I’m Not a Song to Be Sung

I’m Not a Song to Be Sung is a multi-channel video installation that reflects on a generation of Iranians shaped by decades of war, international sanctions, and the social and civil pressures that followed the Iranian Revolution of 1979.

In the work, participants remain underwater while reciting lines from a Persian poem by Ahmad Shamlou in English. The readings last only as long as breath allows—sometimes a few seconds, sometimes over a minute—before the voice dissolves into silence.

Suspended between breath and speech, the voices emerge and disappear, carrying fragments of poetry that echo the tension between endurance, displacement, and the fragile persistence of expression.

Press

Underneath, it’s all poetry: Tooraj ​Khamenehzadeh’s ​I’m Not a Song to Be Sung - Natasha Chuk

Project Crew

I’m Not a Song to Be Sung, Iran and USA, 2018-2019 © Tooraj Khamenehzadeh