The best artworks of Aylan International Cartoon and Illustration Exhibition are on display at Iranian House of Cartoon (IHC) in Tehran.
Launched on Nov. 29, the event follows the online exhibition which was organized by Iran’s Association of Islamic Revolution and Sacred Defense for Visual Arts, IRNA reported.
A total of 202 cartoonists and illustrators from 40 countries took part in the event. While all the received works in two categories of cartoon and illustration were displayed online, the winning artworks are now being showcased at the IHC.
Top three winners of each category have received a statuette and commendation plaque.
Alireza Zakeri from Iran, Jitet Kostana from Indonesia and Dereck Bruno Lopes Teixeira from Brazil were the winners of the cartoon category. And in the illustration category, Marco D’Agostino from Italy, Aristides Esteban Hernandez Guerrero from Cuba and Shahram Shirzadi from Iran got the first three ranks.
A total of 20 artists from Iran, Brazil, Colombia, Poland, Turkey, Italy and Republic of Kosovo have also been honored with a commendation plaque
The exhibition is a humanitarian move in support of the Syrian refugees. The event is named after Aylan Kurdi, the 3-year-old Syrian kid who has become a symbol of the immigration crisis in the Mediterranean and Europe.
Aylan’s unfortunate death shocked the world almost three months ago. On September 2, his body was washed up on a Turkish beach. He was one of the 12 Syrian refugees, including eight children, who drowned that day after their boat sank en route to the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea.
Coast guards found his lifeless body on the shore as if he was asleep after hours of playing, but he was in fact a victim of war. The image showing his body lying face-down on the beach riveted millions across the world, and drew attention to the plight of refugees fleeing conflicts, oppression and terrorism.
The exhibition will run through December 6, at Iranian House of Cartoon, No. 44, W. Golnabi St., Shariati St.
