The story I wanted to share with you today is my challenge as an Iranian artist, as an Iranian woman artist, as an Iranian woman artist living in exile. Well, it has its pluses and minuses. On the dark side, politics doesn't seem to escape people like me. Every Iranian artist, in one form or another, is political. Politics have defined our lives. If you're living in Iran, you're facing censorship, harassment, arrest, torture -- at times, execution. If you're living outside like me, you're faced with life in exile -- the pain of the longing and the separation from your loved ones and your family. Therefore, we don't find the moral, emotional, psychological and political space to distance ourselves from the reality of social responsibility.
Priča koju želim podijeliti s vama danas je moj izazov kao iranske umjetnice, kao iranska ženska umjetnica, kao iranska ženska umjetnica koja živi u izgnanstvu. Pa, ima svojih prednosti i nedostatka. S tamne strane, politika čini se ne bježi od ljudi poput mene. Svaki iranski umjetnik, u ovom ili onom obliku, je politički. Politika je definirala naše živote. Ukoliko živite u Iranu, suočeni ste sa cenzurom, maltretiranjem, uhićenjem, mučenjem -- ponekad, egzekucijom. Ukoliko živite vani poput mene, suočeni ste sa životom u izgnanstvu -- bol zbog čežnje i odvojenosti od vaših voljenih i vaše obitelji. Stoga, ne pronalazimo moralan, emocionalan, psihološki i politički prostor kako bi se udaljili od stvarnosti društvene odgovornosti.
Oddly enough, an artist such as myself finds herself also in the position of being the voice, the speaker of my people, even if I have, indeed, no access to my own country. Also, people like myself, we're fighting two battles on different grounds. We're being critical of the West, the perception of the West about our identity -- about the image that is constructed about us, about our women, about our politics, about our religion. We are there to take pride and insist on respect. And at the same time, we're fighting another battle. That is our regime, our government -- our atrocious government, [that] has done every crime in order to stay in power. Our artists are at risk. We are in a position of danger. We pose a threat to the order of the government.
Začudo, umjetnica poput mene se isto nađe u poziciji da bude glas, govornik mojih ljudi, čak i ako nemam, doista, nikakav pristup svojoj zemlji. Isto tako, ljudi poput mene, mi vodimo dvije bitke na različitim terenima. Kritični smo prema zapadu, percepcija zapada o našem identitetu -- o slici koja je konstruirana o nama, o našim ženama, o našoj politici, o našoj religiji. Mi smo tamo da uzmemo ponos i inzistiramo na poštovanju. I u isto vrijeme, vodimo još jednu bitku. To je naš režim, naša vlada -- naša užasna vlada, [koja] je počinila svaki zločin kako bi ostala na vlasti. Naši umjetnici su u opasnosti. Mi smo u pozicji opasnosti. Mi predstavljamo prijetnju redu vlade.
But ironically, this situation has empowered all of us, because we are considered, as artists, central to the cultural, political, social discourse in Iran. We are there to inspire, to provoke, to mobilize, to bring hope to our people. We are the reporters of our people, and are communicators to the outside world. Art is our weapon. Culture is a form of resistance. I envy sometimes the artists of the West for their freedom of expression. For the fact that they can distance themselves from the question of politics. From the fact that they are only serving one audience, mainly the Western culture. But also, I worry about the West, because often in this country, in this Western world that we have, culture risks being a form of entertainment. Our people depend on our artists, and culture is beyond communication.
Ali ironija je, kako je ta situacija opunomoćila sve nas, jer se smatra kako smo mi, umjetnici, ključni za kulturalni, politički, društveni diskurs u Iranu. Mi smo ovdje kako bi nadahnuli, isprovocirali, mobilizirali, donijeli nadu ljudima. Mi smo reporteri naših ljudi, i mi smo komunikatori prema vanjskom svijetu. Umjetnost je naše oružje. Kultura je oblik otpora. Ponekad zavidim umjetnicima na zapadu zbog njihove slobode izražavanja -- zbog činjenice što se mogu distancirati od pitanja politike -- od činjenice da su oni sluga samo jednoj publici, većim dijelom zapadnoj kulturi. Ali ujedno, brinem o zapadu, jer često u ovoj zemlji, u ovom zapadnom svijetu koji imamo, postoji rizik da je kultura samo oblik zabave. Naši ljudi ovise o našim umjetnicima, a kultura je iznad komunikacije.
My journey as an artist started from a very, very personal place. I did not start to make social commentary about my country. The first one that you see in front of you is actually when I first returned to Iran after being separated for a good 12 years. It was after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. While I was absent from Iran, the Islamic Revolution had descended on Iran and had entirely transformed the country from Persian to the Islamic culture. I came mainly to be reunited with my family and to reconnect in a way that I found my place in the society. But instead, I found a country that was totally ideological and that I didn't recognize anymore. More so, I became very interested, as I was facing my own personal dilemmas and questions, I became immersed in the study of the Islamic Revolution -- how, indeed, it had incredibly transformed the lives of Iranian women. I found the subject of Iranian women immensely interesting, in the way the women of Iran, historically, seemed to embody the political transformation. So in a way, by studying a woman, you can read the structure and the ideology of the country.
Moje putovanje kao umjetnice je započelo iz jednog vrlo, vrlo osobnog mjesta. Nisam počela tako što sam društveno komentirala svoju zemlju. Prva koju vidite ispred vas je zapravo kada sam se prvi puta vratila u Iran nakon što sam bila odvojena dobrih 12 godina. Bilo je to nakon Islamske revolucije 1979. godine. Dok sam bila odsutna iz Irana, Islamska revolucija se spustila na Iran i u potpunosti je preobrazila zemlju iz perzijske na islamsku kulturu. Došla sam prvenstveno kako bih bila sa svojom obitelji i kako bih se ponovno spojila na način da nađem svoje mjesto u društvu. Ali umjesto toga, došla sam u zemlju koja je bila u potpunosti ideološka i koju nisam više poznavala. Još više, postala sam vrlo zainteresirana, kako sam se suočavala s vlastitim osobnim dilemama i pitanjima, zadubila sam se u proučavanje Islamske revolucije -- kako je, doista, nevjerojatno promijenila živote iranskih žena. Predmet proučavanja iranskih žena mi je postajao neizmjerno interesantan, zbog načina na koji su, kroz povijest, žene Irana, utjelovile političku transformaciju. Dakle, proučavajući ženu, možete čitati strukturu i ideologiju zemlje.
So I made a group of work that at once faced my own personal questions in life, and yet it brought my work into a larger discourse -- the subject of martyrdom, the question of those who willingly stand in that intersection of love of God, faith, but violence and crime and cruelty. For me, this became incredibly important. And yet, I had an unusual position toward this. I was an outsider who had come back to Iran to find my place, but I was not in a position to be critical of the government or the ideology of the Islamic Revolution. This changed slowly as I found my voice and I discovered things that I didn't know I would discover. So my art became slightly more critical. My knife became a little sharper. And I fell into a life in exile. I am a nomadic artist. I work in Morocco, in Turkey, in Mexico. I go everywhere to make believe it's Iran.
Dakle, učinila sam hrpu posla koji je u jednom trenutku postao suočen s mojim vlastitim osobnim pitanjima u životu, a ipak je doveo moj rad u veći diskurz -- predmet mučeništva, pitanje onih koji svojevoljno stanu na to raskrižje ljubavi prema Bogu, vjere, ali i nasilja, i zločina i okrutništva. Za mene, to je postalo nevjerojatno važno. A ipak, imala sam neobičan stav prema tome. Bila sam autsajder koji se vratio u Iran kako bih pronašla svoje mjesto, ali nisam bila u poziciji biti kritična prema vladi ili ideologiji Islamske revolucije. To se sporo mijenjalo kako sam pronašla svoj glas i otkrila stvari za koje nisam znala da ću otkriti. Dakle, moja umjetnost je postala malo više kritičnija. Moj nož je postao malo oštriji. I pala sam u život u izgnanstvu. Ja sam nomadska umjetnica. Radim u Maroku, Turskoj, u Meksiku. Odlazim svuda gdje vjerujem da je Iran.
Now I am making films. Last year, I finished a film called "Women Without Men." "Women Without Men" returns to history, but another part of our Iranian history. It goes to 1953 when American CIA exercised a coup and removed a democratically elected leader, Dr. Mossadegh. The book is written by an Iranian woman, Shahrnush Parsipur. It's a magical realist novel. This book is banned, and she spent five years in prison. My obsession with this book, and the reason I made this into a film, is because it at once was addressing the question of being a female -- traditionally, historically in Iran -- and the question of four women who are all looking for an idea of change, freedom and democracy -- while the country of Iran, equally, as if another character, also struggled for an idea of freedom and democracy and independence from the foreign interventions.
Sada snimam filmove. Prošle godine, završila sam film zvan "Žene bez muškaraca." "Žene bez muškaraca" se vraća povijesti, ali drugom dijelu naše Iranske povijesti. Vraća se u 1953.godinu kada je Američka CIA izvršila udar i maknula demokratski izabranog vođu, Dr.Mossadegh-a. Knjigu je napisala Iranka, Shahrnush Parsipur. To je magičan realističan roman. Knjiga je zabranjena, a ona je provela pet godina u zatvoru. Moja opsesija s tom knjigom, i razlog zbog kojeg sam je pretvorila u film, je zato jer je jednom adresirala pitanje kako je biti žena -- tradicionalno, povijesno u Iranu -- i pitanje četiriju žena koje traže ideju promjene, slobode i demokracije -- dok se država Iran, jednako tako, poput drugog lika, borila za ideju slobode i demokracije i neovisnosti od stranih intervencija.
I made this film because I felt it's important for it to speak to the Westerners about our history as a country. That all of you seem to remember Iran after the Islamic Revolution. That Iran was once a secular society, and we had democracy, and this democracy was stolen from us by the American government, by the British government. This film also speaks to the Iranian people in asking them to return to their history and look at themselves before they were so Islamicized -- in the way we looked, in the way we played music, in the way we had intellectual life. And most of all, in the way that we fought for democracy. These are some of the shots actually from my film. These are some of the images of the coup. And we made this film in Casablanca, recreating all the shots.
Napravila sam taj film jer sam smatrala kako je važno reći zapadnjacima o našoj povijesti države. O tome kako se čini da svi vi pamtite Iran nakon Islamske revolucije. Da je Iran jednom bio svjetovno društvo, i imali smo demokraciju, a tu demokraciju nam je ukrala američka vlada, britanska vlada. Taj film ujedno govori i Irancima i moli ih da se vrate svojoj povijesti i da sagledaju sebe prije nego su postali toliko islamizirani -- način na koji smo gledali, način na koji smo svirali glazbu, način kojim smo vodili intelektualni život. I najviše od svega, način na koji smo se borili za demokraciju. Ovo su zapravo neke snimke iz mog filma. Ovo su neke slike udara. A film smo snimili u Casablanca-i, stvarajući isponova sve snimke.
This film tried to find a balance between telling a political story, but also a feminine story. Being a visual artist, indeed, I am foremost interested to make art -- to make art that transcends politics, religion, the question of feminism, and become an important, timeless, universal work of art. The challenge I have is how to do that. How to tell a political story but an allegorical story. How to move you with your emotions, but also make your mind work. These are some of the images and the characters of the film. Now comes the green movement -- the summer of 2009, as my film is released -- the uprising begins in the streets of Tehran.
Ovaj film je pokušao pronaći ravnotežu između pričanja političke priče, ali i ženske priče. Ja sam vizualna umjetnica, doista, i ponajprije me interesira da stvaram umjetnost -- da napravim umjetnost koja nadilazi politiku, religiju, pitanje feminizma, i da postane važan, bezvremenski, univerzalni rad umjetnosti. Izazov s kojim se suočavam jest kako to napraviti -- kako ispričati političku priču pomoću alegorije -- kako vas dirnuti pomoću vaših emocija, ali ujedno potaknuti vas na razmišljanje. Ovo su neke slike i likovi iz filma. Sada dolazi zeleni pokret -- ljeto 2009. godine, kako je moj film izašao -- ustanak počinje na ulicama Tehrana.
What is unbelievably ironic is the period that we tried to depict in the film, the cry for democracy and social justice, repeats itself now again in Tehran. The green movement significantly inspired the world. It brought a lot of attention to all those Iranians who stand for basic human rights and struggle for democracy. What was most significant for me was, once again, the presence of the women. They're absolutely inspirational for me. If in the Islamic Revolution, the images of the woman portrayed were submissive and didn't have a voice, now we saw a new idea of feminism in the streets of Tehran -- women who were educated, forward thinking, non-traditional, sexually open, fearless and seriously feminist. These women and those young men united Iranians across the world, inside and outside.
Ono što je nevjerojatno ironično jest period koji smo htjeli prikazati u filmu, čežnja za demokracijom i društvenom pravdom, se upravo ponavlja ponovno u Tehranu. Zeleni pokret je značajno inspirirao svijet. Donio je veliku pozornost na one Irance koji se zalažu za osnovna ljudska prava i koji se bore za demokraciju. Ono što je meni bilo najznačajnije je, još jednom, nazočnost žena. One su meni potpuno inspirativne. Ukoliko su u Islamskoj revoluciji, slike žena bile prikazane kao pokorne i bez glasa, sada smo vidjeli novu ideju feminizma na ulicama Tehrana -- žene koje su bile educirane, koje napredno razmišljaju, netradicionalne, otvorene prema pitanju seksa, neustrašive i ozbiljno feministične. Te žene i ti mladi muškarci su ujedinili Irance po cijelom svijetu, iznutra i izvana.
I then discovered why I take so much inspiration from Iranian women. That, under all circumstances, they have pushed the boundary. They have confronted the authority. They have broken every rule in the smallest and the biggest way. And once again, they proved themselves. I stand here to say that Iranian women have found a new voice, and their voice is giving me my voice. And it's a great honor to be an Iranian woman and an Iranian artist, even if I have to operate in the West only for now.
Zatim sam otkrila zašto crpim toliko inspiracije od iranskih žena. A to je, da su one, pod svim okolnostima, pomaknule granicu. One su se suprotstavile autoritetu. Prekršile su svako pravilo na namanji i najveći način. I još jednom, one su se dokazale. Stojim ovdje kako bih rekla da su iranske žene pronašle novi glas, a njihov glas daje meni moj glas. I velika je čast biti Iranka i iranska umjetnica, čak i ako moram za sada samo raditi na zapadu.
Thank you so much.
Puno vam hvala.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)