A brick-making workshop in Rey, Tehran province

(Photo by Akbar Tavakkoli)

Persian Manuscripts on Show at UNESCO Exhibit

Arts & Culture Desk

Two precious Persian manuscripts are being showcased during UNESCO’s Memory of the World exhibition in Paris.
Announcing this, Mohammad Reza Majidi, Iran’s permanent ambassador to UNESCO, said that ‘Bayasanghor’s Shahnameh’ and ‘Pang Ganj’ are the two documents on show during the exhibit.
The exhibit mark’s the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Memory of the World program at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris.
Bayasanghor’s Shahnameh is one of three ancient copies of ‘Shahnameh’--a magnum opus by classical Persian poet Abolqasem Ferdowsi.
‘Pang Ganj’ also known as ‘Khamseh’ is a poetry collection by Nezami Ganjavi, a 12th-century poet considered the greatest romantic epic poet in Persian literature.
So far 245 works have been registered on the Memory of the World List, out of which 45 have been put on show at the exhibit, Majidi said.
‘The Endowment Deed of Rab-e Rashidi’, ‘Al-Tafhim’ written by Abu Rayhan Biruni (973-1048 CE) as well as a collection of Astan-e Qods documents dating back to the Safavid era, are other Iranian documents that have been registered on UNESCO’s list so far.
UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register is a list of library collections and archive holdings of world significance. It calls for the preservation of valuable archival holdings, library collections and private individual compendia all over the world for posterity, the reconstitution of dispersed or displaced documentary heritage, and the increased accessibility to and dissemination of these items.

ECO Plans Cultural-Artistic Festival

The Cultural Institute of Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) in Tehran is slated to hold a festival on the world’s Persian speaking people.
The event titled ‘The Cultural-Artistic Festival of Farsi Speaking Peoples’ will present various programs in ECO Cultural Institute (ECI) in Tehran on December 15.
A structure designed for cultural purposes which is called ‘Shams Hall’ will be inaugurated during a ceremony at the program, Press TV said.
Iranian Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini along with his counterparts from Tajikistan and Afghanistan, as well as some cultural officials are to attend the ceremony.
Maestro Iranian-Armenian musician and conductor Loris Cheknavarian is scheduled to unveil his latest work Shams Tabrizi Opera at the event.
Several books on Iranian poets and Persian New Year (Nowruz) celebration are also to be unveiled during a particular program at the gala.
Meanwhile, an exhibition of visual arts created by the artists from the Persian speaking countries is also to kick off in ECO Cultural Institute in Tehran after the festival on December 17, 2012.
ECO is an intergovernmental regional organization established in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey for the purpose of promoting economic, technical and cultural cooperation among the member states.

Swiss Art in Tehran

Tehran’s Artists House has held an exhibition of by Swiss painter and sculptor Arthur David in Tehran.
The event kicked off during a ceremony attended by the artist himself and a group of Iranian artists and cultural officials, according to ISNA.
David’s first solo exhibition in Iran displays a collection of 14 posters mostly created by graphite and color pencils. The works are among the artist’s latest creations and are displayed in such an order to convey one main concept.
Arthur David started his artistic activities in 1975 and is also known as a successful textile designer. The Zurich-based artist has collaborated with many famous fashion designers such as Jean Louis Scherrer, Matthew Williamson and Velntino.
His visual art works are mostly simple and minimalistic, expressing binary oppositions like balance and imbalance, light and shadow or order and chaos. Iran’s House of Artists has showcased works by numerous Swiss graphic designers so far, including Bruno Monguzzi, Niklaus Troxler, Jonas Voegeli and Jiri Oplatek.

Jahed Jahanshahi Dies

Veteran Iranian writer, translator and theater critic Jahed Jahanshahi passed away aged 66.
Jahanshahi’s widow told ISNA that he died of a cardiac arrest on Thursday morning in Tehran.
The late Iranian translator introduced many renowned German writers to his country’s book lovers such as Gunter Wilhelm Grass, Heinrich Theodor Boll, Thomas Bernhard and Bertolt Brecht.
Jahanshahi’s translation of articles written by Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez between 1961 and 1984 was also published a few months ago, Press TV wrote.
The Iranian scholar is best known for his Persian translations of Bernhard’s ‘President’, Brecht’s ‘Mother’, Boll’s ‘Bread of Those Early Years’, Grass’s ‘Peeling the Onion’ and Fernando Pessoa’s ‘Book of Disquiet’.

In the Galleries

Mess-Negar Gallery is hosting an exhibition of silver jewelry by Mehdi Bordbar.
The exhibit runs through December 20 at the gallery, located at # 5, in the Park Prince Building on Molla Sadra Highway.
A collection of surreal paintings by Vahid Jafarnejd will be put on display in an exhibition at Homa Gallery from December 14-19, Mehr News Agency said.
The gallery is located at # 8, 4th West Alley, Sanaei St., Karim Khan Blvd.
A group of painters will showcased their latest works in a joint exhibition at the Seyhun Gallery from December 14-26.
The group includes Karim Eskandari, Hashem Irani, Asal Peyrovi, Zahra Shafiabadi, Babak Kazemi, Nima Hashemian, Mona Honarmand and Adel Younesi.
The gallery is located at 11 Fourth Alley, off Vozara St.

Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln’ Leads Nominations

Steven Spielberg’s presidential biopic ‘Lincoln’ is the frontrunner at this year’s Golden Globe nominations.
It is up for seven prizes, including best actor for Daniel Day-Lewis, best director for Spielberg, and best film drama, BBC wrote.
In the latter category, it competes with Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Django Unchained’, both of which have five nominations.
The winners will be announced in Los Angeles on 13 January, 2013.
There are also nominations for three British Dames--Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith and Judi Dench, as well as TV nods to ‘Downton Abbey’, ‘The Hour’ and ‘Sherlock’.
In the drama actor category, British star Day-Lewis is shortlisted alongside Richard Gere, John Hawkes, Denzel Washington and Joaquin Phoenix, for ‘The Master’.
Phoenix shared the best actor prize with his co-star Philip Seymour Hoffman at the recent Venice Film Festival, but the elder actor has been demoted to the supporting actor category at the Globes.
Nominations for best actress are led by Jessica Chastain, who plays a CIA agent on the hunt for Osama Bin Laden in ‘Zero Dark Thirty’.
She is joined on the shortlist by Marion Cotillard, Naomi Watts and British stars Rachel Weisz and Dame Helen Mirren, who stars in Hitchcock, which documents the making of Psycho.
The film adaptation of stage hit ‘Les Miserables’, by British director Tom Hooper, has four nominations. It is in the running for best film--musical or comedy, while stars Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway both get acting nods.
Hooper, who won an Oscar for ‘The King’s Speech’ in 2010, told the BBC the nominations were a “testament” to the film’s production crew, “who were largely London-based”.
“It’s a great moment for the industry there,” he added.
However, Hooper himself missed out on the shortlist for best director. Instead, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Kathryn Bigelow and Ang Lee--who filmed the “unfilmable” novel ‘Life Of Pi’--all made the cut.
Voted for by members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Golden Globes are an important precursor to the Oscars.
Last year’s winners included Meryl Streep, Octavia Spencer, Jean Dujardin and Christopher Plummer--all of whom went on to receive Academy Awards in the main acting categories.
One notable difference of opinion in recent years came over ‘The Hurt Locker’.
The Globes overlooked Kathryn Bigelow in the best director category, giving the prize to her former husband, James Cameron, for Avatar. A month later, the decision was reversed at the Oscars, where Bigelow became the first woman ever to win the best director award.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH):

Kill not your hearts with excess of eating and drinking.