Homage to Ahmad Mir-Alaei

Homage to Ahmad Mir-Alaei (2005)

Editions of 10 and 2AP

On October 24 1995, the 53-year-old Iranian translator, Ahmad Mir-Alaei, left home at a quarter to eight in the morning for a date in front of a book shop at 8 o'clock, but he never reached there. He was supposed to deliver a speech at the medical college at two o'clock in the afternoon of the same day. But some people announced in advance that the lecture had been cancelled. At eleven o'clock pm the police reported the discovery of a body and asked the family of the victim to come to the police station and receive the body. The reason for the death was said to be cardiac arrest.

In Iran, Mir-Alaei is famous for his translations of Jorge Luis Borges' works. There, their names are associated with each other. His case, like many other serial murders of Iranian intellectuals, remained an unsolved puzzle, just like those described and left untold in Borges' stories. The translator reportedly was detained by security forces and taken to a hotel for questioning. A few hours later, his body was found in Isfahan. A half empty bottle and cigarettes were said to be lying beside his body, which had injection marks in it.
The photograph is a snapshot of a street in a possible Tehran, hometown of Barbad Golshiri