Azar-Gun describes Mahan as a merchant who has everything: house, family, reputation. Yet his life is ruled by fear of loss. One day he encounters a ragged wanderer laughing alone by the roadside, talking to birds and clouds as if they were old friends. People call the wanderer mad, but Mahan is disturbed by the clarity in his eyes. Curious and irritated, Mahan questions him. The “madman” asks simple questions Mahan cannot answer: “Who would you be if your trade disappeared? If your name was forgotten? If your wealth burned?” Mahan realises that every answer he gives is tied to something fragile. Events unfold so that Mahan loses his goods in a storm and is publicly disgraced. Desperate, he searches again for the madman and finally finds him in a remote place. There he learns to live with less, to listen, to detach his worth from his possessions. The world still sees the wanderer as insane, but to Mahan he becomes a guide. Azar-Gun’s story shows Bahram that madness is sometimes just refusing to play by fear’s rules. True wisdom can look wild from the outside, and a ruler must learn to hear uncomfortable truths.

Open view – mind opening to new air

Here I wanted turquoise to feel like a sudden breeze in a heavy room. To me this beauty is about the moment when life’s chaos destroys our old identity, and we have to choose whether to cling harder or to let some part of us die. The story is unsettling, but also liberating.