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.
今天我想與大家分享的故事 是我身爲一名伊朗藝術家所面臨的挑戰, 一名伊朗女藝術家, 一名流亡中的, 伊朗女藝術家。 好吧,它有它的好處與壞處。 從不好的方面來看, 政治並不會放過像我這樣的人。 每一位伊朗藝術家,不管是哪一種藝術, 都脫離不了政治。 政治定義了我們的生活。 如果你住在伊朗, 你會受到審查、騷擾 逮捕、折磨, 甚至死刑。 如果你像我一樣住在國外, 你就會面臨流亡生活: 活在“渴望”的痛苦中 被迫與相愛的人 以及家人分離 因此,我們不去尋找 道德、感情 心理和政治上的空間, 好使自己與現實 和社會責任脫離。
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.
弔詭的是, 像我這樣的藝術家 發現自己也成了為民喉舌的角色 為同胞發聲 即便我真的已經 無法回到我的國家。 而跟我處境相同的人, 都在同時參與二場戰爭: 我們既對西方觀點 抱持批判的態度 對於西方人眼中的我們, 就是由西方觀點所塑造出的, 關於我們的女性、我們的政治, 以及我們的宗教等形象。 在這片戰場上我們要捍衛的是民族驕傲 並堅持彼此尊重。 而此同時, 我們也在打另一場仗。 對象是伊朗政權, 我們的政府, 我們殘暴的政府, 壞事做盡, 只為鞏固政權。 我們的藝術家面臨危難, 處境危險。 我們對於政府而言 是一種威脅。
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.
但諷刺的是, 這種處境 反而帶給大家力量。 因為作為藝術家,我們被視為 是伊朗文化、政治 以及社會輿論的核心。 在這片戰場上我們志在啓發、鼓舞、 動員、 和帶給人們希望。 我們報導同胞們的真實情況 並做為他們與外界 溝通的橋梁。 藝術是我們的武器, 文化則是一種抵抗的方式。 有時候我會嫉妒西方藝術家 因為他們有表達的自由, 因為他們可以把自己抽離出 政治的議題, 並且可以只為特定觀眾服務, 主要是西方文化。 然而我也為他們擔心, 因為在這個國家, 這個我們身處的西方世界, 文化面臨淪為一種娛樂的危機。 我們的人民倚賴我們的藝術家, 而文化超越溝通。
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.
我的藝術家生涯 始於一個非常、非常私人的地方。 我並非一開始 就試圖評論 我的國家。 你們看到的這第一張 其實是我在離開12年後 第一次回到伊朗時所作的。 那是在1979年的 回教革命之後 當我不在伊朗的這段時間, 回教革命發生, 使整個國家由 波斯文化轉變為伊斯蘭文化。 當時我回去主要為了與家人團聚 並與故鄉文化重新接軌 以期找到自己的社會定位。 然而我找到的, 卻是一個完全以意識形態為主、 讓我認不出來的國家。 更有甚者,我變得非常關心 - 就在我自己也面臨到, 自我認同的難題和困境時 - 我開始埋首研究 回教革命 如何 大幅轉變了 伊朗婦女的生活。 我發現這個伊朗婦女的主題 相當有意思 在歷史上,伊朗婦女似乎以某種方式 體現了政治的轉變。 因此,透過研究一位婦女, 你可以得知這個國家的結構和意識型態。
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.
所以我創作了一組作品 既處理了我個人對於人生的疑問, 也將我的作品帶入一個更大的境界 - 就是這個“殉道”的主題, 解構了那些自願身處在 由神的愛和信仰 以及暴力、罪惡和殘酷交織的世界。 對我來說,這個相當重要。 然而,我的立場並不一般, 我曾是個局外人, 過去回到伊朗找尋自己的定位, 但卻沒有立場 去批判政府 或是回教革命包涵的意識形態。 這個情況慢慢改變了 當我找到了我的聲音 並且發現了 我以前不知道我會發現的東西。 所以我的藝術變得比較具有批判性, 我的刀變得比較銳利, 也開始了流亡的生涯。 現在我是個流浪藝術家 我在摩洛哥、土耳其、墨西哥工作 我每到一地都把那地想成是伊朗
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.
現在我製作影片 去年我完成了一部電影, 叫做“沒有男人的女人”。 “沒有男人的女人”回首歷史, 但卻是伊朗歷史的另一部份, 那是在1953年 當時美國中情局發動了一場政變 趕走了一位民選領袖 - 慕沙迪博士 (Dr. Mossadegh) 這本書是由一位伊朗婦女所寫 莎姆什⋄帕西普(Shahmush Parsipur) 這是本奇妙的寫實小說 不僅書被禁, 作者也在牢裡蹲了五年。 我對這本書著迷, 而且還把它拍成電影, 是因為書中同時著墨了 身為女性, 在伊朗傳統和歷史上自處的問題, 以及四位女性 如何尋找同一個理念 - 關於改變、自由、和民主的理念。 而伊朗這個國家,彷彿也是一個活生生的角色 同樣在為一個理念奮鬥 - 那就是自由和民主, 以及從國際勢力的干涉中獨立出來。
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.
我製作這部電影 是因為我覺得它擔負了 向西方世界傳達 我們國家歷史的重任。 大家對伊朗的記憶, 大都停留在回教革命之後, 但伊朗曾經也是一個俗世的社會 我們也曾有民主政治, 但這個民主政治卻被 美國政府、 和英國政府偷走了。 這部電影同時也跟伊朗人民喊話, 要求他們回首自己的歷史, 看看曾經不是那麼回教化的自己 - 以前我們是怎麼看世界,我們的音樂是怎樣, 以及我們從前思想昌明的日子 還有最重要的, 是我們曾為民主奮戰。 這些是從我的電影裡擷取的幾幕, 這些是關於政變的一些影像。 我們在卡薩布蘭加拍攝這部電影, 以便重塑所有的景物
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.
這部電影試圖找尋一個平衡點 在敘述一個政治故事的同時, 也述說一個關於女性的故事。 作為一個視覺藝術家, 我最大的興趣是創作一種藝術 能夠超脫 政治、宗教, 以及女性主義的議題, 而成為一個舉足輕重的、永恆的, 普世的藝術作品 我所面臨的挑戰 在於如何做到 - 用譬喻的方式來述說一個政治故事 以及如何使你們在感動之餘, 還能理性地思考。 這些是一些影像 和電影裡的角色 現在出現的是綠色運動 在2009年的夏天 當我的電影問世時, 在德黑蘭的街頭,綠色運動正開始
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.
最諷刺的是, 我們在電影裡試圖描述的那段時期 那段呼求民主 和社會正義的時期, 正重複上演 就在德黑蘭。 那場綠色運動 大大啓迪了整個世界 許多人注意到了那些 為人權挺身而出 和為民主奮戰的伊朗人民 而對我意義最大的, 又再一次的, 是女性的身影。 她們真是我的靈感, 如果說在回教革命中 對女性的描繪 是柔順的 是無聲的 那我們現在看到的是女性的新面貌 在德黑蘭的街頭 受過教育的女性, 思想前瞻,毫不傳統 大膽開放,絲毫無懼 而且絕對擁護女性主義 這些女性和那些年輕男性 整合了伊朗人民 無論是在國內、國外、還是散居世界各地
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.
然後我發現了, 為何我的靈感大都 由伊朗女性而來。 因為不管身處何種境地, 她們都敢於打破藩籬, 挑戰權威, 不按牌理出牌, 無論這改變是小還是大。 而且又一次的,她們證明了自己。 我在這裡要說, 伊朗婦女已經找到了新聲音 她們的聲音造就了我的聲音 這是極大的榮幸 身為一位伊朗女性和伊朗藝術家 雖然我現在必需在西方世界工作。
Thank you so much.
非常謝謝大家。
(Applause)
(掌聲)