Death of Yazdgerd
The ritual of the king has existed in all manner of cultures and Iran is not an exception. Either the king or his next to king were to be slain to retain his throne. Through the course of history, the aforesaid ritual has witnessed modification and evolved into a modern existence. This can be seen in the current political climate where the vicious murder of those in the position of power, be it an attempt to seize the throne or not, is still a norm. To corroborate the point, the sense of rancor captured in a vast array of photos taken in the aftermath of Iranian revolution of 1979 is the mainstay of pulling down the statue of the king or setting his picture on fire. In this regard, I have collected moments from people’s movement all over the world, which will be shown the play is underway. In time, the pictures captured from the rehearsal of this play will be shown. The centrality of those pictures lies in the mythical context of the act of killing the king, the example of which is the moment when the king sacrificed the body، having seen his first sign of weakness.
My interest in traditions and folklore culture and more specifically the concept of “Ritual killing of the king” together with having a non-Iranian audience motivated me to do some experimental photography during the rehearsal with actors and actresses. This project was relatively successful and brought me the opportunity to present some of the photos at a couple of group exhibitions.
