Index
MPC Sample_001 © 2026
Published in Aarhus, Denmark
May 2026
The Power of Migration
Editors note
Featuring Farahani
Cultural chart
Talking about your character
02: Moving
03: Heritage
04: Strength
05: Migration
Credits
Full talk w. Farahani
Editors note
MPC — Main Playable Character — is an
editorial platform exploring culture through
art, identity, sound and storytelling.
Sample 001, The Power of Migration, started from a curiosity
around how much value migration actually brings to society.
The name of the entire platform originated from thinking about
sampling music, and how much this actually looks like how
culture moves and expands. How identity, music, memory and
history constantly move between people and places. How we
are all shaped by fragments, references, and experiences that
existed before us.
The shoulders we’re standing on.
A lot of the people shaping cultural movements today are often the ones existing in between languages, histories, environments and identities. Yet so much of the conversation around migration still focuses almost exclusively on struggle, crisis or integration. Those conversations are important, but I also wanted to be part of creating space for other perspectives. What does migration make possible creatively, emotionally and culturally? What kind of understanding, emotional depth and perspective comes from navigating multiple realities at once? In many ways, this publication really isn’t much about defining identity, but more about listening to how people already describe themselves and their own character. This is the continuation of an already existing conversation amongst people of color, the diaspora, nomads and migrants. If you know you know. If not, then welcome to our world, and welcome to the conversation.
Much appreciation and love to my mom, for making her way to Denmark from Nigeria, dreaming about a better life for herself and her children. And thanks to my dad for supporting her on that journey.
A lot of the people shaping cultural movements today are often the ones existing in between languages, histories, environments and identities. Yet so much of the conversation around migration still focuses almost exclusively on struggle, crisis or integration. Those conversations are important, but I also wanted to be part of creating space for other perspectives. What does migration make possible creatively, emotionally and culturally? What kind of understanding, emotional depth and perspective comes from navigating multiple realities at once? In many ways, this publication really isn’t much about defining identity, but more about listening to how people already describe themselves and their own character. This is the continuation of an already existing conversation amongst people of color, the diaspora, nomads and migrants. If you know you know. If not, then welcome to our world, and welcome to the conversation.
Much appreciation and love to my mom, for making her way to Denmark from Nigeria, dreaming about a better life for herself and her children. And thanks to my dad for supporting her on that journey.
For many years I was in an observation phase. Just
looking, listening, learning and trying to figure out
where I was and who I was inside all of it. I still think
I’m working on understanding who I am. First and
foremost as a human being. For me, my father’s music
became the core of a lot of that understanding. The
traditional singing, the instruments and the way the
Persian language sounds gave me more and more
desire to understand where I come from and why I am
who I am.
I also became very inspired by poets like Rumi and Hafez, because they weren’t speaking about being Persian or Iranian in that way. It was something more universal. They spoke about what it means to be human in this life. For me, having multiple cultures inside you is actually a huge privilege. It gives you more tools to understand yourself, connect with other people and see life from different perspectives. And I think that’s beautiful.
I also became very inspired by poets like Rumi and Hafez, because they weren’t speaking about being Persian or Iranian in that way. It was something more universal. They spoke about what it means to be human in this life. For me, having multiple cultures inside you is actually a huge privilege. It gives you more tools to understand yourself, connect with other people and see life from different perspectives. And I think that’s beautiful.
Cultural Chart
“I don’t really believe in putting
yourself into one box and saying:
this is exactly who I am.”
001.1_FARAHANI
This section features parts from an interview with Farahani based on five questions about identity, heritage, creative work and the power of migration.
■ 01
How do you understand and define your own cultural identity and heritage?
What it brings up in me is that I’m still 100 percent working on understanding who I am. First and foremost as a human being, and that I’ve been on a journey since the day I was born. The experiences I’ve been through until now have had many different meanings for me, and they’re still things I keep returning to and working with. For many years I was a bit confused about the fact that I was born in Iran, but came to a foreign country where I was in an observation phase, just looking, listening, learning and trying to figure out where and who I was. I’m still working on that, and I’ve become stronger. Right now I know that I’m much more curious and much closer to my Iranian side. I actually want to implement it more and make it more visible in Denmark in my everyday life. I’m very proud of it. The combination of everything I’ve learned, and the culture I know from Denmark, together with the Iranian side, will only make me much wiser, stronger and more compact as a human being overall.
So, I can’t 100 percent give you that simple answer of: okay, how do I understand it? I’m very positive about it, and I have a much bigger desire to connect with my Iranian heritage and make it visible through my art, my life in Denmark, and also the other way around — to tell other Iranians what I’ve actually been through and what I’ve learned. I’ve definitely also just 100 percent learned that it’s a huge advantage to have these two different cultures embedded and linked with each other.
I think the whole thing about putting yourself into a box and saying that I’m Danish or I’m Iranian is maybe just something people expect. That you’re supposed to choose a side. I don’t think you can do that. And for me it has also always been about the fact that where you come from, how you look, what skin color you have — all of these things don’t really have that much meaning for me. What matters more to me is why I experience the things I experience, and why the journey I’m going through has a purpose. What is it I’m supposed to learn?
I simply feel like I’m Iranian because I was born in Iran. I can speak the language. A lot of the cultural things and a lot of the music just make me happy, and I want to feel all that again. And sometimes I stand there thinking: shit, when can I actually fully experience any of this again? But at the same time I’m completely happy and grateful that I ended up in Denmark. Because I also love my life here, my friends and everything I’ve been through. So for me, Danish and Iranian maybe function as something practical in everyday life. Because then somehow you can describe your identity or say who you are. But for me, I’m just Pouria Farahani. That’s my name. And I’m always trying to improve myself as a human being.
■ 02
How has moving between cultures shaped the way you see yourself and the world around you?
It gave me more tools to better understand myself and connect with different people. I speak multiple languages and I’ve moved between different worlds, and I think that naturally changes the way you see life. It gives you more perspectives and different emotional understandings. Sometimes I still ask myself: who am I? What is my drive? What am I supposed to become? But instead of trying to live up to other people’s expectations, I try to become more transparent with myself and feel good about who I am. Living between cultures also made me realize how privileged I am. I genuinely feel lucky that I can move around perspectives and understand different people. It’s like having another floor in a building that I can walk up to. Suddenly you gain another way of seeing things. Another emotional understanding. Another way of connecting. And then eventually at some point you start building your own third floor from all those experiences combined. A fusion of everything you carry with you. That’s what interests me creatively too. How sound, atmosphere, food, language, memory and emotion slowly become part of the same space.
I’ve always felt naturally drawn toward people from different cultures and backgrounds. And the more honest I became with myself, the easier it also became for other people to really connect with me. At the end of the day, for me, it’s really just one world. I just have another floor I can walk up to. Then there is space to stay curious. Like: damn, I also want to immerse myself in other cultures. Another thing is this idea that now I have a two-story house — but when do I start building my own third floor? A fusion of the two. And when people enter that space, it’s almost like walking through an art exhibition. A reflection of how I’ve decorated my living room, what kind of food is being cooked, what it smells like, what kinds of sounds and textures I work and live with. Hopefully, once you’ve built that floor, you’ve gained new tools and new understandings, and maybe then you want to build a fourth floor together with others. That way, it hopefully never stops evolving or moving between different boxes.
■ 03
What parts of your heritage
do you consciously carry with
you into your everyday life and
creative work?
For many years I felt very conscious of it and very aware of it. It was almost like a focus on the fact that you’re in a new place, and somehow you have to implement something from what you know in order to survive or keep going. And then suddenly I found myself in Denmark. And the Iranian side of me wasn’t very visible, because suddenly I didn’t really have that much connection or contact to the Iranian heritage I knew. I suddenly had to learn and level up and take in new information and implement it into myself. And then eventually you tell yourself: okay, this is who I am now. I did the best I could. Over the years, that heritage we’re talking about is not something you can just quiet down or put a lid on.
For me, my father’s music, was really the very core connection to cultural, historical, old and traditional way of singing. The instruments. The way the language sounds. It made me want to read more poets. Poets like Rumi and Hafez and these world-class poets who have existed for thousands of years. I was intrigued by their storytelling — what does it actually mean to be human in this life? They weren’t talking about “I’m Persian” or “I’m Iranian” in that kind of way. It was universal. And for me that became an inspiration. Something that kept resurfacing. And I could feel that whenever I ignored that part in me, I also lost some type of deeper connection to myself.
When I listen to my father’s music, it became a small entrance into something. More and more desire to find more information about where I come from and why I am who I am. Why I have that desire and that need to stop ignoring that side of myself. And I’m still working with it. But there are also smaller things. Funny things I think about. Like if I’m meeting my parents, suddenly I think: wait, how did we do this again? Did we kiss? Hug? Very simple things. Things that suddenly hit me. And maybe it’s actually also a bit embarrassing that I forgot them, but now I’m more aware of it. Personally, if I don’t understand something, I become really confused.
For me it’s extremely important that if something connected to my Iranian heritage appears, I really work with it. Especially the language, because it’s much more complex emotionally. The way I learned Danish was always by speaking it very directly. I never really learned a language by translating my mother tongue into another language in that way. Honestly, I’m proud of that. I actually think it’s a really beautiful way, because it forced me in a creative way to figure out how I can connect with other people. And now I have a new awareness, and I’m constantly working with both sides. It’s really like a football player who can use both feet.
■ 04
Have there been moments
where your cultural background
became a clear strength in your
life and creative work?
Always. It has always been a big strength. I just didn’t realize it before. When I stand up and sing something in Persian and other people can feel it, it gives me this understanding that it’s because I enjoy it so much and I’m much more connected to it. When I explain Persian food to people and tell them they should taste it, I think about all the different ingredients inside of it. Why things are made in certain ways. A lot of it comes from nature and from the understanding of culture, people and history. Different ingredients that only exist in that part of the world and in different cities can actually be implemented and made in different ways. It’s not just something you can casually walk past. I genuinely want to carry it with me. I’m proud of it. It only makes me stronger.
I’m very, very happy that I have Iranian roots and that I’m Iranian. And I’ll always say that I’m a human being born in a place where you can actually find many different elements that can give you the possibility to level up as a person. Iran is a land of pleasure, and that pleasure also exists inside of me. I just want access to it and bring it forward. Because in another way it would almost feel ungrateful of me as a human being not to acknowledge those sides and carry them with me. Maybe it sounds a bit intense when I say it like that. But the desire to understand it is really up to me. And that’s also part of the journey of being human. Everything is a tool. What are you going to do with it? It can be used for good and bad. There also has to be given space for nature’s cycle somehow doing its own thing.
I’m very spiritual. I believe a lot in energies. And I also believe everything has a higher purpose. Until now, life has really shown me that I need to be patient, tolerate possibilities, stay open and accept everything I’ve been through. And then there’s constantly more space for me to be guided through things. Sometimes I think about Pirates of the Caribbean. Jack Sparrow had that compass, and it pointed him toward where he truly wanted to go. Sometimes I think my roots actually do that for me. And now that so many people can also connect with me through music, it shows me: okay, beautiful. What now?
■ 05
What do you think migration
makes possible — culturally,
creatively or socially?
I just want to say that this question is really important. I’m honestly very proud that there are so many people I’ve met who are so good at making visible where they come from. And showing that they are privileged. And celebrating that. I want to share my gratitude for where I come from with other people. I believe that if we as human beings stay open without judging things, then we will have a much better and easier understanding of the different experiences we go through.
Honestly, I think immigration is a huge advantage. Sometimes I think: why the fuck are we not more open to understanding it? We judge. Nobody is better than anybody else. And why is it that we can be open to understanding one part of another culture, but then the opposite side suddenly becomes uncomfortable or difficult? I’m not generalizing, and I’m not saying it’s impossible. It has never been more possible than it is now. A lot of work has been done by many people to make that openness possible today. But for me, as someone who came to Denmark as a child, it’s also something you suffer through. Something changes inside you. You have a physical body, but something psychological also happens. You can create different forms of identity and emotional ways of navigating things. And the older you get, the more aware you become of why certain things happened. I can say with pride that it’s a huge thing that someone like me gets to tell their life story and trust that people will stay open. There’s a saying that if you find yourself in a room where all the doors are closed, then create your own window. Immigration is that window. It’s a way for the sun to shine through to you somehow.
In the field I work in — music — think about how much migration has made possible. Rhythm. Dance. Language. The way you hear music. It has shaped so many things. It exists in all forms of creative ways of functioning in society. As long as people stay open, honest and genuinely willing to understand it, then it becomes a huge, huge thing. If we remove everything else for a second though. How brands move, how we make money, how ego enters things. At the end of the day, we are all immigrants in this universe. And that actually makes life much more exciting to me. Because then the real question becomes: how do I truly understand myself as a human being?
“At the end of the day, we are all immigrants
in this universe.”
in this universe.”