The translator of the unspoken

Mehdi Sahabi passed away in 2009 in Paris. Many consider him a capable and irreplaceable translator, but it can be boldly said that he was a multifaceted human being whose important role in Iran's visual arts has mostly remained unnoticed due to the incredible quantity and quality of his literary activities. Sahabi was a witty man, who with his hard work in translating Marcel Proust's "In Search of Lost Time", ridiculed the term "difficult and impossible".

He was an artist who lived his time through his art. He breathed in the ups and downs of social, political and cultural occurrences of his time, and despite the obstacles of incessant censorship, was able to create and turn 'nothing' into 'something' by trusting the sanctuary of imagination. He had a straightforward perspective, yet created unusual works. In the realm of visual arts where established artists grasp at the safety zone of success by repeating themselves, he was like a curious student inquisitively exploring at all times. He did not fear judgment and criticism because he had spent a long time expiring the realm of truth' as a journalist, and had tasted the bittersweet taste of 'being ignored'.

Sahabi was a patient yet a restless man. He was extremely patient while translating the breathtaking book "In Search of Lost Time", yet he was so restless that the bird of his imagination, manifested as wooden sculptures, flew from one branch to another throughout his life. Sahabi's graffiti pieces, with their slogans of 'long live'! and death to!' are like

drafts of his ideas, and despite his insistenco that there is nothing political about them, they clearly have humane and social concepts. It is as if by including his own name on these 'walls', Sahabi downplays the value of statement in comparison to action, critiquing himself in the process.

In his artworks Sahabi takes us to the graveyard of scrap cars that have settled in his painting frames like old wise men. To Sahabi man, machine, bird or littleman, are all the same, none more important than the other because they all serve as material for capturing a moment; a moment of happiness, sadness and even death that is part of life, His artworks are the process of capturing a moment, like he did with his crumpled masks that he called personal snapshot because in them he did not try to display anyone in particular, but instead triad to remind us of different emotions at different moments of life. According to Proust, "It is art only that expresses our life to others and displays it to us as well, this life that cannot be observed and the appearance of that which is seen must be translated and usually read inverted and decrypted with difficulty." It Is not out of place to say that Sahabi is the translator. of unspoken of life.

Shakiba Paryaresh