Mehdi Sahabi (1943-2009): A Translator and an Artist
artwork by Peyman Shafizadeh
Opening at Aaran Gallery, Tehran on 29th
January 2010.
Curated by Nazila Noebashari.
Excerpts: In Praise of Small Entrenchments
By an anonymous writer published on 17th January 2010 on the World Wide Web.
I am incapable of registering what I am
witnessing these days. My city and I are intertwined.
It is a city that is fighting; and as much as the
government crackdown is now widespread, so is the people's struggle.
artwork by Amir Mousavi
Close to the hours of demonstrations, all mobile
phones are disconnected, and all SMS messages are barred. It is a misery to try
to find out the news. Despite all that, the progressive Greens are present
everywhere and the entrenchments are alive.
It is due to this large-scale support that once
the people decide, the city suddenly changes. In the distance, two streets away,
the traffic changes to a demonstration by cars. One notices the twinkle in the
eye of the man in the next car as well as his fingers rising with the Victory
sign...... There are cars everywhere and they are honking, as if the city is
howling, and in the next corner, all becomes silent. There is a common
understanding and a common sense that the city does not want any broken glasses,
or any innocent injured bodies......
artwork by Arash Faez
- Tehran University gates
The city, these days is full of small
entrenchments. They are alive with poetry, proverbs and with urban Satire. The
entrenchments are deriving strength from memories, and they are solid because of
the indestructible human spirit and networks.
The progressive Greens with empty hands try to
reconcile the others, to make them companions of the same path; and the hands of
the enemy, are heavy with Kalashnikovs. It is an enemy that is paying a high
cost.
artwork by Peyman Shafizadeh
It is the enemy who is also a fellow citizen, who
speaks the same language, who is a brother, a cousin, a neighbor. Even beyond
the walls of the prison, the enemy that is so imaginary, and in reality an
Iranian.
The Greens that I know are advocating that our
"Victory Is Not the Defeat of the Other"...
And that in the layers of Hate and Fear that the
state TV is propagating, the Greens are constantly distributing the Joys of "The
Day Of the Victory".
They are showing The Other how to co-exist, and
how to share the delight of being on the same path, existing in the same story,
as the citizens of the same city....
artwork by Nasim Pirhadi
PDF of Catalogue of the Show
AAran Art Gallery
www.aarangallery.com
No 12 Dey street. North Kheradmand ave., Tehran
Tel +9821 88829086- 9
artwork by Ali Chitsaz
artwork by Amir Mobed
Har Dam Azin Bagh Goli Miresad
artwork by Hamed Farhangi
artwork by Hamed Farhangi
artwork by Marzi Mirbagheri
artwork by Marzi Mirbagheri
artwork by Mehrdad Abotorabi
artwork by Nasim Pirhadi
... Payvand News - 01/28/10 ... --
