Like a window that opens to a garden, his eyes were locked on life. It was summer when he arrived at the garden. Like a mystic who interprets the simple things in an artistic way, Abbas Kiarostami achieved an unrepeatable narrative of life when he was around. And when he left, it was still summer in the garden, but the window didn’t want to be shut anymore.
Abbas Kiarostami gave a new identity to the overlooked and the neglected things; to roads that did not seem to lead anywhere and to love stories behind romances. He offered an account that was altogether new: he shed a new light on finished and unfinished tales, colored with the ambiguities of art; those that tend to be forgotten behind closed doors; like the shadow of a tree cast on snow that vanishes as the earth revolves and like the snow that melts by the heat of the sun.
Abbas Kiarostami believed in the artist’s unique rendition of life and how it is reflected and registered in the artwork. He believed that it is all about the differences: he thought that the unity of visions is thoroughly boring. On the expanse between black and white, he invites us to pause and ponder on all of existence, all over again. He calls us to appreciate the stories hidden in the deep layers of this gray expanse. At his 79th birthday, “A Few Days In Between” is an occasion to commemorate him: 79 artists dedicate to him a narrative of life from their unique perspectives and with their own expressions, represented in identical frames.
To him who arrived when he arrived, was there when he was there, and was there when he was gone.