Mehrdad Mohebali Transcript and Audio

Part 01

I think my story

began like this, I don’t even remember

I was told that I was born on January 22, 1960

We are four siblings; two

sisters and one brother

I’m the last child;

me and my twin sister

As far as I know, back then

toys were not common like

today, there was an

affluent boy living in our neighborhood

He had only one of those small toy cars

which today’s kids won’t even accept

as toys anymore. We used to create toys

mostly in our imagination. I think our generation

understands this very well.

Mostly probably I was creating a toy

with my pencils and papers;

which my family saw as an interest in painting

I was lucky that an aged tutor Ali Eshraqi, a student of

Kamalolmolk, had an studio near our house

He used to live alone, spending the day

in the studio and the night at his home

I was 5-6 years old when I first was sent there

It was very scary, like scenes in the old scary movies

with spider webs were hanging on

walls like a curtain. He had no time

to clean the house

but he was a decent person

for one year, I was his one and only pupil.

Even in winter we were alone

there was a small valor warmer, which

I used for warming my hand quickly while practicing

Our relatives used to simply greet my

siblings but they used to hold my hand

and ask me about my new works

I had something special to talk about

I think this was the most effective support for

me at that age even more than my parents’ support

Although it were my parents

who prepared the infrastructure for me

but that special treatment I got and having something

special to talk about was a great motivation for me

I was responsible for

the groceries, including the bread

It was very common thing those days

my classmates also used to do it.

bakers used to give me a piece of paper

to cover my hands against the heat

I used to prefer to tolerate the heat

whenever it was a foreign magazine

One night I had bought bread for dinner

When I reached home I took a look at the

paper and I was like yes it’s a painting

fantastic paintings. My father knew a

little French and the paper was in French

I asked my father to read the paper

for me…Let’s take a flashback

in Ali Eshraghi’s class

Picasso was the worst offensive word

It was such an embarrassment, when a person

was ironically called Picasso in class

I, who was a good student, had also learnt

to call others Picasso one way or another

it was the equivalent of silly.

I didn’t know better

let’s return to that night…I gave it to

my father and he started to read the captions

Picasso has drawn this

the portrait of his father, when he was 8

I collapsed…I asked how about this

one…he said this is a religious ceremony

by Picasso when he was 12 or something like

this… I thought his French must not be good…

I was confused. Creating a work

like Picasso was a dream for them

and he had done it at when he was

the paper had four pages

I looked at the other pages that had Picassos’

later works…my father said the same thing

…I clearly remember this

image…I was hitting my father

I couldn’t take it…that I

a small boy who had gained credit

and could use offensive words and the bad word was Picasso…and

now he saw marvelous artworks, drawn by Picasso

My father was the only person at hand…

and I repeatedly hit him

It was not common in our family…but it was more

than what I could take and I couldn’t help it

I was crying…I became sick for

three days and I couldn’t go to school

How did your father react?

He was patient…I remember he was calm and

did not stop me I think he didn’t know why

But he could understand that I was holding a grudge,

so he let me release it. He was that kind of person

On the third day I called my

tutor and later I visited him

I took the paper with me

He knew French too,

I said yes this is done at the age of

and then I turned the paper and

said this was drawn last year

and this one is done seven years

ago (he was alive at the time)

I put the paper aside,

I said teacher, how is it possible

that a person creates such

great works in childhood

and his works are so awful as an adult

He calmly answered my

question for hours, but I

could not even understand

one single word of it

Maybe it was beyond a kids’ comprehension

But it was the last time I went there

Now I think it wouldn’t have been crazy if I had

decided to completely forget about painting

but it was the opposite…I made the opposite

reaction. I devoted myself to painting

but I used to imitate other works, which I

used to find in libraries or other places

It was not an act of

creation all from my imagination

I used to think the highest achievement for a

painter was to draw something and sell it

I was drawing or painting

all the time using any

medium at hand…I did

not know how to do this

I vividly remember that

for a couple of years I had

a painting in watercolor

which I really liked

and oil color was the only

medium I had learnt to use

I put much effort to create a similar

work but it never worked

I didn’t know that it was something else

Working without a tutor was against

my own good

But on the other hand, it was

an advantage  for me sometimes

I had no option but to learn everything

by myself without asking a tutor

who could have given me the very correct

answer among thousands of possible answers

I was lost among

thousands of answers,

wasting my time trying

to find the right one

but I had learnt that

I would find the answer

I was mostly using cheap pigments,

those used for buildings

I used to buy these while I had

no idea that these two cannot be mixed

 and I used to mix them…

It was demanding…

later I heard that one type of paint can be

kind of mixed if you keep mixing them

and I had grown muscles on my arms

and in fact they are not dissolved

but they are completely

mixed with each other

I didn’t know this…I was just wondering

why this blue is making everything worst

My father was an accountant,

a low-rank clerk

Due to his experience he

sometimes used get promoted

supervising three or four people my

mother stopped studying at the ninth level

They were both calm people…

and my mother is who is still alive

We had the opportunity to speak

They used to judge but later

and I used to compare repeatedly

telling myself that how lucky I was

We had the opportunity to select I have a

very good example I was 15-16 years old,

the age that when you are

interested in doing things

without getting

permission especially illegally

I was walking in the street when

I came across a boy with a rough look

He was recently released from the

prison and he had marks on his head

he asked me for a lighter and

started to nag about his

matches and this way he

started the conversation

He said he was 25, formerly a bank clerk

he was in jail for two years

and he was not guilty

and it was attractive for me

The idea of telling the story to

my friends that I have befriended

a 25-year-old boy who has

been a thief or he was in jail

The enthusiasm of learning about a criminal

act had preoccupied my mind

Exactly on the day that I met

him, his name was Ali,

we discussed about some

issues then he followed me

I had no feeling that I better not to

show him where my house is located

I asked her to wait outside the house as

I wanted to take care of something inside

but I had a feeling like he

is 10 years older than me in

my mind I was thinking to

invite him inside. I did so.

The door between my room and the living

room was opened and my mother saw him

He was in our house for ten minutes.

when he

left my mother told me

Mehrdad we need to talk

She said this person seemed

to be different from us

but you have made a choice most probably

with a reason you don’t need to explain

but the home belongs to all of us

Never invite him inside

but outside the home

is your place do whatever you want

there with your own responsibility

She said it very calmly.

I thought for a while and

I concluded that I did not like

to be seen with this

guy in the street and I

don’t want to have such

a friend and

I was forced to stop this

friendship all by myself.

We were a middle-class family and

our expectations were not high

but I think if we had

high expectations we could

not afford it We used to

prioritize our demands

The only thing I wanted to

have was a bicycle

I told my father and he

said he would buy it if

I get good grades,

I was in junior high school

I finished the year with good grades…

I showed my scoresheet to my father

and he praised me

I said you had promised me…

He said what was it and I said a bicycle

He said, did I say I would by a bicycle?

Ok I would think about

I said you had made

your thoughts…

After half an hour,

he said let’s go to the bedroom

He said you are right I promised you

I don’t know what to do

because it just popped out back then

Do you have any solution for me

so that I won’t buy a bicycle

He was trying to change it with

something else I asked why.

He said our house was not big enough

for riding a bicycle so you

need to play in street and

I don’t feel good about it

I’m thinking what if

he has an accident…

and I can’t do this

Ask me for something else…just help me

I left the room and then

I kissed my father

I said I received my gift…

They had nurtured me

He gave us the opportunity to understand

and we had the chance to understand him

I feel very very good about those years

I feel good about it because

it helps me now

Junior high school program was started when

I was to start the sixth grade

We were always older than the

other students in junior high school

Three years of junior high

school were passed at the third

year authorities allowed

that students with A grade

to get two diplomas simultaneously

I was also offered to

go do the same thing…

along with a number of my friends They

were top students but I was not

I knew how to answer questions at exams,

either by studying on the night of the exam or by cheating

‘Jaame’ high school was of those new

schools and it was located near our house

Later its name was changed to ‘Jaame

Mortazavi Borazjani’ located in

Dolat street near Qanat crossroad

It was a newly-built school,

very big in size and

teachers were fantastic They

had literally gathered all

the top teachers

The idea of building such a school

was put forward by Ms. Parsa,

Minister of Education, after she

visited a similar school in Switzerland

Mr Abbassi was a member

of the founding team.

He was the principal of the school

and also taught Trigonometry

Later, Mr Sartipzadeh

became the headmaster,

who was also a decent person.

most of our years in high school

was spent under his

supervision.

I chose architecture…There

were four majors…I was

studying Sciences and

Architecture at the same time

Because Architecture was more

creative and I had a history in painting

I was motivated…I had no idea that

I might end up being a painter one day

I was just having a good time painting

At the third year, we were required

to get the map of our neighborhood

and mark suitable locations

for building schools

And there were some

rules…like there must be

at least 1.5 km distance

between each school.

We use to find and mark the land

My classmate could not go

for the same piece of land

We had to design everything

even the chair in the library

It was a heavy project that is not

included even in university programs today

When I was 16, I designed a villa in

The North, which was constructed

and the high school was mixed…

which I also consider as a luck for me

We used to get along well…

But it was not the same for students

who joined us at higher grades

This has been asked repeatedly,

Did anything wrong happened in the school?

here were students coming

from religious families

but nothing happened…never

Of course the management was in control

but not by being strict. My high school years

were spend like this but the final year

coincided with riots before the Revolution

Many of these new high

schools were closed

We were about 50 to 60 students who were

supposed to get a diploma for the second major

Education authorities,

in 1976 winter, said

we cannot pass new rules

for only 50 students

asking us to go for either architecture

or sciences; only one of them

Gradually I came to the point that

I was going to be an architect in the future

therefore I chose architecture…

though my family used to encourage me

to go for sciences saying that

you will have more options

My brother was studying

medical sciences and one

of my sisters was about

to become a psychologist

They all studied sciences

but I had other dreams

I was told that I would not

be able to pass the university

entrance exam with a

diploma in architecture.

This left me high and dry

I had developed an interest in architecture

all these years and they took it from me

I could not get along with sciences, nor

could I enter the university with architecture

So I had to forget about architecture and

continue my higher education

with a major in sciences

Minerology