The closing ceremony of the 8th edition of the Fajr International Visual Art Festival was held on Saturday (Feb 27) at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall by awarding the winners in various categories.
Veteran artists Mahmoud Farshchian, master of Persian classic painting and miniature, Nasrollah Efjei, veteran calligrapher, Lili Terian, Armenian-Iranian veteran sculptor, Fakhreddin Fakhreddini, acclaimed photographer, graphist Mostafa Abdollahi, skilled caricaturist Bahman Rezaei, outstanding painter Naser Palangi, and illustrator Mohammadreza Dadgar were among the distinguished art personalities who were conferred commendation plaque and golden statue of the festival.
‘Fajr and National Art’ was one of the memorable visual art shows held at Niavaran Cultural Center, that featured over 65 works of calligraphy and Persian miniatures by artists belonging to different generations in both contemporary and classic artworks in various styles, Honaronline reported.
Zahra Pazouki, Zeinab Shahi and Noushin Nazari won the best painting award and the best calligraphy prize went to Mir Heidar Mousavi, Habib Ramezanpour and Mostafa Abedini in this category.
In ‘Iran’s Contemporary Art and Globalization,’ a section on art research papers, the jury shortlisted 51 articles from among the 131 submitted. ‘Derivation’ by Seyed Mahmoud Eftekhari won the award for the best article.
The ‘Documentary’ section hosted 16 films in the competition section and 9 in the non-competition section. ‘A Horse that Doesn’t Neigh’ by Mohammadreza Eini won the best documentary award and Davoud Malek-Hassani, the best recording award for his ‘Secret of the Soil’. The best editing award went to ‘My Empty House’ by Mohsen Kordestani.
The 8th edition was inaugurated on January 29 at the Saba Institute of Culture and Arts. Several art shows are still underway at the festival venues in Tehran and will continue receiving visitors until March 7.
In ‘The Treasure of Heaven’, over 40 paintings, calligraphies, illuminated manuscript and works of ‘Flower and Bird’ (a special Iranian painting style) were displayed at the Palestine Museum of Contemporary Art, in collaboration with the Malek National Library and Museum of Tehran.
The Mexico Art Week was the most highlighted program at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMoCA), presenting to visitors pre-colonial Mexican art in three mediums of sculpture, photo and gravure by veteran Mexican artists.
In view of the changes made to the festival procedures allowing artists to create works in the medium of their choice, 105 artists from 40 countries including Tunisia, Pakistan, Turkey, Croatia, Ukraine, Italy, Serbia, Cuba, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, the US, Bulgaria, Russia, Romania, Columbia, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Peru and Germany participated.
Multi-Dimensional Works
“This year’s edition presented multi-dimensional artworks, created with various mediums. By removing interdisciplinary barriers, 205 items of visual media works were selected to be exhibited from the 10,000 works of art received,” said festival secretary Mojtaba Aqaei.
The ceremony was attended by Ali Jannati, minister of culture and Islamic Guidance, Ali Moradkhani, his deputy for art affairs, Majid Mollanorouzi, director of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art and artists.
With the collaboration of the Ministry of Culture, Iran will hold art fairs in seven world museums, said Mollanorouzi.
According to the memorandums of understanding signed, Iran will host exhibitions in Berlin State Museum, Italy’s National Museum of Contemporary Art (Maxxi) and participate in several other world cultural events, including Design Triennale of Milan and Venice Biennale of Architecture.
