The odyssey of an exiled Iranian artist: “If you can’t live the way you want, better not live”

«But if you are the same!». On the other side of the door a couple of clones emerge: two middle-aged men, two hook-nosed faces, two pairs of black glasses… “Who’s the artist?” One of the figures, with a clean-shaven beard and dark clothing, steps forward; he is the shyer of both. Instantly he takes the floor from him: «He is Sasan, and he barely speaks Spanish. I am Saeid, his brother, his twin, and I have come to act as a translator ». Several days of failed calls and monoslillabic responses now have an explanation. It has been difficult to arrange the interview and the previous information is scarce: an Iranian painter who has fled to Spain spurred by the suffocation to which the authoritarian regime of the ayatollahs subjected him. Today promises to be a day of surprises. Sasan Hushangi, 55, opens the doors of his troubled past to ABC. Also those of his impressive studio in Madrid, which he shares with one of his classmates from the ‘Master in Painting with historical and narrative content in Spain’. The room is very spacious: two floors full of easels, canvases, and all the artist’s weapons. “There is one for every two students, we offer them so that they can develop the projects”, explains the brain of the course, Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau. The painter of battles learned about this story of overcoming when selecting the candidates. His tragedy moved him and his style surprised him: «I really like the dynamism that he gives to the figures. I predict a good future for him artistically. Old demons The protagonist walks through his habitat and proudly displays his works. “Now we are with a project of the Military Emergency Unit,” he affirms; Or so Saeid promises us. Later, he awaits you a series of five works on the most authentic Madrid. He arranges brushes, places paints… He is somewhat nervous, but he soon cheers up and begins to remember; one that makes you shudder. «I always painted, since I was a child, but when I turned 18 I decided to dedicate myself to it professionally». Sasan’s sentences are short and to the point. It almost seems that he stings to answer: “I studied arts and French philology in Iran and, for fifteen years, I had an ‘atelier’ in Tehran with several students.” He refers to a workshop, but his Gallic training breaks through. Related News Standard FOCUS Yes The mystery about the Templars that the Vatican Secret Archive has hidden for a thousand years Manuel P. Villatoro The 85 kilometers of papal registry shelves house millions of documents; one of them, the Chinon Scroll, has served to exonerate the ‘Poor Soldiers of Christ’ of heresy. He speaks in the past tense because he does not plan to return home, and that hurts him. “I would like to have been born in a country that he had not had to leave,” he says. At the height of the protests against the Iranian Revolution – the rise to power in 1979 of the ayatollahs – the Government has tightened its grip on artists. The watchful eye of the authorities hangs over them by the hand of the so-called morality police: agents who respond with barbarism to all those behaviors that conflict with Islam. «In Iran it is forbidden to have a living model to copy. In addition, they are bothered by the representation of the human body. For them it is idolatry. It is enough to see how they have destroyed works of art with thousands of years », he sentences. Handing over the baton It all started with a news item in the press. Suddenly, Sasan came across a lighthouse in the middle of the ocean: the ‘Master in Painting with historical and narrative content in Spain’. Organized by the Ferrer-Dalmau Art History Foundation in collaboration with the University of Nebrija, it seeks to introduce the Spanish pictorial and historical tradition in the university environment; the place it deserves. That, and a brush heavyweight handing over four decades of know-how to a new generation of artists. «My days are numbered, like everyone else. Therefore, my goal is that this work has continuity. I am going to teach them everything I know so that they continue to evolve. They have a lot of market and a gap to fill, “says the painter of battles to this newspaper. The course, which lasts for an academic year, teaches its participants to carry out narrative and historical painting projects from scratch. From the hand of teachers who are more than reputable in the field, students learn to trace the original sources, shape the sketches and gradually perfect the final result. All this, yes, with a lot of work and historical rigor, the keys to the success of the painter of battles. «They are going to be the Navy Seals of painting; some special forces”, explains Dalmau himself. It took Hushangi a while to be able to enroll; visa problems Although the difficulty has made him work harder if possible. «He arrived when he had already started the course, but he does not leave the studio to catch up. He does not stop painting », explains Beatrice, his partner. According to professors and students, the history of Spain is the basic pillar on which the master’s degree is built; the epicenter of everyday life. The reason is simple: the huge number of past episodes that remain to be painted. «There are many, and I don’t have time to shape them all. I will hand over the baton to them, ”explains Ferrer-Dalmau. However, he also stresses that the master teaches foreign students the keys to painting their past. Sasan is the clearest example. “There they hide our history from us, they hide it and they don’t let us study it. In addition, they change and manipulate it. I want that to stop being like that », he confirms. He loves, or so he promises us, the pre-Ayatollah part of Iran. «I want to paint Persepolis, Dario, the kings of the Achaemenid dynasty… And what better place than a master’s degree in which hyperrealism is encouraged», he says. At the moment, Sasan has a dozen companions. “It is the perfect number so that they can learn everything they need,” completes Ferrer-Dalmau. He doesn’t talk just to talk; he suffered it in his flesh. One day, while he was teaching his students how to paint with a live model, the police entered the workshop and beat him up. “Look here”. Sasan points to his mobile phone and shows the evidence in the form of a photo with a bloody face and a broken finger. «It is not the beating that hurts you the most. They crush you and you feel like you don’t exist, they force you to live the way they say. If not, the result is this: barbarism. But he doesn’t like to remember that nightmare and turns the page at lightning speed. He does the same when talking about the two times he was in prison for violating government orders. It’s no use asking him how many years he spent behind bars. The Spanish acquaintances of him, we will not say who, affirm that three. Although the scars that sting the most are not his. With a blank look, he talks about one of his former students. She bright, energetic…she had obtained a visa to study outside of Iran; she was doing well. “I just found out that she has committed suicide.” The girl herself uploaded a video to Instagram in which she imitated the supreme leader with a certain sarcasm and, when the police found out about her, they took her passport. She couldn’t take the pressure or the trial she knew she was going to face. “I understand that she did it. If you can’t live your way, perhaps the best way is not to live, “she says. And new life For all this, and much more, Sasan has left Iran. So that they don’t trample on him, so that he doesn’t have to answer to the government and, ultimately, to be free, that concept that he repeats over and over again: “My commitment to art is to paint what I want.” He could modify his style and adapt, but his thing is not to succumb. «If I change what I paint it will not be because of them, but because I want to. I will never censor my work because we are in this world to be free.” His words, already with a higher tone, resound in his new ‘atelier’, where he feels loved by some colleagues who see him with an exotic touch. “For months they told us that an Iranian was coming, and we didn’t believe it,” explains Beatrice, his study partner. What he does insist on is that no one has expelled him from Iran. He has left on his own foot and can return whenever he wishes. Another thing is that he wants to… From there he is not attracted to anything; nor the propaganda use that the Government makes of artists, nor the control to which it has to submit, nor religion. Because, after suffering all kinds of outrages in the name of Islam, he declares himself an agnostic. At this point he starts to speak, but stops short. “What’s happening?”. The initial silence is followed by a clearing of the throat and, finally, the revelation: “I have painted a painting criticizing polygamy in the Islamic religion, but I cannot reveal its content because it would put me in danger.” The only thing that comes out of his mouth is that he “he is hidden safely”, nothing more. MORE INFORMATION The ‘Navy Seals’ by Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau and the deeds of Spanish history The cursed convoy: the great Spanish deed that turned the English red with hatred, according to Ferrer-Dalmau ‘Encamisadas’: the daring nocturnal incursions that turned to the Spanish Tercios in the nightmare of Europe The last question is obligatory: why Spain? Why the Ferrer-Dalmau master’s degree? He is attracted to the peninsula by its authenticity and its classical spirit. «I have traveled all over France, but I stay with this country. On an artistic level it is different and it has great engraving experts », he explains. And he likes our battle painter’s hand with the brushes. “I love his style, I want to learn from what is currently one of the best in his field.” At the moment he works for it. «After classes he spends the day in the workshop. He is one of those who works the most », insists the painter of battles. With this praise ends this meeting. The recorders return to the sleeve and the spotlights to the cases. Sasan says goodbye as he prepares to continue his task. He doesn’t have a minute to lose. Although he makes one last request: “Please, let the Spanish know the true censorship that exists in Iran.” Fiance.