Iranian ensemble to perform in France

Iran’s renowned Nour music ensemble is scheduled to perform medieval songs at the Conques and Moissac festivals in southern France.

Led by the celebrated Iranian composer Christophe Rezai, the ensemble will perform pieces from their first album, ALBA, along with their Cantigas de Santa Maria repertoire.

The Cantigas de Santa Maria (songs to the Virgin Mary), composed of 420 poems written in Galician-Portuguese, are considered one of the largest collections of monophonic (solo) songs from the Middle Ages.

The Conques and Moissac music festivals are held every summer in southern France, where international participants present baroque and medieval music.

The Nour ensemble consists of Iranian and French artists. The group’s works are a combination of traditional Persian and European music.

TE/HGH/HAR

Berlin subway to exhibit Iranian cartoon

A German online cartoon community is to display a cartoon by an Iranian award winning artist throughout the Berlin subway system.

Toonpool.com has scheduled to display Firing by Javad Alizadeh on 4,000 monitors throughout the Berlin subway system all day on June 19, ISNA reported.

Toonpool, a website where cartoonists can upload their art, is a central location to display, browse and share cartoons and caricatures.

The public can find more details about the artist and samples of his artwork on www.javadalizadeh.com.

NAT/MR/GM

Marseille filmfest to screen Life

The 19th Marseille International Documentary Film Festival will be the venue for a screening of Life by Iran’s Mahmoud Kiyani Falavarjani.

The semi-fictional documentary is the only representative of the Iranian cinema to be screened as part of the French festival’s international program.

Life depicts the daily routine of an elderly photographer who passes the time by going to local parks and taking photographs. The man eventually begins to snap images of a certain young woman in his ‘mind’s eye’ only to believe the images have come to life during an illness.

This year, the festival celebrates the ‘marriage’ between documentary and fiction aesthetics.

“Marriage projects confident union, the preservation of diversities, and an increase of wonderful complexities,” said festival director Jean-Pierre Rehm on the festival’s official website.

The 2008 Marseille International Documentary Film Festival runs from July 2 to 7 and its international program will include 33 documentaries from 19 countries.

NAT/MR/GM

13 Iranian films at Austrian filmfest

Austria’s 36th Festival of Nations in the city of Ebensee will serve as the venue for 13 short films from the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The films representing Iran will compete with more than 900 entries from 50 countries.

Among the films to represent Iran at the international festival are Scarecrow and Visit by Nasser Nasserpour, Escape by Salman Bahonar, Mr. Stalin’s Beloved by Nima Baqeri and Empty Fish Bowl by Atefeh Khademolreza.

The festival jury consists of filmmakers from Austria, Belgium, Switzerland and the Czech Republic.

Austria’s 36th Festival of Nations will run from June 15 to 21.

NAT/MR/BGH

Safavid coins found in charity box

Five silver coins belonging to the Safavid era have been found in a public charity box and were handed over to authorities in Tehran.

No one knows just how these antique coins ended up in the charity box, which makes the discovery all the more amazing, but wherever they came from the coins have now ended their journey and are in the hands of Cultural Heritage officials who will preserve them as relics of Iran’s great Safavid era.

Elsewhere in Tehran another sixteen silver and bronze Sassanid, Safavid and Parthian coins have also been found and turned over to the Culture and Heritage society.

FBA/MMN

‘The Wall’ to be screened in Taormina

Italy’s prestigious Taormina Film Festival is scheduled to screen The Wall by renowned Iranian director Mohammad Ali Talebi.

The Wall is an intimate portrait of a stunt motorcyclist and his family. When the man is injured during a performance, his son and daughter try to take his place by performing the dangerous stunts themselves.

Organizers of the Taormina Film Festival say the event will try to ‘remain true’ to the view of the artists whose works are featured at the festival and will present films across various categories, including a focus on the Mediterranean region.

Iran buries Apadana Palace pedestals

Iranian archeologists have buried the pedestals of Apadana Palace’s eastern gateway in order to protect them from further damage.

Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization conducted the project to protect the ancient pedestals from further environmental damage and vandalism.

The project was carried out following requests by a number of cultural heritage associations including the Susa Cultural Heritage Foundation.

Apadana Palace, located in Iran’s ancient city of Susa was built by the Achaemenid king, Darius the Great.

The palace previously had four pedestals, two of which still stand, bearing cuneiform inscriptions on three sides in ancient Persian, Elamite and Akkadian.

TE/HGH

Iran to laser scan Khark petroglyph

Iranian experts are slated to laser scan the vandalized Khark inscription to determine the exact amount of the damage inflicted on it.

“Khark petroglyph has 20 signs or letters and only three of them have been damaged,” said Nasrollah Ebrahimi, an archeologist with Bushehr’s cultural office.

“The 20 signs are inscribed as five lines, which can be translated into 5 or 6 Persian words. The third line has suffered the most damage,” he added.

Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization is slated to open an office on Khark Island and establish a security guard center near the petroglyph.

The 2,400-year-old vandalized Achaemenid inscription was found during a road construction operation on Khark Island. Archeologists believe the petroglyph proves Iran’s sovereignty over the Persian Gulf throughout history.

The ancient Persian inscription reads, “This region was barren. I brought happiness and comfort and provided the king with water wells.”

TE/HGH

Iran creates novel Shahnameh images

Iranian artists have created novel Islamic images of Shahnameh, the country’s epic masterpiece by the prominent Persian poet Ferdowsi.

“The images portray the spiritual themes of Shahnameh and its humanitarian and divine concepts,” said head of Khorasan Razavi’s cultural office, Abolfazl Mokarramifar.

“Shahnameh illustrations have always been narrative and this is the first time that a thematic image of the work is presented,” he added.

Ferdowsi’s magnum opus, Shahnameh (The Book of Kings), is among the classics of Persian epic poetry, which recounts Iran’s mythical and historical past.

The book is unique as it was written when Arabic was the main scientific and literary language of Iran.

TE/HGH

Iran commemorates Hadi Shafaieh

Iran’s Art Bureau has held a ceremony to commemorate the father of modern Iranian photography, Hadi Shafaieh at the Mehr Gallery.

The event was attended by a number of distinguished artists, including Asqar Bichareh, Keramat Manzouri, Mohammad Mehdi Rahimian and Mohammad Sattari.

The organizers had a telephone conversation with Hadi Shafaieh, who currently lives in the US. He expressed regret over not being able to attend the ceremony.

Shafaieh has worked in numerous fields, including commercial and industrial photography, but he is better known for his portraits of renowned Iranian artists, writers and poets.

Hadi Shafaieh taught photography at several major universities in Iran and published numerous articles and two books called Photography and The Art and Science of Photography.

TE/HGH