Zoya Sardashti
April 13th to June 15th 2020
Community Room Artist in Residence
About the project:
The Formulations of Assembly, Workshop-as-Event supports artistic practices that create an unbiased space where multiple and divergent voices can intersect and envision perspectives for shaping a mature democracy while exploring the deeper meaning of art beyond a contemporary approach. This mode of research engenders an understanding of how performance practice offers a set of creative and participatory tools to strengthen the relationship between people and public and virtual spaces. In other words, how performance can be a kind of democratic design. The research seeks to reinvent how we demonstrate our political opinion through voice and movement so the performative interventions are new forms of assembly contributing to innovative methods of democratic action.
April 13th to June 15th 2020
Community Room Artist in Residence
About the project:
The Formulations of Assembly, Workshop-as-Event supports artistic practices that create an unbiased space where multiple and divergent voices can intersect and envision perspectives for shaping a mature democracy while exploring the deeper meaning of art beyond a contemporary approach. This mode of research engenders an understanding of how performance practice offers a set of creative and participatory tools to strengthen the relationship between people and public and virtual spaces. In other words, how performance can be a kind of democratic design. The research seeks to reinvent how we demonstrate our political opinion through voice and movement so the performative interventions are new forms of assembly contributing to innovative methods of democratic action.
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About the Artist:
I grew up in the theatre. It was where I learned to activate body and voice in ways that contribute to humanity. Born in Denver, Colorado to an American mother and an Iranian father, I spent most of my childhood in the southern part of the United States. In school, raising a hand to declare my family name, Sardashti, evoked an invisible mark of displacement. Estrangement was normal. However, theatre offered community. In this place a person’s ability to create dynamic movement and play with words held more significance than a name. Across the last nine years I have created performances in Seoul, London, Los Angeles, Glorenza, Venice, Florence, Bolzano, Milan and San Diego. I am concerned with how intersections of live art, performance ethnography and socially engaged art mediate cultural transformation. In addition to pursuing a PhD in Philosophy, Art and Social Thought at The European Graduate School under the supervision of professor Judith Butler, I am earning an MS in Conflict Management and Resolution at the University of San Diego. My artistic practice has moved through several mediums since starting actor training 23 years ago, but using performance to pose questions, connect with others and shift perception has remained consistent. Theatre is a passion that keeps me from pursuing a career in politics. |
