“Confession”

A solo performance by Mehdi Farajpour
August 2009, Tampere, Finland

Narrator:
Varesh Darvish
Sound operator:
Masoud Mardan
Director assistant:
Varesh Darvish
Makan Kouchaki
Special thanks to:
Janna Lehto, Raila Knuuttila & Johanna Sarjas

A note about the performance by Mrs. Johanna Sarjas - Finish Journalist -:

The performance I witnessed gave me a lot of inspiration, for my work as a journalist as well.
The theme of Confession is important, it is a reality of so many people in different places, in various agonising ways. It is not only visual or in other ways artistic satisfaction that one can experience when in the audience, but it is a healing experience when these emotions are brought up. Fear, frustration and angst when making up one´s mind whether to leave one’s country/home is a true experience of, not only many people living under oppressive governments or in war situations, but also of many who are going through these states because of economic or climatic situations/conditions. What is outstanding is the spirit, reason or intention in which this artistic work is done. I very much like Farajpour´s way. I trust it to be true. I feel it is his genuine intention to express the reality in a naked, uncompromising way. The audience deserves a well thought out result which is choreography of the subject in question. This thinking process must have taken place in the mind and body of the performer before going on the stage. This I believe Farajpour has done and the result is mature art with intensive presence.

Johanna Sarjas
August 2009

A Note By M. Farajpour About creation process of the Performance:

Firstly, I was planning to make a performance based on the story “Gulliver`s travels” during my residence in India. But indeed, I could only thought about that without any practical effort. Because, there was not any idea about Gulliver coming to my mind. The first image of the performance was shaped when I went to Paris and then in Turkey it completed when I moved there and some another part of the performance was shaped in Turkey. The performance is made among my voyages and it was difficult to take a good concentration on the subject. it was the moment that suddenly I found myself as Gulliver! traveling. So,…

 Photos: Tommi Taipale 

 Text:

I am someone whose name is not Gulliver. So, there weren`t any voyages. Because I was born in destination, where I met too many tiny people in my native country. So, there were no voyages, no ocean, and no ships. But there was fire, the first image that I saw in my life. Because, I was born from the fire. I grew up beside the fire. I am still burning inside of the fire in Lilliputian’s country, where I was born and I am writing from there, “NOWHERE”
I should begin to travel.
I should begin to travel.
I should begin to “TRAVEL”

“Qoqnous” is a mythological bird in Iranian culture which starts to circulation around himself at his death time and by the madly movement, he makes a huge amount of fire under his feet. He burns in the fire made by him. But after “Qoqnous” dead, and fire suppressed, one thousand young “Qoqnouses” born from the ashes of him…