(Photo by Mojtaba Mohammadi)

Gilan Rural Heritage Museum is among tourist attractions during Norouz (New Iranian Year), to start March 21.

Persian Artworks Heading to UAE

A collection of artworks created by the veteran Iranian artists Parviz Kalantari and Ali Shirazi will be showcased at the RIRA Gallery in Dubai.
The exhibition titled Lines and Links is to display those works of the Iranian masters which have not yet been exhibited, Mehr News Agency reported.
Some 12 paintings created by Kalantari and seven calligraphic paintings by Shirazi have been selected to adorn the gallery.
Shirazi’s works depict the aesthetics of language through traditional Islamic calligraphy while Kalantari’s paintings feature the architectural history of the Islamic world.
RIRA Gallery as an art space that represents contemporary artists from the Middle East aims to provide and strengthen a platform for artists in Iran to exhibit their works regionally and internationally.
Lines and Links exhibition is programmed to take place at RIRA Gallery in Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) from March 17 through April 18, 2013.

Ibn Arabi Filmfest LaurelsFor ‘A Cube of Sugar’

Iranian filmmaker Reza Mirkarimi’s acclaimed dramatic comedy ‘A Cube of Sugar’ has won at the 4th Ibn Arabi International Film Festival (IBAFF) in Spain.
The movie, which was presented at the competition section, garnered the Best Feature-length award of this year’s festival held in Murcia, Press TV said.
Mirkarimi’s latest production recounts the story of a family who lives in an old Iranian city and their attempts in dealing with different problems and incidents.
The film has been screened in many international festivals and received several awards.
A Cube of Sugar was presented at the 2013 Jameson Dublin International Film Festival (JDIFF) in Ireland as well as the World Greats Section of the 35th Montreal International film festival in 2011.
The world-renowned Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami also held a series of workshops titled Abbas Kiarostami Film Seminar on the sidelines of the IBAFF.
This year’s Honorary Award of the festival went to the French theater and scriptwriter Jean-Claude Carrière.
Mirkarimi’s ‘A Cube of Sugar’ and ‘So Close, So Far’ are also scheduled to be screened at the Cine Doré Hall in the Spanish capital Madrid on March 12 and 13.
The 2013 Ibn Arabi International Film Festival was held from March 4 through 9.

David Mamet’s ‘Cryptogram’ Deciphered At Tehran Gallery

Tehran’s Khark Gallery is playing host to a theater troupe performing American playwright David Mamet’s ‘Cryptogram’.
“We chose Khark, because the stage set of the gallery is well suited for performing the play,” director/actor Ali Baqeri said in press release on Saturday, Mehr News Agency reported.
He referred to the difficulties Iranian troupes have in finding a theater in which to perform their plays and added, “Moreover, we were not certain whether we could perform the play in a theater or not.”
Shayan Javaherian and Fatemeh Fakhraii also star in the play.
‘The Cryptogram’ is a 1995 play that concerns the moment when childhood is lost.
The story of the play is set in 1959 on the night before a young boy is to go on a camping trip with his father.
The play will be performing until March 18. The gallery is located at 61 Khark St., south of Enqelab Ave.

Production of Satirical‘Wonderful Argo’ on Agenda

A cinematic writer said that Sima Film Institute has put the production of satirical ‘Wonderful Argo’ on agenda.
Speaking to IRNA, Fariborz Roshanfekr said that Jafar Hassani-Boroujerdi who is in charge of the institute’s theatrical literature division studied the screenplay and urged production of a film based on it.
He further noted that ‘Wonderful Argo’ is a satirical narration of the film ‘Argo’.
According to the writer, the film was so contradictory and ridiculous that it cannot be answered except through satirical language.
Roshanfekr also said that the film is the first blow to the US Hollywood Cinemas.
The film ‘Wonderful Argo’ portrays a comic image of White House policies, he said.
Writing the screenplay will not take more than a month to complete.
The film narrates the story of an incapable CIA spy Tony Mendez in Iran. CIA wants Mendez to be killed in Iran but Iran decides to send him back home.

Vienna Philharmonic’s Nazi Past in Limelight

Almost half the musicians in the Vienna Philharmonic during World War II were members of the Nazi party, new research has revealed.
A panel of historians also revealed that 13 musicians were driven out of the orchestra for being Jewish or married to Jews, BBC wrote.
The report follows claims of a cover-up by the world famous orchestra. Austria is due to mark the 75th anniversary of its annexation by Nazi Germany on Tuesday.
The Anschluss (union) was complete when German forces marched into the country unopposed on 12 March 1938.
For decades the Philharmonic allowed only selective access to its archives. But political pressure led the orchestra to commission three historians, led by Oliver Rathkolb, to delve deeper into the years 1938-45.
Mr Rathkolb also attempted to solve a mystery surrounding a ring of honor presented to Baldur von Schirach, a Nazi governor of Vienna, who oversaw the deportation of tens of thousands of Jews.
The ring, originally presented in 1942, was lost by Von Schirach but a replacement was given to him, apparently in late 1966, after his release from Spandau prison for crimes against humanity. For years, historians have tried to uncover the identity of the man who gave Von Schirach the replacement ring. According to historian Wilhelm Bettelheim, who was interviewed in a documentary film on Sunday, the man in question was Helmut Wobisch, a trumpeter who was a member of the Nazi party and later joined Hitler’s notorious Waffen SS. Wobisch was sacked in 1945 but resumed his career six years later.

French Painting atMuseo del Prado

The Museo del Prado is offering visitors the chance to see the previously unknown panel painting of The Agony in the Garden with the Donor Louis I d’Orléans (1405-1407/8), on display in Room 58A of the Villanueva Building.
This is one of the most important discoveries in many years within the field of Early French Painting.
Acquired by the Museum’s Royal Board of Trustees in 2012, the painting enriches the Prado’s collection of 15th-century painting due to the fact that very few French paintings survive from this period and almost none are of the quality and historical importance of this example, Art Daily wrote.
The value of the materials used in its creation – Baltic oak for the panel and a large amount of lapis lazuli--the quality of the execution, its links with court circles and the interest in spatial construction make this Agony in the Garden a masterpiece of French painting of the period.
The first technical analyses (X-radiography and Infra-red reflectography) carried out by the Museum’s Technical Documentation Department revealed that beneath an area of over painting covering the lower left half of the painting was the figure of a kneeling donor protected by Saint Agnes.
The nettle leaves on his sleeves allowed this figure to be identified as Louis d’Orléans, given that nettles were one of his emblems. The fact that this is the only panel surviving painting to depict the Duke of Orléans, who was Regent of France due to the madness of his brother Charles VI, makes it as important for the history of France as it is for the history of art Following these technical analyses, the Museum proceeded to restore the panel in order to remove the over painting that covered the figure of the donor and to clean the work.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH):

Verily, God is mild and he gives to the mild what he does not to the harsh.