Five readers.
A program consisting of live readings of original texts exploring the theme of the “The Imperceptible Self”.
Texts by: Zeerak Ahmed. Christopher Danowski. Margaret Hart. Michele Manzini. Konjit Seyoum
Curation and arrangement by Ladan Yalzadeh
The Process: Writers were invited to submit original texts of up to three thousand words responding to the theme of the Imperceptible Self. From these submissions, five texts emerged in dialogue with each other addressing this theme. With the approval of the writers, excerpts from the full texts were chosen and merged together to devise the text for Zones of Sensitivity.
HERE is the arrangement as well as the full texts which the excerpts were selected from.
The Live Reading: The Readers were seated on chairs in the center of the room on five back to back chairs in a circle, facing out. The Receivers were seated in the round five meters away, facing the Readers.
Voices of: Zeerak Ahmed. Abi Tariq. Margaret Hart. Bill Ratner. Konjit Seyoum
In tandem with the performative text, writers at large were invited to collaborate online over 12 days around the theme of Imperceptible Self using an exquisite corpse method.
The Balloon Piece was first presented at Transart Gallery in Brooklyn in 2013. This participatory piece took place over 25 minutes. The audience was asked to take a seat and follow the instructions found on their chairs:
Take a seat on any chair, facing the wall.
Read the instructions to the end before you begin.
Close your eyes and take three deep breaths.
With your eyes closed, bring into your mind a fear you have -Large or small.
Open your eyes.
Untie the balloon from your chair.
Pull the end of the knot on the balloon to release, revealing the opening where the air escapes.
1. Inhale from the balloon until your lungs are filled with helium.
2. Looking directly ahead, speak out your fear.
3. Stop once your voice returns to normal.
4. Take a breath of the room air.
Repeat steps 1 through 4 until your balloon is empty or you feel dizzy.
If you run out of fears, then move on to your hopes.
Do not suppress any reactions while engaged in this action.
When finished, take the balloon with you for future use.
Performing with La Pocha Nostra at Human Resources, Los Angeles in 2013.
The former Immigration and Naturalization Services offices in Seattle was sold to a private party in 2010. Inscape was an art take over of the building in 2010. With over 25 artists working in various mediums, the project brought over 2500 people to the venue during it's two day run.
Ladan was the co-curater and producer of Inscape. She also presented two pieces of work. INS BUILDING TOURS and MEDITATION IN THE EXERCISE COURTYARD.
"I became a US Citizen in this building in 1995. I gave the INS BUILDING TOURS of the building, mixing my own personal experiences along with historical as well as legendary tales of the building and it's occupants."
"With MEDITATION IN THE EXERCISE COURTYARD, I invited a group of Tibetan Buddhists to engage in Walking Meditation while practicing Tonglen, where one visualizes taking onto oneself the suffering of others on the in-breath, and on the out-breath giving happiness and success to all sentient beings. extending compassion."
On September 11, 2011, to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of the 9/11, in conjunction with the Seattle Center and the City of Seattle, the International Fountain was activated as the site for meditation, reflection and practice of compassion.
http://www.northwestdharma.org/news/Fall11/september-11.php
http://o.seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2016179534_911seattlecenter12m.html
During the Arts in Nature Festival in August of 2018, at Camp Long, the oldest urban campsite in Seattle WA US, attendees were invited to pick a song or poem to serenade the surrounding trees with. Two performers, including me, were in attendance during all hours and serenaded the trees from poems from around the world continuously. Tea, fruit and sweets were served and many conversation were had under the generous shade of some of the oldest trees in the city.
Dangerous Terrorist: Soy Una Terrorista Peligrosa (I am a dangerous terrorist) was a performance piece first mounted at the Puerfor Puerto Performance Art Exhibit in Santiago, Chili in 2006.
Images provided by Puerfo Puerto.
Working Girl was a performative, durational piece first performed in Berlin during Transart in 2013. I swept, mopped, dusted and engaged in cleaning of the gallery space as other artists installed their work during the installation timeframe. The trash gathered were displayed and finally removed without the artists knowledge to the trash dumpsters outside. There were no donations made towards this labour.
https://vimeo.com/3802880
Written and Directed by Ladan Yalzadeh.
A white gladiola … a black car … a city where you can disappear without a trace.
The Florist is a thriller set in contemporary Tehran, a metropolis both foreign yet chillingly familiar.
Neda, an American woman born in Iran, returns to the land of her birth desperately seeking answers to a mystery that has tormented her family all her life.
With only a scribbled address to follow, Neda grabs a taxi and plunges into the seamy streets of Tehran. As day turns into night, so does this city where hookers, heroin and rock music come out to howl in the face of Islam.
As night falls, she stumbles on a shabby flower shop with the right address. But things are not what they seem. She has blundered into a dangerous realm of power, deceit and fear, where any move could be her last. Just when Neda’s quest seems hopeless, she finds what she is looking for … only to see it slip through her fingers at the last minute.
A project of AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women and Winner of 2009 Noor Film Festival.
https://vimeo.com/3753892
Co-created with Anne Kaneko for the Skirball Cultural Center's permanent collection, this eight-screen film follows the stories of five groups of people living in Los Angeles, expressing their cultural heritage through dance, food, music, religion and fishing.
2006
This sculptural piece was created with found objects around the gallery and assembled while playing/watching Werner Herzog's film, Fitz Carraldo. 2014
Some pictures taken in Cambodia
