Residency artists and researchers Performing arts, performance art Azade Shahmiri theatre director and performance maker Photo: Jussi Virkkumaa During my residency in Saari, I will conduct research that will form the basis for a solo performance installation. I will look for representations of nature in the broadest sense in Iranian theater texts and reflect on the meanings of these narratives. I will work with the materials and the objects in relation to their relationships with nature. I will document the process through calligraphy and videography. Azade Shahmiri is a theatre director and performance maker, based in Teheran. She graduated in Theater Studies from the University of Tehran in 2009 and holds a Ph.D. in Art Studies. Her artistic practice oscillates between theater, performance, lecture, and forms of the installation. Her performances are research-based and closely interwoven with personal narratives, the notions of reality and documentary. Alongside the text, the collaboration between film, video, and sonic and visual materials are central to her creations. Her artistic works have been presented in various theaters and festivals across Europe and Asia in Tehran, Gwangju, Kerala, Vienna, Zurich, Basel, Edinburgh, Brussels, Berlin, Geneve, and Mannheim.