Mitra Divshali
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Vermicelli Persiani
Geste symbolique (A Symbolic Gesture), Canvas 1. Mixed media | collage on canvas, 60 × 60 cm, Rome, 2021, private collection.
Sadegh Hedayat, Tehran 1903 / Paris 1951, is one of the most widely read and discussed Iranian writers. While at the French lycée in Tehran, he wrote his first book, Man and Animal, and edited a volume dedicated to the quatrains of Omar Khayyam. He pursued university studies first in Belgium (1925–1926) and later in France (1926–1930). In Paris, he wrote several short stories, including Sampingue and Lunatique, and published The Benefits of Vegetarianism, The Songs of Khayyam, and Magic in Ancient Persia.
The Blind Owl (1930), three collections of short stories, Buried Alive (1930), Three Drops of Blood, and Chiaroscuro (1932), as well as Neiranghestan (The Book of Invocation), The Caravan of Islam (1934), Hajji Agha (1945), Morvari’s Cannon (1947), and Kafka’s Message (1948), are among his best-known works. Several of them have been translated into many languages; The Blind Owl alone has so far been translated into thirty languages.
Vermicelli Persiani draws inspiration from Sadegh Hedayat’s letters to Hassan Chahid-Nourai (1946–1950). These letters bear witness to the final years of his life in Tehran, to his literary interests, to the major political and social events of those years, which he found unbearable, and to his extreme decision to exile himself voluntarily.
Sadegh Hedayat took his own life in Paris on April 9, 1951.
Vermicelli Persiani was a solo installation, composed of three parts:
The Epistolary of , rewritten in twenty artworks
on canvas; between 1946 and 1950, Hedayat wrote to his friend,
Hassan Chahid-Nourai, among them only 82 letters there were found.
The Voyage from Tehran to Paris traced in neon and aluminum;
Interferences, an original video in black and white created by the artist for the exhibition and structured in five chapters. It was produced by Beatrice Bulgari at In Between Art Film Foundation.
The show was run in Studio SALES, March to May 2022, Rome, Italy and was curated by Laura Cherubini.
Brouhaha (confusion) Detail of canvas 6, Mixed media | collage on canvas, 50 × 50 cm, Rome, 2021, private collection.
Absurdité (absurdity), detail of canvas 8, Mixed media | collage on canvas, 50 × 50 cm, Rome, 2021, private collection.
Bête pourchassée (A Beast in Cage), detl. of canvas 19, Mixed media | collage on canvas,
50 × 50 cm, Rome, 2021, private collection.
The Voyage from Tehran to Paris, traced in neon and aluminum;
Interferences at its center is a conceptual video artwork dedicated to the life,
work, and mythos of Sadegh Hedayat. The video ran in a loop during the show.
Paris and Tehran, neon lines tracing Sadegh Hedayat’s own handwriting.
Interferences part of chapter 5
“A silvery river was shining across the black water … the air was still”
- Sadegh Hedayat, Light and Shadow 1933