Reza Mirabi Residency Sharing

Residency sharing 28/10-2023

18:30 at MDT, Studio 2

In his research at MDT, Reza Mirabi investigates the role of seeds in times of crises. His investigation draws on historical anecdotes, scientific observations, myths, news articles, and fictions, all illustrating seeds and the practice of seed-keeping as critical for adapting to drastic ecological, political, psychological, and spiritual shifts.Mirabi's central inquiry is on how different seeds can teach us valuable lessons on how to foster resilience, autonomy, and adaptability to harsh and violent conditions, and how they can empower marginalized communities as well as individuals. Critical here is the intimate relationship to the seeds, which means - rather than freezing them far away in a Seed Bank in Norway for the future - seeds need to be kept in our hands and pockets, they need to be shared and planted, preserved and kept in the cycles of soil and seasons.

In his study, Mirabi tries to define what he understands as seeds, extending the term beyond the botanical realm to encompass elements that function as analogies of seeds. These analogical seeds take various forms, such as practices, codes, ideas, stories, scores, conversations, dances, sentences, songs, memories, artistic interventions, and friendships. In that approach, every individual and every collective carries seeds with them – passed down and on, nurtured, and practiced – and must be conscious with and of the choice of preserving, sharing, planting, or letting go of these seeds.

Throughout his inquiry, pigeons, blackbirds, ravens, and other birds act as companions, providing insights and new cosmologies towards the intricate relationship between seeds, adaptation, resilience, and community throughout times of crisis. 

Reza Mirabi (Iran/Germany) is a visual artist, choreographer, dancer, and seed keeper with a background in ecological, social, and political projects in Kurdistan, Iran, India, and Portugal. Mirabi believes that everything - every place, every being, every material - is always already telling a story. Instead of overwriting these stories, Mirabi looks for different ways of listening to re-write ourselves into these more-than-human narratives. Listening for him becomes as much a choreographic as a political practice. A process to tap into archives that live in and around us but that have been rendered invisible. A process to always confront both simultaneously - personal as well as collective - forms of loss.

Reza Mirabi studied Fine Arts at the University of Mumbai (2012) and graduated from DAS Choreography, Master program at the University of the Arts, Amsterdam (2021).

(This residency is part of Life Long Burning – Futures lost and found project (2023-2026) supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the EACEA can be held responsible for them.)