The Journey (سفر) Mural Unveiling
Meet us at the Village Artist Corner to celebrate The Journey (سفر) with poetry, music, and dance.
The Journey (سفر) by Shaghayegh Cyrous and Keyvan Shovir is inspired by “The Conference of Birds” (“Mantegh o Teir”), a Persian poem by 12th-century Iranian Sufi poet Farid ud-Din Attar, also known as Attar Neyshaburi. In the poem, a hoopoe, a bird common in Africa, Asia, and Europe, leads the other birds on a journey to find the truth of life from Simurgh, a mythical bird in Persian mythology and literature. At the end of the journey, the birds discover that the truth they were looking for is within themselves, and that together they are the Simurgh.
Co-presented with Diaspora Arts Connection, a nonprofit organization that supports the expression of artists living in diaspora . The organization strives to fulfill its mission through producing and promoting performances and installations, providing artists with the necessary resources to bring their art to a receptive and supportive audience, and preparing them to continue their professional growth in diaspora.
ABOUT THE VILLAGE ARTIST CORNER
The Journey (سفر) is the final mural on the Village Artist Corner, a project of the Asian Art Museum and the San Francisco Public Library. Now in its fifth year, the Village Artist Corner features murals and live programs on the corner of Fulton and Larkin Streets. The Village Artist Corner dragon sculpture and mural platform were created by high school students in Youth Art Exchange as part of Groundplay, a City initiative co-led by the Mayor’s Office of Civic Innovation, the San Francisco Planning Department, and the San Francisco Arts Commission. Join us as we celebrate this incredible mural and say farewell to an important series of public artworks and programs that have been an anchor of Civic Center community life.
ABOUT THE PERFORMERS
Aisan Hoss is a dancer and choreographer from Tehran, Iran. She started studying and performing Iranian dances at the age of twelve and teaching at the age of eighteen. She has years of experience studying, dancing, and teaching in Iran, London, and the Bay Area. For Aisan, her passion in dance and choreography has been a means for gaining insight into her identity as an Iranian living outside of her home country. Several of her choreographies have explored the ways that physical distance from her home country provides a deeper sense of intimacy with its cultural essence. Aisan uses movement as a tool to find beauty in her history and identity. Inspired by modern Iranian culture, she aims to give voice to the quietest elements of her culture through choreography.
Following a residency at Ballet Afsaneh as the company’s Assistant Artistic Director, choreographer, and dancer, Aisan founded her own dance company, Aisan Hoss and Dancers.
Kurdish musician and actress Evin Şah was born in 1979 in the village of Muş Yürecik (Zengök). She graduated from the Department of Turkish Music and Folk Music at Istanbul University State Conservatory in 2007. She studied under Fatma Karacan while teaching voice lessons. Evin has acted and performed in numerous television series and films in Turkey. She is a multi-language and -dialect artist. She and her musician husband Oktay Şahin live in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Image: The Journey (سفر), 2021, by Shaghayegh Cyrous and Keyvan Shovir. © Courtesy of the artists. Photograph © Quincy Stamper for the Asian Art Museum.
The Village Artist Corner is funded through the generosity of The Family of Tania Vonelleese Seymour. Founding program support was made possible by Housing-Related Parks Program from the State of California, facilitated by San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department; The Hearst Foundations; California Arts Council; and The NFL Foundation and 50 Fund, the legacy fund of the Super Bowl 50 Host Committee.
