There are Paykans- mostly white- which are abandoned in the out- of- the- way corners of cities in Iran. One of the same is in my mind’s alleys for years, never makes me feel lonely. In the past two years the white friend conveys me to the old and young family albums, to strange decades of the contemporary history. When I stare at it I can see a lot of family memories, it gave the youth fun, it was fathers’ perpetual fellow traveler and such a beautiful white horse for a bride in white; it was how white Paykan became somehow, the Iranian family member.
Getting together all these images lead me to a tempting surreal installation taken from the Iranian reality. The tale of white Paykan and the curiosity in the memories reminds me the novel Roots by “Alex Haley”; it seems the discovering process by the white Paykan in the angles of personal lives can go forward to a wider area such as Iran contemporary history.
In conclusion I just can confess that, it is impossible to watch an abandoned Paykan regardless to the huge history bearing.
Hossein Soltani
