The Lady in Red
Once upon a time, in the lively city square of Tehran, Iran, there was a girl eagerly anticipating a date with her beloved. Adorned in a striking red dress, she hoped to easily stand out in the bustling crowd. The beloved never came. Despite the initial disappointment, the girl’s love endured, compelling her to return to the square day after day, month after month, and year after year, always adorned in her red dress as she patiently awaited his elusive arrival.
Her unwavering commitment to love transformed her into a fixture of the city’s history—the Lady in Red. Even as she aged into a senior citizen, she continued her daily ritual, becoming an indelible part of the city’s collective memory. Though she eventually passed away, her spirit lingered on in the hearts and minds of those who remembered her poignant story. The Lady in Red stands as one of Tehran’s most famous urban legends.
In Iranian mysticism and mythology, love is considered an anguished and passionate gift from God, accompanied by the paradox of love and suffering. The monument dedicated to the Lady in Red aims to visually portray this concept of love and serve as a guardian of urban memory, acknowledging that cities have the ability to remember and preserve the poignant tales that shape their character.
To preserve this love story, I drew inspiration from a quote by Dante Alighieri
“See Helen, for whom so long a time of ill revolved; and see the great Achilles, who at the end fought with love. See Paris, Tristan, and more than a thousand shades, Virgil showed me with his finger, and named them, whom love had parted from our life. After I had heard my Teacher name the dames of eld and the cavaliers, pity overcame me, and I was well nigh bewildered. I began, ‘Poet, willingly would I speak with those two that go together, and seem to be so light upon the wind.’ And he to me, ‘Thou shalt see when they shall be nearer to us, and do thou then pray them by that love which leads them, and they will come.’ Soon as the wind sways them toward us, I lifted my voice.
‘O weary souls, come speak to us if One forbid it not.’”
The Divine Comedy, Hell, CANTO V. The Second Circle, that of Carnal Sinners.
