ACCESSIBILITY
Automated captions will be available.
Artist Conversation: Javaad Alipoor with Roya Amirsoleymani
DESCRIPTION
PICA Artistic Director & Curator of Public Engagement, Roya Amirsoleymani, joins Javaad Alipoor to discuss the many layers of Alipoor’s Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran, a groundbreaking work of live theatre adapted to the digital realm. Structured through interactive multimedia, driven by a compelling narrative, and embracing of internet-aware art and web culture, Rich Kids offers sharply nuanced critical commentary on geopolitics and the social conditions of our time. This conversation will unpack this multifaceted work, its cultural influences, and Alipoor’s broader practice in experimental theatre-making.
ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS
Javaad Alipoor is a multi-award-winning playwright, director, filmmaker, and performer. The Believers Are But Brothers (2017) opened in Edinburgh, where it won a Fringe First Award, before transferring to London’s Bush Theatre and on to an international tour. Javaad adapted the play for the BBC in 2018. The play’s sequel—Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran (2019)—premiered at the Traverse Theatre. Its London transfer and subsequent national tour was postponed by COVID-19. A new digital version went on to tour online, including at the Public Theater’s Under The Radar festival and was selected for the Sundance Film Festival. He is artistic director of The Javaad Alipoor Company, which is currently developing work with theatres and festivals around the world, including the UK’s National Theatre, the National Theatre of Parramatta, the Mannheim National Theatre, Battersea Arts Centre, and HOME Manchester.
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As Artistic Director & Curator of Public Engagement, Roya collaboratively curates PICA’s exhibitions, performances, public programs, and TBA Festival and co-directs PICA’s Creative Exchange Lab residency program, SPACE Program, and Precipice Fund (a Warhol Foundation re-granting program). She also works closely on PICA’s partnership with A Black Art Ecology of Portland. Since 2012, Roya has been integral to expanding PICA’s initiatives concerning access, equity, inclusion, education, participation, critical inquiry, and community partnerships, with attention to contemporary art, experimental performance, and their social, political, and cultural contexts. She presents at conferences and festivals; serves on grant and award panels; sits on RACC’s Public Art Committee; and teaches in PSU’s Art & Social Practice MFA Program. She holds a B.A. in Contemporary Visual Culture & Gender Studies and a Master’s in Arts Management. Roya is committed to reimagining institutions in partnership with their communities to realize a more just art world and whole world.
ABOUT TBA:21 INSTITUTE
TBA Institute is a series of free, public programs that connect artists and audiences through deep discussion and critical conversation and serve to illuminate the ideas and inquiries behind festival artists' projects. Through the Institute, artists share their processes of creating and collaborating; their forms of engagement with communities and publics; and the social, political, cultural, and aesthetic contexts and concerns surrounding their work. Through guest artist lectures, panels and dialogues with invited moderators, and interactive workshops, the TBA Institute offers a range of ways to engage more deeply with the festival and with each other.
Please note that some TBA Institute events will be virtual (streamed online), while others will be held in-person for a limited-capacity, masked audience/participant group in the PICA Pavilion (back lot of PICA). We know that not everyone is able to gather in place right now. As such, most in-person events will be recorded and made available and accessible online shortly thereafter. Some of these recorded videos will be captioned.
Please refer to the TBA Festival website for a full Institute schedule, specific information about each event, accessibility, and other details.
Please note that a few events will require pre-registration, with instructions provided on the event webpage.
All virtual events (streamed online) will be captioned via auto- or CART captioning.
Some virtual events and some live, in-person events will be ASL-interpreted. These will be noted on each event listing on the TBA website.
All of the above information regarding access will be updated as confirmed.