The Second Monotheistic Religions Photo Biennial concluded on Tuesday after announcing the winners.
According to ISNA, the event was co-sponsored by Tehran Municipality and Imam Ali (AS) Museum of Religious Arts.
The first prize, a cash award of $7,000, went to Ronak Sadat Moshiri while the second and third prizes were given to Mahkameh Sha’bani and Ladan Asgarkhani who received cash awards of $5,000 and $3,000, respectively.
Mitra Abdollahi, Monireh Mansouri and Sahar Lellahi, received the contest’s plaque of honor, and Vahid Chamani was presented the museums’ special award of $5,000.
Members of the jury included Mahnoush Moshiri, Mohammad Ali Bani-Asadi as well as three foreign artists.
Meanwhile, Mojtaba Aqaei, secretary of the event, elaborated on the programs of the contest.
Four exhibitions, a workshop on illustration, an international congress as well as a film screening section, were on the agenda of the biennial.
Ali Akbar Ershad, a member of Supreme Council for Cultural Revolution, who attended the event, called on Tehran Municipality’s Cultural-Artistic Organization to organize the Monotheistic Religions Award as an official award nationwide.
“Art is the most expressive language to convey religious values,“ he said.
The first edition of the event, which focused on poster designing, was held in 2006 and was named after Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), with the aim of highlighting the role of art in boosting belief in God.
The third round of the award has been devoted to photography.

Films to be featured at the competition section of the 26th Fajr International Film Festival will be screened in the reconstructed Azadi Cinema which was razed to the ground in a fire in March 1997.
Announcing this, managing director of Cultural Spaces Company affiliated to Tehran Cultural Artistic Organization Akbar Tashakkori-Nia told MNA that Azadi Cinema as the symbol of Iranian cinema industry will screen the films from February 1-11.
Thus, the cinema hall will be inaugurated ahead of the schedule and Tehranis can watch the films there.
Tashakkori-Nia further announced that 11 cinematic complexes will be set up in Tehran this year.
So far, two campuses have been established in the eighth and eleventh municipal districts of Tehran.

A scene from Death and the Poet

Iranian play ’Death and the Poet’ written by Naghmeh Samini and directed by Kiumars Moradi won the special statuette at the Indian Bahamatra Theater Festival.
According to ISNA, the play was performed by a theater group named ’Experience’ during its fourth presence in the event, which is sponsored by the Indian National School of Drama (NSD).
The play ’Death and Poet’ was first staged in Mumbai on January 13 and three days later in New Delhi. It was warmly welcomed by Indians.
Moradi said that one of the reasons for the enthusiasm shown in the play by the Indian audience is the English footers for the play, which made communication easier.
They describe the play as a work beyond time and place, he noted. Moradi also said that an Indian documentary maker plans to produce a film on Experience Group.

Establishment of cultural councils among member states of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) is an undeniable need, deputy minister of culture and Islamic guidance, Mohsen Parviz said here.
Addressing Tehran-based ECO ambassadors, he invited their respective countries to participate in the International Packaging and Printing Exhibition set for later this month. The five-day exposition to be held in Tehran opens Jan. 29, the ECO Cultural Institute (ECI) Public Relations Office reported in a fax sent to Iran Daily on Wednesday.
Dr. Parviz, in charge of the ministry’s cultural affairs, called for expansion of cooperation among ECO states in different spheres including encouraging cultural tours among the 10-nation regional grouping.
Head of ECI Dr. Mohammad Rajabi told the same gathering that Iran’s School Textbooks’ Organization annually publishes millions of textbooks for Tajik and Afghan students in the framework of ECO cultural interaction. Like in Iran, Persian is the official language in Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
The meeting of the senior envoys was attended by the director general of the Foreign Ministry’s ECO Department, Morteza Damanpak and representatives of Iran’s Union of Printing Houses.
Following the meeting, the diplomats toured the special textbooks’ organization and the Ghazzali Film Studios.
Founded in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey, ECO expanded in 1992 when seven new states including Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan joined the intergovernmental body.
The steadily emerging organization has a mandate to promote economic, technical and cultural collaboration among the member states. In recent years, the Tehran-based ECO focused attention on augmenting meaningful regional cooperation in the key energy, trade, transport, and telecommunication spheres.

Environmental art in Persian Gulf

The 15th Iranian Environmental Art Festival in Persian Gulf themed ’Opposition to War and Militarization of the Region’ will be held in Hormuz Island with the participation of artists from the US, Britain and Germany.
According to ISNA, a total of 40 domestic and foreign artists are participating in the event slated to begin on Saturday.
Benjamin Huet, a British sculptor, Barbara Rox, an American environmental artist and poet, Zibil Kalf, a German composer will attend the festival.
Noted Iranian sculptor, Ahmad Nadalian was in charge of selecting the participants at the event.
Some eight environmental festivals have been held so far. Earlier events were held in Pardis Polour in Tehran, three in Kerman, Shahroud (Semnan province), Zahedan (Sistan-Baluchestan), three in Bandar Abbas, Hormuz Island and Sheikh Andarabi (all in Hormuzgan province).
At the event, artists will present their works independently or in groups.
Nadalian said that in the past three decades, millions of innocent lives were lost in wars which took place in the region.

Music works of recently deceased Dotar (Iranian string music instrument) player Qorban Soleimani has been compiled and will be released soon.
Announcing this, Reza Mahdavi, director of Art Bureau’s Music Center, told Fars news agency, that Iranian musician and composer, Mohammad Reza Darvishi, has collected the works. “We should decide on whether to release the works as single tracks or albums,“ he said.
He added that although he was born in Khorasan Razavi province, Soleimani belongs to all Iranians and must be duly commemorated.
Turning to the instrumentalist’s international fame, Mahdavi said, “A researcher Ali Bayani introduced Soleimani and a number of indigenous musicians, namely Shir Mohammad Espandar and Shahmirza Moradi, to Avignon Festival in France, where they had a well-received presentation.“
Mahdavi noted that Soleimani attached special value to morality, and mystical and religious paradigms were among the other traits of the late maestro.
Soleimani was a member of the panel of jury at the Fajr Music Festival in 1991.
He died at the age of 85 and was buried in his garden in Aliabad Village near Qouchan.

A photo competition titled ’We Can’ will open in Mehr Gallery of Artistic Bureau on Saturday in recognition of photographers who have featured the capabilities of the country in their works.
Announcing this, director of Photographers House, Rasoul Olyazadeh said that preliminary steps to hold the great cultural project was taken earlier in the current Iranian year (started March 2007) to portray national potentials. Later, a call-up was issued inviting all photographers to submit their works on the theme ’Beautiful Iran-- Powerful and Positive’ to the secretariat of the contest, www.aftab.ir reported.
Stating that out of more than 1,000 entries, some 58 works were selected for the display section of the event, he further said that they will be exhibited in Photographers House until February 7.
He further said that four photos have been chosen as the top works and their creators will be honored at the closing ceremony.
Medals won by Iranian youth in scientific and sports fields, their presence in social and political arenas, advances in technology, development and reconstruction of the country, notably following the Iraq-imposed war (1980-88) and efforts to access new technologies were among the subjects featured in the photos forwarded to the event, Olyazadeh concluded.