Maryam Nazari
Multidisciplinary Artist, Performance Designer/Artist, Artistic Consultant, Curator
Artistic individual with exceptional visualisation skills and eye for design. Creates aesthetically-pleasing compositions to capture audiences' vision. Qualified performance designer and individual with background in live performances. Creates interactive experiences with improvisation and personal talent. Demonstrates cultural awareness and responds well to feedback. Creative designer and energetic self-starter and team builder with broad experience in design thinking; Performance design, sound design, video art and live performance. Flexible, patient and hardworking. Dedicated to implement quality design to fulfils vision of the project. Navigates high-stress situations and achieves goals on time.
Maryam is a Persian performance artist/maker and multidisciplinary artist based in London. Born in Tehran/Iran 1990.
She has started to learn music from the age 8 and she attended Art and Architecture University and graduated with Bachelor in Music.
Then, she moved to London and graduated with an MA in Performance Design and Practice at Central Saint Martins /University of the Arts London.
Maryam is doing her PhD at Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London to complete her research and practice in performance art and multidisciplinary art. She focused on "Persian-Iranian Performative Ceremonies, rituals and Tradition" which is an exploration of the importance of sound and the audience in Iranian performative ceremonies and rituals and the development of an experimental approach to performance art and multidisciplinary art .
She is the core member of Tse Tse Fly Middle East curatorial team- Tse Tse Fly Middle East is a registered Community Interest Company (based in London), a non-profit arts organisation and curatorial platform that draws attention to human rights, censorship and social issues via live events, workshops and interventions.-She is also working as an artistic consultant.
Her works are a combination of sonic culture and visual culture which she calls acoustic scenography or acoustic/sonic as scenography. As a part of her practice, she intends to transpose the ears and eyes. She tries to use the sound art/design or acoustic and sonic imagination as a concept not an object for the performance making. Maryam's areas of interest include social and political issues.
Her recent projects have included commissions from the Royal Albert Hall (London), Palais de Fetes (in Strasbourg), Tehran Museum of Contemporary arts and Tehran Music Museum.
Maryam says:
I was born into a country where things are complicated. For as long as I can remember we have had to lead two lives. One of them is our social life and the other is our personal life, or it is better to call it our private life. We cannot be the same person in society as we are in our homes. In particular, women who don’t believe in Islam or in wearing the Hijab have to wear the Hijab in public places in Iran. Drinking and selling alcoholic drinks is not permitted, but we do drink in our homes and in other private places. Any partners who don’t get married cannot officially stay in the same room in a hotel, but, as in other countries, many partners live together in their flats without officially getting married. We spend much time on the weekends in our private parties and private places, being ourselves and not the person the government wants us to be. All in all, with this level of complexity and paradox, it is not easy to be an uncomplicated person. And I do not want to use the word COMPLICATED as a compliment.
This word made my life hard on many occasions. When you are a child, everything that you can see around you looks new. Now imagine a child who has to wear her scarf when she goes to school from age seven, and every week in religious studies classes the teacher tells her that the only way to be a good woman is to wear the Hijab and pray every day, and only then will you go to heaven. Too, if you don’t wear your Hijab and don’t pray, you will go straight to hell when you die. On the other hand, when that little girl returns home and tells this to her mother, her mother will say ‘your teacher is wrong, do not believe her, you will not go to hell’. Therefore, as a child, slowly you realise that there is a big difference between the inside and outside of your home, and you need to consider and understand this issue and the reasons for it.
All in all, that situation makes me an artist who sometimes feels that I HAVE to think of the bigger issues and subjects and transfers them through my art.
Education
2022-2026 PhD in Performance Studies:
Persian-Iranian Performative Ceremonies, Rituals and Traditions
Guildhall School of Music & Drama
2015-2017 MA Performance Design and Practice
University of the Arts London, Central Saint Martins College of Art
2009-2013 BA Music
Central Branch of Tehran Azad University, Tehran, Iran
(Specialist the Tar and Tombak -Iranian traditional instruments)
Working Experience,
2021-Present Founder, Creator and Curator of “Mar-Art”, Arts and culture, foundation and
curatorial team based in London, Paris and Tehran.
2018-Present A Core member of “Tse Tse Fly Middle Easter”- Creator and Curator, Art
Community and Company based in London. London/ UK
2018-2019 Art consultant. “Jerwood+London Symphony Orchestra” composer in residence project.
Consultant Composer Amir Konjani (The Oscar Winner 2018)/
Performativity Company. London/ UK
2018 Art consultant. “The UK Composition Gold Medal Competition”.
Consultant Composer Amir Konjani (The Oscar Winner 2018).
Manchester/UK
Selected Performances, Screening and Exhibitions
(As an artist, designer, performer and curator)
2021 “Agitation” collaboration with a composer as a video artist. Château de Fresne-Saint
- Mamés/ France
2021 “Encounter” Mar-Art Curating an Exhibiting 10 French female Artists in Safavi Mission
in collaboration with French embassy. Isfahan/ Iran
2020 “Patient Zero”, online solo exhibition, Aknoon Art Gallery, Isfahan/ Iran
2019 “Men Do Not Nourish” from “The Art of Slaughter Series”, Screened at
Grace Exhibition Space. New York/ US
2019 “This body is all bodies”, Solo Performance. Designer, Performer, Costume Designer,
Composer and Sound- Designer. Yinka Shonibare’s Studio. London/ UK
2019 “Men Do Not Nourish” from “The Art of Slaughter Series”, screened at The Museum
of Human Achievement. Austin, Texas/ US
2018 Start to completing the project “Identifying of A Famous Group“
commissioned by Iran Music Museum. Tehran/ Iran
2018 “Birth to Death” video performance screened at Harvesting Souls event,
Braunschweig/ Germany
2018 “Birth to Death” video performance screened at Contemporary Venice- itsliquid
international art show, Venice/ Italy
2017 “Rondo... Rondo... Rondo...”, Designer, Director, Performer, composer And Sound
designer. Kings Cross Platform Theatre, London/ UK
2017 “Under the counter”, Designer, Performer, Composer and Sound- designer. Royal
Albert Hall.London/ UK
2017 “This body is all bodies”, Solo Performance. Designer, Performer, Costume
Designer, Composer and Sound- Designer. Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts.
Tehran/ Iran
2016 “49” collaboration with a composer to recreate a sense of the Orlando shooting and
Impressed the audience indeed. Solo Performance Trinity Laban Conservator of
Dance and Music. London/UK
2016 “Birth to Death”, video performance. Solo-live Performance Museum of the Future.
London/ UK
2016 “CCTV”, Designer, Performer, Sound Designer. Palais des fetes. Strasbourg/ France
2016 “Dream”, Designer and Performer. Inteatro ( Villa Nappi ), Polverigi/ Italy
2016 “Third of May 1808”, Designer, Performer and Composer. Solo Performance London
Drama Centre, Central Saint Martins College of Art, London/ UK
2014-13 “Give Me Your Hands for Some Minutes”, “Identifying of a Famous Group” Solo
Performance. Designer, Performer and Sound- Designer. It has been performed in
Thirty Performance, Thirty Artists, Thirty Days Festival. Tehran/ Iran
Selected Collaboration as a Musician, Sound Designer and Performer
2018-16 “I had to trust my fall” video art by Rojin Shafei. Composer and Sound
designer. Montreal/ Canada
“Plastic Life”, “In Out and Around”. Composer, Sound- Designer and Performer.
London/ UK
Film “Candy”, directed by Chensy Guan. Composer and sound- designer, Screened
in London Short Film Festival and London Fashion Film Festival. London/ UK
Composer in a music album “These are our friends too”, London/UK
Artist Residency
2019 “Guest Project”, Yinka Shonibare’s Studio. London/ UK
2018 “Watermill Center Summer Program by Bob Wilson” Shortlisted Artist. NY/ US
2017 “Inteatro, Villa Nappi”. Polverigi/ Italy
2016 “Palais des Fêtes de Strasbourg”. Strasbourg/ France
2016 “Inteatro, Villa Nappi”. Polverigi/ Italy
Selected Talks and Presentations
2020 “Live Art in Covid19 Time”, Online Lecture, Central Saint Martins, University of
the Arts London. London/ UK
2020 “Performance in Contemporary Art”, Tehran Art University, Tehran/ Iran
2019 “3 Minutes Presentation”, Finalist for the 3MT international competition to present a
compelling oration on PhD and MPhil students’ 80000 words thesis & topic and its
significance in just three minutes. Brunel University. London/ UK
2019 “The Art of Erosion”, Talk about the Modern Art, Performance and Performance Art
for the MA Theatre Students. Tehran Tarbiat Modares University. Tehran/ Iran
2017 “Aesthetic of Disinterest (This Body Is All Bodies) ”I was invited for a talk about my
practice and pieces. Stroud Art space. Gloucestershire/ UK
Teaching Experiences
2015-2019 “Teaching Tar, Setart, Tomabak and Kids’ Music” Sornai Music School.London/
UK.
2010-2015 “Teaching Music - Cello, Tar and Tombak (Two Iranian Traditional instruments)
and Music Theories ” Vaziri Music School. Tehran/ Iran
2009-2015 “Member of Teacher Association” Iran House of Music. Tehran/ Iran