Traces of a love story are under a bowl of sugar next to a cup of tea. This love story requires multiple endings. Would you like to write, in any language, the final chapter of Learning Farsi on Teheran ro 테헤란로? Napkins and tea will be provided. Please bring your own pen.
This performance explores the experience of falling in love while existing between languages and cultures. In 1976, a diplomatic connection between the mayors of Seoul and Tehran marked more than the naming of streets; it initiated a personal journey to learn to love oneself through the understanding of a language that once felt distant and foreign in the United States.
In Learning Farsi on 테헤란로 Teheran ro, I share the ways in which Farsi cannot be fully translated into English, but in a Korean context, it created new understandings for exploring multiple identities and relationships.
This project was first shared as an installation in Florence, Italy for the Iranian Women’s Studies Foundation Conference.
Learning Farsi on Teheran ro 테헤란로 was developed into performance during a commissioned artist residency at Mare Culturale Urbano Milan, Italy.
