Morehshin Allahyari - The Recitation of A Soliloquy

The Recitation of A Soliloquy (2012)

In 2012, I found a paragraph from my mother’s diary which was written when she was pregnant with me, during Iran-Iraq war.  As a recitation of her diary, I’ve written every word 27 times on 27 frames of a 16mm film…. while projecting a Google Earth map of Iran on my face.

“Reading her Mother’s diary, one word-per-frame, under the lens of time accumulated since the time of it’s writing, and of her birth — the time of life. Virtual words, lifted off the page, wriggle like embryos under inquisitive gaze of an interlocutor to whom they are addressed, as if resisting to be born into the world in which war and cruelty are present.”

-Sandra Skurvida