«If you were to sing an anthem, what would you want to sing about?»
A short exchange between artists Negar Rezvani and Samara Hersch
In «Please Stand», the Australian artist duo Samara Hersch and Lara Thoms explore the boundaries that divide us and the (national) anthems that manifest these divisions. How can we break through the borders and rewrite our stories? How can we create identities that are not based on national myths and have more to do with friendships and commonalities and less with violence and hostility? For their project, the two artists teamed up with the young Iranian poet Negar Rezvani – who, due to restrictive border policies, can only participate virtually at the Theater Spektakel. In 2013, Rezvani applied for asylum in Australia and was then forced to live in an offshore facility in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for six years. She lived another two years on a community detention visa on the Australian mainland before being resettled in the United States. Samara Hersch spoke with her about her involvement in «Please Stand» and what borders and hymns mean to her, about what role art can play in rewriting history, and also what gives her hope in the meantime.
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Samara Hersch What drew you to the theatre project «Please Stand»?
Negar Rezvani When I was invited to join the piece «Please Stand» as dramaturg and performer, I became obsessed with the importance of the messages that are sent to an audience through art, music and theatre. The fact that art can create beauty out of something painful is, at least for me, heartwarming. I understood that in the history of mankind, humans have lived between imaginary and twisted borders.Today these borders are wrapped around us in other ways and separate us from each other and our realities. However, one thing is the same among all humans, regardless of languages and cultures and nationalities. That is, that we all know what it means to «stand up» and show respect and honour for what we believe in.
This aspect in human society is what gives me hope and should not just be expressed in national stories that speak about our separateness, but rather in the expression of friendship, care and love. I am pleased to contribute to «Please Stand» and express how the border of a hypothetical line can, at least through art, be disrupted and redrawn.
SH It’s interesting how you describe borders as «imaginary and twisted». So much of this project explores the tension between the violence and rigidity of borders as well as the fantasy and fiction that has created them. What are your thoughts on the production of borders?
NR Humans made lines on the earth which are against our nature. Trees are growing between borders, they get taller among different languages, cultures, and national anthems without worrying about specific characteristics, regardless of countries' policies. Trees do not care about boundaries and borders. The sky is blue everywhere and the grass is green everywhere. Rivers and seas are connected from all over the earth and pass by different cities, without proving their identity. Throughout history, in real stories, movies and books, we have seen how two lovers from two different countries fight for their love, not for hatred against each other. And this shows that the power of love is beyond borders. Love and reason are in us, but hate is something that we created, like borders. As a woman who crossed the waters and borders of countries and villages with a backpack full of loneliness, I have learned and experienced how borders can impact one's life and cause all kinds of pain.
SH If you were to sing an anthem, what would you want to sing about?
NR Let the national anthem that we sing be a universal voice from the people of the world, which accepts our differences yet stands for unity and peace. I would say: «Please Stand» in order to respect ourselves, our neighbours and even our enemies. Because we are human beings of the same species and, more than ever, we need each other to survive this complex and entangled world we are living in.
«Please Stand» by Samara Hersch and Lara Thoms premiers at Zürcher Theater Spektakel on 18 August 2022. Further information and tickets.