An exhibition of works by Iranian artists opened on Tuesday in Bulgaria at the country’s Culture Ministry.
According to ISNA, the exhibition has on display 93 works in three categories of miniature, modern art and handicrafts.
The event was inaugurated in a ceremony attended by several cultural figures, including Iranian ambassador to Bulgaria, Habibollah Biazaar, and Iran’s cultural attachŽ in Bulgaria, Ali Aqanouri.
Speaking at the ceremony, Biazaar referred to the 1,000 years of cultural interaction between the two nations and said that Iranian women have made great progress in the field of art following the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Appreciating the efforts of the organizers, he said, “Iranians have a strong aptitude for art.“
Aqanouri further said that Iranian Cultural Center in Sofia took into consideration the artistic activities of Iranian women notably in 2007.
He expressed satisfaction with the Iranian Women Filmmakers Week recently held in the country.
Mahvash Soeheili and Farah Kimia-Qalam are among the artists displaying Calico and inlaid works as well as Iranian art of Khatam (marquetry) at the event.

The 26th Fajr International Film Festival (FIFF), slated for February 1-11, has announced the list of jurors for different sections of the event.
According to IRNA, Masoud Jafari-Jozani, Ahmad Reza Motamedi, Kiumars Pour-Ahmad, Amin Tarokh, Akbar Nabavi, Manouchehr Mohammadi and Ahmad Moradpour, will serve as jurors for the festival’s Iranian Cinema section.
Members of the jury for the international section include Mehdi Hashemi, Mohammad Reza Sharafoddin, Kianoush Ayyari as well as foreign artists such as Indian filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta and Italian director Gian Paolo Cugno.
Iranian filmmaker Nader Talebzadeh and Peter Malone, former president of International Catholic Organization for Cinema and Audiovisuals, are among the jurors for the spiritual section of the festival.
Meanwhile, nominees for the publicity sections have been named in three sections of photography, poster and graphic design.
Heidar Rezaei and Ali Vazirian have been nominated for designing posters of ’Mainline’ and ’God Is Close’, respectively.

Kambiz Derambaksh

An exhibition of paintings by veteran Iranian artist Hassan Hazer-Moshar will be held in Tehran from February 1-5.
According to ISNA, 81-year-old Hazer-Moshar, who has lost one of his eyes and was wounded in World War II and used to paint under Sattarkhan Overpass in the capital four years ago.
One day his talent attracted the attention of the veteran Iranian caricaturist, Kambiz Derambaksh, who frequented the area. Now, he wants to organize an exhibit of his works ranging from his initial works to the latest ones.
Derambakhsh said that painters usually do not work on the streets but Hazer-Moshar painted tableaux on the street which he sold for low prices.
Derambaksh bought his works and collected them. So far, he has organized four exhibitions of his works, first of which was held in Golestan Gallery.
He considers Hazer-Moshar as great discovery. He is a carpenter who has never been to a university. “One day I saw Hazer-Moshar carving a human figure from wood and I proposed him to create statues and he made 20 sculptures of luminaries in one year,“ he said.
Likes of his works are sold for higher prices in European galleries, Derambakhsh concluded.

Iranian Association of Greenery Engineers has joined the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA).
A team of experts headed by IFLA president, Diane Menzies visited Iran on January 25 to become familiar with landscape design in the country, reported IRNA.
The team also toured historical landscape and gardens in Shiraz and Isfahan provinces.
IFLA president delivered a lecture on the academic status of landscape architecture at Shiraz University’s Architecture Faculty.
She also met Isfahan Municipality officials and discussed ways to safeguard the city’s historical landscape.
IFLA, based in France, represents the landscape architectural profession globally, providing leadership and networks supporting the development of the profession and its effective participation in the realization of attractive, equitable and sustainable environments.

Niki Karimi

The 14th International Vesoul Festival of Asian Cinema opened on Tuesday in France with the screening of the Iranian film ’Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame’ by Hana Makhmalbaf.
According to ISNA, the four-member jury of the event also includes noted Iranian actress Niki Karimi.
Some nine films from different countries are participating in the competition section of the six-day festival in which the Iranian film ’Those Three’ by Naqi Nemati will compete with entries from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, the Philippines and India.
Other Iranian films to be screened in the festival are ’Dan’ by Abolfazl Jalili which will take part in the Asian films review section along with 12 other films. The young viewers section of the event will feature ’White Kite’ by Jafar Panahi and ’One Day a Crow’ by Abdollah Alimorad. The film ’Several Days Later’ by Karimi will also be screened at the event.
Vesoul Film Festival is being held in the competition and non-competition sections to present the latest works by Asian cineastes for the European audience.
Based on the schedule of Vesoul Festival, the film ’Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame’ by Hana Makhmalbaf will be screened on January 30 while ’Several Days Later’ by Karimi will be featured a day later.
’White Kite’ and ’Dan’ will be shown on February 1 while the film ’Those Three’ is to be screened on February 3.
Karimi who has so far been included in the panel of juries for important festivals such as Locarno, Cannes and Berlin is among the few directors who have served on the jury of international Grade A events.

The Grammy Awards will be in full voice next month, with the striking writers guild agreeing Monday to allow its members to work on the show.
The Writers Guild of America gave its blessing last week to a picket-free Grammys. Now that the guild’s board of directors has decided to sign an interim agreement for the Feb. 10 ceremony, the Grammys will escape the fate that befell this month’s Golden Globes, reported AP.
The Globes were stripped of stars and pomp when the guild wouldn’t agree to an interim deal and the Screen Actors Guild encouraged its members to boycott the ceremony, which was reduced to a news conference.
Payment for projects distributed via the Internet is a central issue in the contract dispute between the writers union and the alliance that represents studios.
Informal talks began last week between the union and several studio chiefs in an effort to resolve the nearly three-month-old strike.

International seminar themed ’Role of Education, Sciences, Culture and Communications in Consolidating Islamic Solidarity’ will be held in Tehran on February 20-21.
According to IRNA, director general of Scientific and International Cooperation and secretary general of Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) Commission in Iran told reporters Monday that the event, which will be attended by foreign and domestic experts, seeks to strengthen Islamic solidarity in the Year of National Unity and Islamic Solidarity.
Gholamreza Karimi further said that a total of 312 articles have been submitted from Iran and foreign countries to the secretariat of the event. Of this, 82 articles, 53 domestic and 29 foreign articles, have been selected for presentation at the event.
Some 21 papers from Islamic and non-Islamic countries have been forwarded to the event, he said, adding that several officials from ISESCO and Organization of the Islamic Countries (OIC) have been invited to attend.
Karimi added that so far, a total of 20 conferences on Islamic unity have been organized by World Assembly for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought but more remains to be done in the field of education, culture, sciences and communications.
Bringing the Muslim students’ mentalities closer to one another is another objective of the event, he said, noting that during the event, Islamic countries will be asked to delete negative materials about other Muslim states in textbooks if there are any.
ISESCO affiliated to OIC is a specialized organization which was established in Morocco in 1982 to meet Muslim countries’ ideals in the fields of education, sciences, culture and communications.
It currently has 50 members and Iran joined it in 1982.

An exhibition of photos by five Iranian photographers titled ’Made in China’ is underway in Khark Gallery is undrewayand will continue until tomorrow.
A press release faxed to Iran Daily by the Public Relations Department of the gallery said the event features works by Farnaz Monajazi, Amir Hossein Arab-Kheradmand, Simin Jonoud, Sanaz Forouzanfar and Zohreh Birjandian. They are students who have depicted their visit to China in 52 photographs.
Khark Gallery is located in #61, Khark St., Enqelab Ave., Tehran.