Shahram Nazeri

Cavalier Badge for Literature and Art ( chevalier des arts et Lettres), which was presented by the French government to noted Iranian singer of traditional songs Shahram Nazeri, is the highest French award in the field of culture and literature.
According to MNA, the award drew comments from artists as well as a number of officials. Most of the artists felicitated Nazeri on the achievement with Hossein Alizadeh, a noted vocalist, being the first to do so.
Chairman of Iran’s Music House Board of Directors Mohammad Sarir said that the award provided an incentive for young people involved in the field of music to progress.
He said that each Iranian artist who wins acclaimed international cultural badge is a source of pride for lovers of Iranian culture.
Such awards can make the youth believe that Iranian artists are capable of attaining international success in the field of art, he said.
Majid Entezami, a composer, criticized the apathy of officials towards Nazeri’s award, saying that the badge presented to him in recognition of his lifelong endeavor is not something of meager value. Officials should have congratulated him on the occasion, he said, adding that when an athlete receives an international medal, he/she receives numerous messages of congratulation.
A theater director Pari Saberi, herself a recipient of the badge in 2004, said that the award conveyed the message of the Iranian culture to the world.
Hoisting the banner of Iranian art and culture, especially at this juncture, is commendable and should be valued, she said, adding that such awards imbue self-confidence in the youth to continue the path of such figures. Meanwhile, Loris Tjeknovarian, a veteran composer, said that awarding the French Literature and Art Cavalier Badge to Nazeri served as a bridge to forge links between Iranian and French cultures.
“For this very reason I believe that Nazeri contributed a great deal to Iranian culture,“ he concluded.
The French government presented Nazeri the Chevalier de la LŽgion d’Honneur medal, one of the most coveted trophies in the world of art and culture, at a ceremony in Paris on September 29.
He was given the award in recognition of the meticulous attention he has paid to musical interpretation and vocalization of transcendent lyrics of Iranian poet and mystic Molana Jalaleddin Rumi.

The 44th Golden Pen of Belgrade, the 9th International Biennial of Illustration 2007, will be held this November at Belgrade’s Progress Gallery with the active participation of Iranian illustrators.
According to MNA, Serbian Association of Applied Arts Artists and Designers as the event’s organizer, selected works by 71 Iranian illustrators for publication in an illustrated catalogue of the exhibition.
The exhibition’s jury, including Farideh Khalatbaree, will select top works from November 15-18.
Khalatbaree, director of Shabaviz Publications, has also been named a member of the jury of the 14th Teatrio International Competition of Illustrations (TICI), to be held in Italy, in 2008.
Iran has so far received five Golden Pens at the event.

A painting exhibition featuring works by contemporary Iranian artists will be held at Tehran’s Nar Gallery from October 27 until November 7.
The exhibition is to feature 29 oil and acrylic paintings as well as monoprints, reported ISNA.
Artists whose works will be displayed at the event include Iraj Eskandari, Taha Behbahani, Mohammad Ali Taraqqi-Jah, Kourosh Shishegaran and Mohammad Ebrahim Jafari.
Meanwhile, a solo exhibition by Sousan Hashemian will be held at Elaheh Gallery on October 29.
Elaheh Gallery is located on 47, Golfam Street, Africa Avenue, Tehran.

Selected works for Book City’s Story Award will be translated into different languages.
Announcing this, secretary of the second round of the award, Mohammad Hassan Shahsavari told MNA that the award was instituted to promote short story writing.
“Iranian short story should be appreciated not because I believe this genre of writing is superior to novel; rather because it contributes more to the development of contemporary Iranian fiction than novel,“ he said, adding that short story can be translated and published speedily.
Commenting on the success of Iranian short story and novel, Shahsavari said that some say that since short story is in some ways closer to poetry and Iranian poetry has a long history, it is more successful than novel.
On the other hand, some believe that story writing is not viewed as a profession and maintain that it takes at least one year to write a novel and nobody in Iran earn a living by writing, he said.
“This is while some people believe that since novel is an urban genre and our society has not yet reached the zenith of urbanized culture, remarkable success has not been achieved in the field,“ he said.
Turning to the role of Book City Institute in organizing the award, Shahsavari added that it has been agreed that at least one session on short story be convened each month at the institute. The institute is more interested about internationalizing Iranian short stories, he concluded.

An Austrian quartet performed a concert in Hafez Hall of Shiraz, Fars province on Tuesday.
According to ISNA, the program included pieces by Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and other contemporary composers.
The group, known as the Wiener Zither Quartet, includes four women musicians playing the Zither, a traditional string instrument common in German-speaking Alpine Europe which greatly resembles the dulcimer (Santour) and can be categorized under the same branch of instruments.
As in other stringed instruments, acoustic and electric forms exist; in the acoustic version, the strings are stretched across the length of the soundbox, and neither version has a neck. A musician that plays them is called zitherist or zither player.
The group also plans to perform the first autumn classical concert in Tehran’s Niavaran Cultural Complex on October 25.

Fifth Handicrafts Exhibition attended by craftsmen from 11 provinces opened in Khalkhal, Ardebil province, on Monday.
According to IRNA, the event features the capabilities of artists from the provinces of Ardebil, East and West Azarbaijan, Qazvin, Tehran, Kermanshah, Zanjan, Hamedan, Gilan, Mazandaran and Golestan in 40 pavilions.
Handicrafts on display include Jajim (a traditional handwoven floorcloth), Kelim, Wood Moarraq, miniature, pottery and polished gems.
Deputy head of the provincial Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Department for handicrafts affairs, Jalil Jabbari said at the inaugural ceremony of the event that marketing, sales, promoting culture of purchasing handicrafts and supporting craftsmen are among the objectives of the exhibit.
Describing handicrafts as symbolizing the cultural identity of their respective regions, he called for increasing state support for those involved in the field so as to revive the industry.
Stating that some 12,000 people in Khalkhal are engaged in handicrafts, he said that of this figure, 4,500 craftsmen are supported by the department and 2,500 are undergoing training courses.
Granting soft loans to Khalkhali craftsmen are among the activities of the department, Jabbari concluded.

For centuries, the ’Mona Lisa’ has beguiled art buffs unable to resist speculating on its origins and meaning. Now a French inventor claims to have some answers, including the fate of the enigmatic subject’s famously missing eyebrows and lashes.
Parisian engineer Pascal Cotte says his ultra-detailed digital scans of the painting allow him to effectively burrow through layers of paint to ’see’ into the past of Leonardo da Vinci’s 16th-century portrait of a Florentine merchant’s wife.
The world’s most famous painting originally included both brows and lashes, according to Parisian engineer Pascal Cotte, who says his 240-megapixel scans of the painting reveal traces of Mona Lisa’s left brow, obliterated by long-ago restoration efforts, reported AP.
“With just one photo you go deeper into the construction of the painting and understand that Leonardo was a genius,“ Cotte said at the US debut of an exhibit detailing his findings.
As a boy growing up in Paris in the 1960s, Cotte said, he spent hours staring at the ’Mona Lisa’ the first time he saw it at the Louvre. He later used his scientific training in light and optics to develop a camera that would let him examine the object of his obsession.
Cotte, 49, estimates he has spent 3,000 hours analyzing the data from the scans he made of the painting in the Louvre’s laboratory three years ago.
Using sensors to detect light from both the visible spectrum and the infrared and ultraviolet ranges invisible to the human eye, Cotte said, his camera allowed him to make these and other findings:
1. Da Vinci changed his mind about the position of two fingers on the subject’s left hand. 2. Her face was originally wider and the smile more expressive than da Vinci ultimately painted them. 3. She holds a blanket that has all but faded from view today.
Cotte said his analyses also revealed what he believes are the painting’s colors as they looked on da Vinci’s easel.
Age, varnish and restorations performed by later conservators’ hands have resulted in a painting that, in its permanent home behind bulletproof glass at the Louvre, appears saturated with heavy greens, yellows and browns.
Working with his 22-gigabyte digital photo, made using 13 different color filters rather than the typical three or four found in consumer-grade digital cameras, Cotte created a reproduction of the Mona Lisa with the light blues and brilliant whites he thinks represent the painting in its original form.

Noted Iranian instructor will review the role of Martin Heidegger, an influential German philosopher, in Iranian philosophical thought at the Center for Theosophy and Philosophy Researchers on Wednesday.
According to www.valselit.com, Bijan Abdelkarimi will also deal with mystical interpretations about his thought. The lecture is part of a series of programs focusing on the general issues in the center.
The center has more than 64 permanent members and over 750 ad hoc members who aim to promote philosophical and theosophical concepts in the country.