A Belgian artist drawing a caricature of Iranian culture minister during his visit to the biennial on Saturday.

Seventh Caricature Biennial is currently underway here with the participation of foreign entries.
The event, which has attracted a large number of visitors, is being recorded as a landmark given the great public enthusiasm.
Observers believe that the improvement in the quality of entries and the diversity of the caricatures at the event, particularly those in the domestic section, have greatly contributed to the large public turnout.
This year’s biennial is showcasing 936 caricatures from 67 countries of which 555 are placed in three categories: Figures, Topical and Special Subject which focuses on old people.
Visual arts experts believe that the current biennial is extraordinary since the subjects are independent of news items and have focused on satire and painting--unlike the earlier rounds which mainly centered on news items.
According to Iran Daily correspondent, those who were present at the amphitheater of Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts to elect a secretary for the biennial and follow up the process of organizing the biennial, are now witnessing the fruits of the endeavors of the event’s secretariat.
The inaugural ceremony of the biennial was also unprecedented given the large attendance of enthusiasts who were mostly art students at universities, the youth or people from the middle age group who are interested in caricature and painting.
The variety of caricatures is to the extent that certain works are regarded as the main subject of the biennial. Some caricaturists are veterans while others are young people who have recently taken up this branch of the art.
One section of the biennial has been reserved for satirical publications including Gol-Agha, Kayhan-e Caricature, ’Satire and Caricature’.
In another section, managers of the pavilions for the websites ’Iran Cartoon’, ’Hadi Tunes’ and ’Cartoon Iran’ discussed the themes of the entries with visitors.
The pavilion of Saba Gallery at the event was rated ’five-star’ by Fan-o-funny website among 120 similar events.
Secretary of the seventh biennial Masoud Shojaei Tabatabaei told Iran Daily that prominent Iranian and foreign caricaturists are taking part in the event adding that the five-star title has been given to Tehran biennial thanks to the successful history of the event in the past sixth rounds and the credibility of the artists taking part in the event.
He said that the event planned to commemorate two veteran caricaturists Irandokht Mohassess and Gholamali Latifi.
He said that the festival’s budget is one billion rials of which 600 million rials will be paid to the organizers and 400 million rials will be spent on hosting foreign guests.
Meanwhile, veteran caricature Gholamali Latifi recalled that in the past, caricatures were only sketched in black and white, but, now they are in full color and are being printed in newspapers and publications.
The section of Figures depicts caricatures of well-known cinema artistes such as Al Pacino, Nicole Kidman, Antonio Banderas as well as Atilla Pesyani from Iran. Some political figures are also the subjects of the caricatures.

Parviz Parastouei in a scene from 'Transit CafŽ'

’Transit CafŽ’, a film by noted Iranian director Kambouzia Partovi received wide acclamation in film festivals last year and was screened in several movie theaters in Tehran early November. It is among the films which scored box-office success.
The Persian daily Etemad in a report said that the film is about a young lady ’Reyhan’ who decided to run a cafŽ she inherited from her husband. The cafŽ is somewhere on the border between Iran and Turkey and truck drivers often frequent the cafŽ.
Her late husband’s brother opposed her decision to run the cafŽ. On the other hand, according to a custom, Reyhan is expected to marry the brother of her dead husband which she refuses. So, she has to put up with numerous difficulties.
Partovi’s earlier films ’Golnar’ and ’Singing Cat’ were also box office hits and he is regarded as a credible filmmaker. He has also written film scripts of ’Circle’, ’Crimson Gold’, directed by Jafar Panahi, ’I’m Taraneh, 15 year-old’ and ’I Saw Your Daddy Last Night, Aida’ directed by Rasoul Sadr Ameli, all of which were acclaimed in different film festivals.
’Transit CafŽ’ is a delicate work by Partovi which is reminiscent of the masterpiece scenarios he has written so far. It is of eastern origin and depicts eastern lifestyle and culture. The film conveys feelings of nostalgia. Strange ideas are presented in the films with an air of surprise. The film looks like Eastern European films and at the same time presents the Azari culture of northwestern Iran. Azari culture of the characters is evident from the behavior of the cast. For example, the brother of Reyhan’s late husband is depicted as a greatly prejudiced person.
Actor Parviz Parastouei and actress Fereshteh Sadr Orafaei-- the two main stars in the film--have done a good job.
Parastouei, who is well-known for his magnificent acting in the film, once again came to the limelight for his role in ’Transit CafŽ’ for successfully portraying a man with prejudice and sympathetic attitude to Reyhan with a desire to marry her.
Sadr Orafaei also won the Crystal Simorgh (a fabled bird) award for the best role in the film.
“We should appreciate Partovi once again for his worthy film and his successful selection of the actors and actresses,“ concluded the report.

TEHRAN, Nov. 28--Ancient potteries from Isfahan’s historical Jame’ Mosque which are being classified and assessed by a team of Iranian and Italian archeologists will soon be handed over to National Museum of Iran, reported ISNA.
Head of the team studying the cultural heritage of Isfahan’s Jame’ Mosque, Fariba Saeedi said that both Iranian and Italian are still working on the classification of potteries which were unearthed from the site. The first stage of the work will be completed by March 2007, she added.
She said that in the first stage, pieces of pottery with particular features are being separated from ordinary ones.
Saeedi said that out of 500,000 pieces of potteries, some 70,000 pieces have been separated so far. Of this, about 2,000 or 3,000 pieces are unique with special designs belonging to specific periods of history.
Iran National Museum will hold an exhibit for several months starting December 4 to display potteries, glass ware, tile works and plaster works which were transferred to the museum from Isfahan Jame’ Mosque.
The historic mosque was built in 156 AH (eighth century AD) and underwent repairs during the Saljuqid and Safavid eras. Some archeologists believe that construction of the mosque dated back to before the advent of Islam.

TEHRAN, Nov. 28--A one-week festival will be held at Vahdat Hall from December 3 to mark the death anniversary of the great Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), announced a renowned Iranian musician Loris Tjeknovarian here on Saturday, according to Fars news agency.
Speaking at a news conference on the festival which was also attended by Alireza Shafaqinejad, leader of Nouri Choral Group and a representative of the Austrian Cultural-Artistic Association, Tjeknovarian noted that commemoration ceremonies for Mozart are held world over each year both on the Austrian composer’s birth and death anniversaries. Ceremonies will be held worldwide in late January 2006 to mark Mozart’s 250th birth anniversary.
“We will organize a festival in honor of Mozart on his death anniversary for seven nights to the accompaniment of Nouri Choral Group,“ Tjeknovarian said, adding that the event will be held in two sections.
Programs to commemorate Mozart will be held in the first section while two of his works, including ’Requiem’, will be performed in the second section every other night, he noted.
Turning to the choice of Nouri Choral Group for the performance, he said, “At first, I thought that a choral group from Austria and Armenia should be invited to perform Mozart’s ’Requiem’. Then Shafaqinejad invited us to listen to his group’s performance of the piece, which influenced me. That’s the reason I selected the group to perform Mozart’s pieces.“
He declared, “It is a matter of pride for us to see that a choral group from our country can hold programs at the international level.“
Shafaqinejad told the same gathering that Nouri Choral Group which was named after Mohammad Nouri, who tutored the members of the band, began its activities in 2001 and has so far organized more than 30 or 40 concerts.

Morteza Momayyez

TEHRAN, Nov. 28--A memorial service for the late Morteza Momayyez, father of Iran’s graphic arts, will be held here at the Contemporary Arts Museum on Thursday, CHN reported.
A member of Graphic Designers Association, Amrollah Farhadi, said that at the event renowned cultural figures Mohammad Ehsaei, Aydin Aghdashlou and Alireza Samiei-Azar will eulogize the late artist.
Meanwhile, head of Arts Academy, Mir Hossein Mousavi, has said that a memorial service for Momayyez will also be held at the academy.
Momayyez passed away in a Tehran hospital on Saturday and was laid to rest in Baghban village of Kordan in Karaj, Tehran province.
Momayyez, who was born in 1936 in Tehran, joined the teaching staff at Tehran University’s Faculty of Fine Arts in 1969. He became a member of AGI in 1975 at the invitation of Milton Glaser, Walter Allner and Roman Cieslewicz, and was the chairman of Iranian Graphic Designers Society from 1988 to 2004.
He was a recipient of the special ICOGRADA Life Time Achievements Award, and had a large retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art, displaying his posters, book and magazine covers, logos but also paintings, photographs and installations. The exhibition was part of a show entitled ’The Graphic Designers from Three Continents’.
Momayyez’s works were displayed in 74 common exhibitions in Iran, Germany, France, America, Belgium, Finland and Yugoslavia. The logo of the City of Tehran was designed by him.
Last year, he received Iran’s top medal of art from the then president Seyyed Mohammad Khatami and was also selected as one of Iran’s Lasting Figures, a project started some years ago to recognize the outstanding scholars of Iran in the scientific, cultural, and artistic fields.