Songs to Earth, Songs to Seeds

 

A multichannel film installation with two different editions

 

Two-channel film installation at Liverpool Biennial, Cotton Exchange Budiling, 2023

Three-channel Film installation at Helsinki Biennial, Vallisaari, 2023

Directed and produced by Sepideh Rahaa

2023 Iran & Finland 

 

For the video links contact the artist 

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What does it mean to co-exist living far away or nearby? What visible and invisible linkages, connections and disconnections makes this possible or real?  Simple matters elsewhere make a difference here. We live relationally despite continental, political, societal, and geographical differences. Something which is cultivated elsewhere in Northern Iran and is being consumed in Finland / Europe, what meaning does it bring or create in our life?  

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The poetic piece connects cultures, languages, geographies, politics, everyday resistances and people through the portrayal of the process of labour and cultivation. It further hints at contemporary neo-colonial food politics and how Iranian farmers are forced by sanctions to use toxic chemical fertilizers, as well as the ongoing environmental crisis, in particular water shortages and soil contamination. The work highlights issues of food security, access to clean water and nourishment as well as the importance of the traditions of sustainable cultivation in the current climate emergency. It brings to the fore the often invisible and inaccessible process of rice cultivation, the second most important staple food in the world. Rahaa invites the audience to experience a process in which stories, water, paddy lands, rice grains and women’s labour – and their songs to the Earth and to the seeds – are intertwined with consumer life in our contemporary world. The work’s visual narratives are interwoven with the local songs sung by women workers. The workers’ songs contain stories of their daily struggles in Mazani (one of the indigenous Iranian languages of the North) and are passed from grandmothers to mothers and daughters and sung during the cultivation and harvest seasons. 

 

The first part of the project ’Songs to Earth, Songs to Seeds’ refers to the long and ritual process of rice cultivation in the paddy lands in Mazandaran, Northern Iran. The process is almost yearlong, from pre-springtime until mid-autumn. Cultivation of rice is an intergenerational heritage in my family and this knowledge has been circulated for nearly a century. My father inherited it from his father, who lived over a hundred years. I recall rice paddy lands with women working and singing, dancing, and resting; and my father, who has always worked hard, producing almost a ton of rice to feed several families, but rarely selling to others. I wanted to use this familial history in which women have a big part and expand it to our contemporary lives. 

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This project developed during a period of time, when I needed to be healed deeply both in life and work. Ten years was a long time to be working and living as an immigrant woman in Finland. Returning to my childhood memories and to where my family and ancestors were located could be a remedy. This project started with a conversation I had with myself, which then was expanded to thinking and living together in the world.

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This edition of the project has been widely shown in different continents and geographies. The early stage of the project was shown at Rauma Art Museum (2022) as part of the Rauma Triennale, and the final edition was shown as part of the Helsinki Biennial (2023) New Directions May Emerge curated by Joasia Kryse, 12th Liverpool Biennial (2023)  The Sacred Return of Lost Things curated by Khanyisile Mbongwa, Open Up art festival: Today IS Our Tomorrow (2023) Nicoia Cyprus by  Publics, Soil Festival On Ecologies and Grief (2024) curated by Khanyisile Mbongwa in South Africa, Fourth Karachi Biennial curated by Waheeda Baloch in Pakistan, also as part of program of the Lahore Biennial Decolonial Feminist Ecologies: On Body and Land Lahore Biennial curated by Abdullah Qureshi, Organised by Pakistani Art Forum.

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Furthermore the project has been supported by Kone Foundation, Taike Arts Promotion Finland and Finnish Cultural Foundation.