The first ’Forgotten Art Treasures of Iran congress’ opened in a ceremony at Aseman Cultural Artistic Institute on Sunday.
According to ISNA, the ceremony was attended by the head of Iran’s Academy of Arts, Mir Hossein Mousavi and a number of artists in the field of obsolete handicrafts and traditional arts.
Secretary of the congress Bahman Namvar-Motlaq said at the inaugural ceremony that the event will be held in the four sections of scientific lectures, artistic workshops, documentary films festival and publications.
Stating that in the past two years, 10 preliminary congresss were held in Mashhad, Qazvin, Ardebil, Birjand, Shahr-e Kord, Yasouj, Tabriz and Shiraz, he further said that in this period, activists visited more than 50 cities to conduct interviews with artists in these cities. They compiled reports and photos on their visits, he added.
Noting that the three-day congress focuses on several exigencies as well as special theoretical fundamentals, he pointed out that it is essential to safeguard and promote national heritage which constitute an important part of Iranian cultural identity and is on the verge of extinction.
The danger, which was felt by specialized groups years ago, gave rise to the need for gatherings like this, Namvar-Motlaq said.
Noting that the congress is one of the most theoretical events sponsored by the academy, he said that in addition to their cultural significance, handicrafts also have high job-generating and economic capabilities.
Today, in countries which do not even have the richness and diversity of Iranian art, a lot of investments are made in the field of handicrafts, since they have realized the depth of future developments, he said, adding that they do not view these arts as museum items and pay serious attention to artists involved in the field. “Unfortunately, in our country, veteran artists of traditional do not have even the basic facilities such as insurance and retirement benefits,“ Namvar-Motlaq
concluded.

Chris de Burgh

Iranian authorities have approved concerts by an Iranian pop group with singer Chris de Burgh in Tehran, the group’s manager said on Saturday.
The concerts, set for the middle of next year, would be the first time since the 1979 revolution that an Iranian pop band had played alongside a Western singer inside the Islamic Republic, Arian’s manager Mohsen Rajabpour said.
Rajabpour, director of Taraneh Sharghi music company, said Arian and de Burgh had recorded a song called “A Melody for Peace“ which he said was intended “to reflect the peace-seeking spirit of the Iranian people to the world“, reported Reuters.
“We are trying to organize the concerts, scheduled for June and July,“ he told Reuters, confirming a report carried by Iran’s Fars New Agency.
The plan is to hold the concert at a 12,000-seat stadium complex in Tehran. De Burgh is expected to visit Iran early next year as a tourist for discussions on the project.
De Burgh, born of British parents and brought up in Ireland, is popular in Iran and his Web site message board (www.cdeb.com) has several entries from Iranian fans.
“Iran is definitely one of those countries I would love to visit. Not only for historical reasons but also for the fact that I believe that music is an international language and deserves to be heard all over the world,“ de Burgh replied to one Iranian in a message posted in 2002.
“The head of the music centre of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance has officially announced that there is no problem with holding a joint performance,“ Rajabpour said when asked whether his plan had been approved.

Schedule for the 26th Fajr Theater Festival was announced in a meeting attended by Rahmat Amini, director of students’ experiences section and Nader Borhani-Marand, director of radio and TV plays.
According to IRNA, Amini told the gathering that the main feature of this year’s event will be the participation of some 60 instructors from theatrical faculties who will supervise various sections of the festival.
Commenting on the objectives of the students’ experiences section, he further stated that the section seeks to promote quality among students. All nine works submitted for the students’ experiences section were selected for presentation in the event.
In addition to the nine works, four plays which were produced for Sinaia (Romania Festival) will also be featured at the section.
Sinaia is a thematic festival which focuses on findings of workshops conducted by instructors in cooperation with students dealing with a certain subject.
He referred to the motto for this year’s festival ’Theater for All’, and said that it will be materialized with the assistance of universities and students.
For his part, Borhani-Marand said that radio and TV plays section has been included in the festival for the first time this year.
A total of 64 media production from across the country were submitted to the event of which 49 were from the provinces and the rest from Tehran, he concluded.

A frame from '10+4' directed by Mania Akbari

Latest film by Mania Akbari won the awards for the best film and best directing at the 12th Kerala International Film Festival in India.
According to MNA, the prize for the best work as well as the best director award worth 200,000 rupees were presented to ’10+4’ at the closing ceremony of the event which was held on December 14.
The film also shared the top award of the event, worth of one million rupees, with the Argentine film ’XXY’ directed by Lucia Puenzo.
’10+4’ is the second feature film after ’20 Fingers’, which uses
documentary-drama format to portray the director’s struggle with cancer.
Akbari earlier won the award for the best film from the perspective of young jury for her film ’10+4’ at Nantes Three-Continent International Film Festival in France in November.
The award for the best film worth of 300,000 rupees also went to Puenzo, an Argentine novelist and script writer.
’XXY’ is the dramatic story of a 15-year-old hermaphrodite. She lives with her parents, who have to cope with the challenges of her medical conditions.
The panel of jury presided by Jafar Panahi, a noted Iranian filmmaker, granted its award to ’Happiness’ directed by Abdullah Ouz from Turkey. The film ’Sleepwalking Land’ directed by Terra Sonambula bagged the Federation of International Film Critics’ (FIPRESCI) prize. The NETPAC award for the best Asian film was given to ’Getting Home’ directed by Lou Ye Gui Gen and ’Ore Kadal’ (The Sea Within) by Shyamaprasad bagged the FIPRESCI prize in the Malayalam section.
Ore Kadal also bagged the prize for best Malayalam film. The competition section had more than 150 entries, of which 14 were short-listed for screening at the festival.

Tilework at the Islamic Center Building in Lisbon, Portugal was undertaken by a group of artists from Khorasan Razavi province in northeastern Iran.
Hossein Khajeh-Bidokhti, deputy head of the provincial Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Department, further told IRNA that it took almost a year and a half to complete the project.
“The center, comprising of an altar, portals and two domes, was designed using seven-color Moarraq (inlaid) tiles inspired by Iranian and Islamic architecture,“ he said.
The official added that the center’s portico was decorated with verses from the Holy Qur’an translated in Portuguese, adding that about 500 square meters of tiles were used in the structure.

Three Iranian children won the Rose Plaque of the 35th International Children Fine Art Exhibition in Lidice, the Czech Republic.
Mobina Nabavi, Ali Qorbani and Taraneh Rasapour, members of the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA), received the festivals’ Rose Plaque as well as honorary diplomas, IIDCYA’s Public Relation’s Office said in a news release faxed to Iran Daily.
About 50 countries participated in the 35th round of the festival which focused on the theme of ’Sport’.
Twelve other Iranian children were also awarded the festival’s diploma of honor.

A ceremony to honor Amir Hassan Abedi and Nazir Ahmad Tajlil, who were once pupils of two noted Iranian Persian language and literature professors Badi’ Al-Zaman Forouzanfar and Saeed Nafisi, was held in India.
Director of Persian of Language Research Center in India, Ali Reza Qazveh told Fars news agency that the two personalities were honored at an international seminar to revise Persian references in Indian culture and civilization.
He further said that three books published by the center were also unveiled at the three-day event.
Some 30 articles on Irano-Indian cultural ties in the Persian reference works were presented in the seminar, which was sponsored by the Persian Language Research Center and Delhi University’s Persian Language Department.