2025
with erphaneh sadeghzadeh
two rolls of thermal paper with arabic and persian handwritten script of hafez's poem
with installation using elements from
suse weber’s formula:marionette
2 brass bars l:75 cm, d: 7 mm; red pvc pear (varied length); armband (cotton, velcro fastener); cardboard holder;
mdf suspension
leipzig, germany
two performers — one arabic-speaking, the other persian-speaking — unravel hafez’s iconic opening poem alā yā ayyoha-s-sāqī across two paper rolls. written in arabic on one side and persian on the other, the poem is recited word by word. the performers mimic a call-and-response dynamic: one speaks, the other repeats, “saving” the word onto their side of the roll — an embodied metaphor for how foreign words settle into memory.
the performance reflects on the artists' shared experience of living in germany, where translation becomes a daily act of survival. longing to speak each other’s language with ease, they explore the emotional terrain of communication, misunderstanding, and adaptation. misheard phonetics across arabic, persian, and german generate humorous misfires — not as failures, but as sparks of curiosity and connection. here, language is both burden and bridge, intimacy and alienation — a mattress to rest on or to destroy in search of something more.
presented as part of the exhibition “dynamic spaces” at the gfzk – galerie für zeitgenössische kunst, leipzig
developed for the performance
formel:marionette - leipzig by suse weber, with participation of:
anil aydinoğlu
oğul arda biçer
zeynep bodur
raisa bosich
febe corba
carolina díaz
dania gonzález sanabria
negar kablou
krittaporn mahaweerarat
giuliana marmo
ameer masoud
stefan ralevic
erphaneh sadeghzadeh
emily thomas
kitman yeung
cover photos: carlos santos
additional photos: alexandra ivanciu