Yelena Zhelezov calls Sepand Shahab, an Iran-born experimental composer based in Los Angeles, to discuss what it was like to grow up in Southern California, decode the symbolic meaning of “a house with a lawn,” recall a forbidden dance party on a bus heading out of Tehran, and wonder why the idea of home is so elusive. Can one think of a physical place as a time instead?
This is volume two of Born in Ghostland. While re-visiting the apartment of her childhood, spent in Soviet Belarus, Los Angeles-based artist and our (no) borders open call finalist Yelena Zhelezov talks to people who experienced a border change, either in name or territory. What is it like to live in the shadow of a disappeared place, a missing definition? What happens to the sense of belonging? Are there déjà vus? What remains?
