CV | Tara Fatehi Irani

Tara Fatehi Irani

www.tarafatehi.com | IG @tarafteh | TW @TaraFatehiIrani | vimeo.com/tarafatehi

Spotlight Performer and Associate Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (AFHEA)

(b. 1987 Tehran)

I am a performer, artist and writer working across live performance, film, music and multidisciplinary projects. Using movement, voice and writing, my work is at the intersection of the socio-political and the poetic. From the Royal Academy of Arts in London to parks and gyms, I have performed at various theatres, galleries and site-specific venues around the UK, Iran and Europe. I collaborate with other artists and writers recently including Karen Christopher, Agnieszka Blonska and Station House Opera. My book Mishandled Archive – based on a series of 365 dance scores and photographs I created in 2017 – has been published by LADA (2020). I regularly teach at Goldsmiths University of London and Central School of Speech and Drama (London) and lead performance workshops. In 2021, I was the first ever resident artist at the United Nations Archives (UNOG) in Geneva.

ONE-YEAR DAILY PROJECTS

2017

Mishandled Archive. 365 public interventions and dances. Presented at Live Art Development Agency, MAP3: Archiving ‘Asia’, University of Roehampton, DocPerform Symposium, Iranian Association.

2012 – 2013

30 Seconds of Today, 365 sound pieces, online on SoundCloud, presented at TaPRA (Tate Modern)

PERFORMANCE/VIDEO/INSTALLATION/EXHIBITION

2022

How to Host a Ghost: Hunting and Haunting: collective performance at Luxembourg Pavilion, World Expo, Dubai
Sacrifice: chor. Hooman Sharifi, Montpelier Dans (FR), and Dansen House (Oslo)

2021

In Observance: video installation, Embassy of Foreign Artists, Geneva
Always Already: 8-hour performance-installation with Karen Christopher, Chapter Arts (Cardiff), Dance 4 (Nottingham)
A place to sit. : video performance, part of Fragments for Borderless Futures (e-journal)
FEAST: Ingredients of Us: performance dir. by Agnieszka Blonska, Marlowe Theatre (Canterbury)
Mishandled Archive: performance-installation, Peckham Rye Park (London)

2020

Collaboration, video with Jemima Yong and Holly Revell, International Festival of Performance Art, Giswil
Mishandled Archive, performance-installation at Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster

2019

Borderline Dialogue: performance for camera, Beyond the Wall Festival, US/MEX border, and LADA, London
Bodies of Knowledge: community arts project and exhibition, with researchers from Loughborough University at Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester
Mishandled Archive: performance-installation at Toynbee Studios & Beaconsfield Gallery, London; 5-week exhibition and performance at South Hill Park, Bracknell & performance-installation at Darbast Platform, Tehran (2018)
International Exchange of Terrible Pop: performance with Richard Dedomenici, Mehrdad Seyf & Pouya Ehsaei at Cambridge Junction & Green Rooms Hotel, London (2017)

2018

Transformance: performance and exhibition with DARC, at Tempting Failure, London
At Home in Gaza and London, (co-deviser, performer) with Station House Opera at Battersea Arts Centre, Toynbee Studios, London and Everyman Playhouse, Liverpool

2017

Nature Was, as /gorizazmarkaz/, The Royal Academy of Arts, London
Cosy Household, Tyneside Irish Centre, Newcastle & Toynbee Studios, London
The Ethical Document: lecture-performance, Tate Liverpool

2016

Mirror, mirror on the wall, performance, at Sully Night, London
Bodiless Heads No.1 #Simulacrum with Setareh Fatehi, Frederick Rodrigues & Pouya Ehsaei, FLAM, Amsterdam & A Corner in the World, Istanbul
Kitchen Window: 9 hours solo dance and live installation, Camden People’s Theatre, London

2015

Raadio (sound installation) as /gorizazmarkaz/, Cambridge Junction
Displacement of all places: Group exhibition, Uqbar Gallery, Berlin
In Your Honour (performer) a performance by Claire Ridge, Laban Conservatoire
She inspires art. (performer) a performance by Amanda Coogan, Bonhams Auction House, London

2014

Meridian Rhubarb (chapters 1-5) as /gorizazmarkaz/, at SPILL Festival Ipswich, The Flying Dutchman London, Spontaneous Combustion London, H.F.W.A.S Birmingham, and underground venue, Tehran
Dear Hypothetical, there is oil all over the place, Chelsea Theatre and RichMix (2013), London

2013

Before Performance: group exhibition at ]performance s p a c e [ , London

2012

Carpenters Are Happy, Tehran
Jigsaw, with Sarah Feli, Pouya Ehsaei & Mahyar Tahmasbi, East Art Gallery, Tehran
HiCCUP, with Sarah Feli, Makan Ashgvari, Pouya Ehsaei, Molavi Theatre (Tehran), Untimely Festival (Shiraz)
The Man in Whose Shirt Blew the Wind, (Puppeteer, voice), dir. Milad Shakib, Sangelaj Theatre, Tehran

2011

Asymmetry, with Sarah Feli and Pouya Ehsaei, East Art Gallery, Tehran
Gnomon, with Sarah Feli & Pouya Ehsaei East Art Gallery, Tehran
A, B, C, D, E, … (performer), performance by Asghar Dashti, East Art Gallery, Tehran
Tehran, go seek. (co-writer, designer, actress) dir. Shiva Massoudi, Molavi Theatre, Tehran
I’m a Bluetooth creature… (actress), dir. Mohammad RezaeiRad, Tehran

2009

Everything’s getting better, with Sarah Feli and Makan Ashgvari, Iranian Artists Forum
Do they walk in their graves, the stillborns? (performer), dir. Ehsan Estiri, Tehran
Orpheus (vocalist) Iranian Artists’ Forum, Tehran

2008

A Very Very Short Story of a Very Very Long Life, with Sarah Feli, Tehran and HighFest (Yerevan)
With a head disheveled from utter mania. (performer), dir. Ehsan Falahatpisheh, Fajr Festival, Tehran

2007 – 12

Several other appearances as performer, actress, flautist, vocalist and puppeteer. Details available upon request.

PUBLICATIONS

Mishandled Archive book, LADA, 2020

Joggling, an essay in In other words, METAL, 2022
Mishandled Archive: Dispersió, supervivència, desaparició book chapter, 2021
The Next Time I Put Clothes in the Washing Machine … book chapter in Bodies of Knowledge, LADA, 2021
Step in Time, Step in Time in SPILL Reader (edited by Diana Damian-Martin), Oct 2018
Mishandled Archive in The Artist’s Borderpanic Compendium (edited by Helen Paris and Leslie Hill), Jan 2018
Make Yourself at Home in Displaced and Privileged, Toolkit for Itinerant Artists (edited by Elena Marchevska), Nov 2017
LADA’s Study Room: A case study in five parts (co-authored with Lois Keidan, Mary Paterson & Marco Pustianaz) in Performance Research: On Libraries (edited by Deirdre Heddon), Apr 2017
No pressure, but find me a bed out there. in Performance Research: On Trans- Performance (edited by Amelia Jones), Oct 2016
Reviews and interviews published on online magazines including Exeunt, This is Tomorrow, Fajr Theatre Bulletin, Underline Art, Roozegar Daily, …