The three case files that make up Bye-Gones were conceived and curated by younger artists from Saye Theatre. Each one began with a major work from the history of American avant-garde theatre: Antigone by Living Theatre, The Hip-Hop Waltz of Eurydice by Reza Abdoh, and Dionysus 69 by Richard Schechner.
What mattered to us was allowing these works, several decades later, to be seen and experienced again by another generation. Perhaps Bye-Gones is, above all, about this distance:
The distance between a work and its archive, and between a work and the person who returns to it years later.

Case File 01 — An Encounter with Reza Abdoh

The first case file in the Bye-Gones series focused on Reza Abdoh and one of his works, The Hip-Hop Waltz of Eurydice (1990). In the case of Reza Abdoh, what remains of many of his performances is a scattered collection of images, videos, sounds, texts, designs, and accounts. The question at the heart of this case file was:

Can something of a lost performance experience be brought back through these archival materials?

Case File 01 centered on The Hip-Hop Waltz of Eurydice (1990). For the first time, the filmed version of the performance was presented with Persian subtitles, translated and timed against the original text.

Another part of the case file focused on archival footage by Adam Soch, video artist and collaborator of Reza Abdoh. Adam Soch made part of this material available to the group. On the second day, these images and videos were presented as part of an interactive multimedia installation.

The case file unfolded over two days through four encounters:

Encounter One — Telegram Bot

The case file began at the moment of registration. After signing up, participants received messages and pieces of content from the Telegram bot at irregular intervals. The experience had already begun before they arrived at the venue.Encounter Two — Film PerformanceThe Persian-subtitled version of The Hip-Hop Waltz of Eurydice (1990), translated and timed from the original performance text, was screened.

Encounter Three — Conversation

Following the screening, artists working across theatre, choreography, performance, and visual arts came together to discuss performance, memory, the transmission of experience, and the possibilities of the archive.

Guest artists, in alphabetical order:
Hediyeh Ahmadi
Mohsen Khedri
Amir Rad
Sara Rasouli Nejad
Conversation moderated by:
Avesta Mahmoudvand

Encounter Four — An Experience of the Archive

On the second day, participants entered an interactive multimedia installation made up of documents, sounds, images, and other archival materials. Here, the archive became something to be experienced rather than simply viewed as a fixed collection. A selection of Adam Soch’s archival images was also presented as part of the installation.

Event Information

Bye-Gones | بایگان
Case File 01 — An Encounter with Reza Abdoh

Part of the event series by Saye Theatre Group
Curated by: Hodjat Salimi and Maryam Lashgari

August 20–21, 2026
Farvardin Art House, Tehran
6:00 PM
Attendance: 70 participants over two days

Credits

Curators and Space Design: Hodjat Salimi, Maryam Lashgari
Space Execution Design: Bahar Mir-Tavousi
Production Designer: Mehrbod Omidipour
Video Installation: El Shekari
Poster Design: Ali Sabeti
Assistant and Planner: Sara Moghaddas
Telegram Bot Design and Development: Hojat Salimi
Photographer and Videographer: Yekta Tavakoli

With thanks to:

Adam Soch
Negar Azimi
Tiffany Malakooti
Mehdi Mashhour
Hossein Salimi
Narges Sadeghian
Farvardin Art House