THE RED ROOM – a portable opera for three voices. Set in 1930s Iran, The Red Room is an intimate drama with overtones of Gothic horror that explores nihilism and philosophic despair. It is based on a short story (The Darkroom) by the Iranian modernist master, Sadegh Hedayat, published almost 80 years ago in the collection of short stories called The Stray Dog. With a narrative that has echoes of Franz Kafka and Edgar Allan Poe, THE RED ROOM is an intense and disturbing drama about fear, isolation, and philosophical self-destruction.

In a provincial Persian town, an enigmatic stranger offers a stranded traveller a room. In a night of revelations, the traveller is drawn into the inner life of his Host and discovers the secret of the Red Room.

Iranian poet Amir Houshang Ebtehaj, known as Sayeh, died at 94 in Cologne, Germany on 10th August 2022.

Ebtehaj was born in Rasht, Iran. His first book of poetry was published when he was 19. ‘Sayeh’ was an ardent advocate of the poetry of social commitment. His early poetry reveals his concern with purposive literature. Ebtehaj has also written a collection of lyrical poems (ghazal) in the classical style. Here, he reveals an easy mastery of traditional forms—the lyrical ode, in particular—which he uses to celebrate both the sacred and the secular moments of life. Sayeh’s poetry, at times highly emotional, is always remarkable for its convincing directness and unconcealed sentiment. A number of his lyric poems, ballads and poems have been performed by famous Iranian vocalists and singers.

Lady Jamil Kharrazi, the founder and current director of Toos Foundation, kicks off the new year by joining the Board of Trustees of Park University of Missouri. Park University is a private non-profit organisation which offers courses in the liberal arts accessible and affordable by all. The University’s international music department has consistently excelled throughout the United States since 1875. During a ceremony with a special concert last week, the University decorated lady Jamil with the badge of honour and announced her membership of the Board of Trustees.

Iranian cooks came in second place at the 18th Federation of International Cuisine Days in Istanbul Turkey after winning dozens of medals. The 18th international gastronomy festival was held in Istanbul with the participation of representatives from 77 countries.

At the end of the festival (Dec 2021), the Iranian cooks and chiefs came in second place after winning 23 gold, 15 silver and 12 bronze medals in the two categories of cooking and confectionery. The festival began on December 22nd and ended on December 25th. The following is video footage of the closing ceremony of the festival.

The cultural history of Iran – from the early civilisations through to the modern era – is the focus of a major art-historical survey exhibition in Berlin’s James-Simon-Gallery. The works on exhibit bear witness to the central role that Iran played as a site of innovation, as a melting pot and cultural powerhouse connecting Africa, Asia and Europe. Additionally, it presents a rich kaleidoscope of the cultural creativity of urban societies.It takes visitors on a journey through time and the country’s rich cultural heritage.

The exhibition – a must-see for lovers of painting and ceramics in particular – shows how, over the course of several thousand years, a specifically Iranian cultural identity emerged as a language of instruction and cultural production, an identity that was continuously transforming. The exhibition will end 20th March 2022.

Since affiliating with the Smithsonian Institution in 2019, the Morris Museum has become a happening place. The stately walls of the former Frelinghuysen Twin Oaks Mansion in Morris Township now share space with artworks intended to challenge and enthrall visitors.

The latest example is Body Double: The Safarani Sisters, an exhibition of paintings on canvas superimposed with video. Ethereal and hypnotic, the paintings can stand alone. They are realistic and spare, often depicting a barely furnished room with large windows covered by sheer curtains and drapery. The lighting is dramatic, with sharp contrast between light and dark.

Directed by Mojtaba Ghasemi, “Khoonab” won the Best Director Award of the Universal Film Festival (Kansas, USA, Nov 2021). Last year, Ghasemi also won the Best Director Award of the Rome International Film Festival. The film’s synopsis read, “The distance from ascent to descent is a narrow line of choice, a choice between good and evil.”

The Universal Film Festival was founded in 2007 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA, and each year it awards prizes in 14 categories including the best director.

“The Badger”, directed by Mollaei was screened in the 17th Terni Film Festival of Italy alongside seven films from Switzerland, the US, Italy, Mexico, Afghanistan, and Ukraine, and finally the jury of this cinematic event presented its best director award to Mollaei for the film “The Badger”.

In this movie, Soodeh’s 11-year-old son is kidnapped before her second wedding and she is forced to ask her ex-husband for the ransom money. It features several well-known Iranian actors and actresses, including Vishka Asayesh, Hasan Majouni, Mehraveh Sharifi-nia, and Behnoush Bakhtiari.

Iran Darroudi, well-known Iranian painter, film director, art critic and university professor, died of cardiac arrest at the age of 85 in Tehran.

Darrudi was an influential artist who had been active for more than 50 years in Iranian contemporary art. Her achievements include more than 60 individual exhibitions, art critiques published in various journals, and some 80 collaborative documentaries, the last one being an autobiography, “Distance Between Two Dots”.

A selection of her paintings: Iran Darroudi (toosfoundation.com)

Evlin Baghcheban’s played a crucial role in promoting opera and choral music in Iran. On the 10th anniversary of her death, her son, Kaveh Baghcheban, has published some of the recordings and documents from the family’s private archive. Many recordings and documents were destroyed in 1979 making any research into the history of opera and choral music in Iran rather difficult. Funded by Toos Foundation in London, the published collection includes an audio CD and more than 50 rare documents and photos. It is focused on Evlin Baghcheban’s career, but shedding light on the history of music in 20th-century Iran as well. Most of the materials were previously not accessible to the public. October 2020.

An exhibition of sculptures by Hossein Azadi is currently underway at Etemad Gallery 1. The exhibition is titled “Crumpledness”. Hossein Azadi was born in 1979 in Hamedan, Iran and received his Painting B.A. from University of Art in Tehran in 1999. The exhibition will run until the end of September.

Siah Armajani, an Iranian-born American artist whose architecturally scaled, politically inflected public sculptures have been internationally influential even as he kept a low profile in the art world, died on Aug. 27 at his home in Minneapolis, a city where he had lived and worked for 60 years. He was 81.

“I am interested in the nobility of usefulness,” Mr. Armajani was quoted as saying in a 1990 profile in The New Yorker. “My intention is to build open, available, useful, common, public gathering places. Gathering places that are neighborly.”

Three projects by Iranian architects have been selected by the Dezeen Awards 2020 as the world’s most popular and influential architecture and design competition has announced its longlist.

The projects are Pardis Khaneh, the Kohan Ceram Central Office, and the Noor E Mobin Primary School, and a jury composed of Norman Foster, Joyce Wang, Michael Anastassiades and Paola Antonelli will be judging the designs.

Hooman Mehdizadehjafari has been selected for the City View Park public art commission. Mehdizadehjafari’s artwork, Soar, will be installed in front of the new pavilion being constructed at City View Park (Burlington, Canada). Hooman Mehdizadehjafari, creator of Hoomanart is an award-winning Iranian-Canadian visual artist and designer born in Kerman and now based in Vancouver, Canada.

Ferdowsi’s masterpiece Shahnameh and its seven adventures have been the source of inspiration for Iranian graphic designer Yazdan Saadi’s new collection of paintings on face masks, which depict the mythical Iranian hero Rustam fighting coronavirus monsters. >>>

Omar Khayam the Persian poet and polymath was born on 18th May 1048:

The Moving Finger writes, and, having writ,

Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,

Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

Renowned Iranian artist Parviz Tanavoli, has created a series of limited-edition medallions to raise funds for beleaguered hospitals in his homeland fighting the Covid-19 virus.

“I am extremely impressed by how Iranian healthcare workers are dealing with the Covid-19 crisis,” says Tanavoli, “And what they are accomplishing with the bare minimum of equipment”.

Medallions can be ordered by emailing pr@tanavolimuseum.com

For his latest photography series, Manuel Alvarez Diestro transports us to the isolated landscape of Iran’s deserts. Amid the vast expanse of rolling land and mountain peaks, the images hone in on new housing developments. From afar the tower blocks appear as models in miniature, while closer up, the true scale of the buildings can be appreciated.

This year’s winning design was awarded to Iranian artist Setareh Feylizadeh from Paris, France. “Participating in a competition such as this, especially one which connects us to our roots, cultures, and traditions, has been so rewarding, ” said Feylizadeh. “The ultimate prize of winning this competition is the chance to connect with another community of Persians in another part of the world by spreading the message of Nowruz, which bonds us together and brings us closer to one another.”

Dec 2019. Iranian musician Nima Delnavazi, teacher and tar player, has received the silver medal for his ‘Ray to Tisfound’ album in the latest edition of Global Music Awards in the US.

Delnavazi is considered one of the youngest talents in contemporary Persian music.

Iranian short animated piece ‘Pet Man’ by Marzieh Abrar-Paydar has won the top prize at the 4th edition of Bogota International Animation Festival in Colombia. (Nov 16 2019).

‘Pet Man’ tells the story of an animal dealer who falls asleep in his shop and has a nightmare where he is trapped inside an animal cage. In his attempt to escape from the animals, he encounters various obstacles.

August 10, 2019-February 9, 2020
Smithsonian’s Freer and Sackler Galleries, Washington, DC

“My Iran: Six Women Photographers” will be on view at the Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Aug. 10 through Feb. 9, 2020. It is the latest in the museum’s ongoing exhibition series of contemporary Asian photography. Drawn from the museum’s growing collections, the works of these six female photographers, Hengameh Golestan, Newsha Tavakolian, Malekeh Nayiny, Shadi Ghadirian, Mitra Tabrizian and Gohar Dashti, present multiple visions of Iran that are largely unknown to American audiences.

Artists in Markazi province are trying to revive the traditional art of making wooden Girih artworks which has vast applications in Iranian architecture. One of the most eye-catching manifestations of this art is the formation of Orsi, or colourful, windows in different Iranian buildings.

Five Iranians have been named among the 50 most influential architects of the Middle East in 2019, according to a list published by the Middle East Architect (MEA) magazine. The magazine named Mohammad Khavarian, Kourosh Hajizadeh, Amir-Hossein Hajizadeh, Farshad Mehdizadeh and Arash G Tehrani as Iran’s influential architects in the Middle East region.

The Middle East Architect is a monthly magazine that delivers news, data, analysis and strategic insights for architects.

The Toronto-based Aga Khan Museum has launched an exhibition of Persian art in Qajar era. The exhibition brings together rare paintings, lacquerware, lithographed manuscripts, photographs, musical instruments, and textiles from a host of prominent international and national collections. The exhibition features masterpieces from the Aga Khan Museum collection alongside a large number of exhibits on loan from the Louvre Museum and other institutions, including the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Textile Museum of Canada, McGill University Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections, and private collections.

The exhibition entitled “Transforming Traditions: The Arts of 19th-Century Iran” is curated by Ulrike Al-Khamis, Director of Collections and Public Programs and Bita Pourvash, Assistant Curator, both of the Aga Khan Museum. The exhibition ends in Feb 10, 2019.

Twenty-one designs and architects from Iran are among the nominees for the 2018 Middle East Architect Awards, which were announced by the organizers last week.

The nominations include: Golshahr Mosque and Plaza by Arash G. Tehrani, Floating Island by Kamran Heirati Architects, and Persian Tehran Garden by Hooman Balazadeh and Mohammad Khavarian for the award in the Concept Design of the Year category and the Thirty-Pine Villa by Aleshtar Architectural Office and the City Hall Square Rehabilitation by Polsheer Architects in the Landscape Design of the Year category. Winners will be announced during a special ceremony in Dubai on November 21.

The collection, dedicated to abstract paintings, is showcasing about 30 works by nine Iranian artists, including Iraj Shayestehpour, Giti Norouzian, Maryam Moghadam, Saba Mousavi, and Ghazal Vakili. The works on display are inspired by an Eastern and Persian outlook at concept paintings with a different view at modern art.

The works by the Iranian artists are a delicate, small and yet thorough slice of the inner world with a particular narrative from the point of the view of the artist. The paintings mainly aim to convey emotions and feelings without relying on the environment, and try to teach the visitors not to allow any intervention in their interpretation of the work of art.

The exhibition will last until October 15 at 7 Art Gallery in Istanbul, Turkey.

The Fox’ won the best short film award in competition with 39 other animated films, at World Animation Film Festival in Bulgaria’s coastal city of Varna. ‘The Fox’ is about a young and lively fox that is caught by a hunter when experiencing its first love. The hunter puts a bell around the fox’s neck and returns it to the woods. The bell prevents the fox from hunting and living its normal life in the woods and it soon realizes that its only way to survive is to be tamed and go back to the hunter.

The history of the World Animation Film Festival in Varna dates back to the late 1970s. Following the political changes in Bulgaria of 1989, the forum was discontinued. In 2011 it was brought back to life by a group of lecturers and students from the New Bulgarian University. They met the support of the Ministry of Culture, the National Film Center, the Bulgarian National Television, the Bulgarian National Radio, and the Municipality of Varna.

Farhang Foundation is calling on aspiring and established graphic artists to submit original designs that conceptualize Norooz (the Iranian New Year) commemorating the annual celebration of Norooz in Los Angeles. Eligible designs will be considered as the central artwork featured on street banners and other marketing material that will proudly promote Farhang’s 11th Annual Norooz Celebration at UCLA throughout prominent boulevards and streets of Los Angeles in February and March of 2019.

‘Iranian Film Festival in Tokyo’ to kick off on Aug. 7

The event will screen seven Iranian movies, documentaries and animations.

Dramas including ‘Season of Narges’, ‘Delbari’, ‘Bodyguard’, ‘Where Are My Shoes?’ and ‘Mermaid’, the animated feature of ‘Mobarak’ and also ‘The Eastern’ documentary will be screened in this festival.

JUL 21 – SEP 30

Location: REDCAT – Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater

The group exhibition Only the Morning Bird Treasures the Flower Garden, which takes its title from a poem by 14th century Persian poet Hafiz, includes photographs, videos, and other works by more than twenty Iranian artists on the theme of flowers. It is co-curated by artist Mehraneh Atashi and Sohrab Mohebbi. Artists, writers and other colleagues were invited to contribute to an exhibition and publication exploring the historical, literary and symbolic connotations of flowers in Iran.

Iranian cartoonist Saeed Sadeghi won the Golden Hat of 57th Knokke-Heist Cartoon Festival in Belgium.

The Cartoon is about the Maoi large stone statues on Easter Island. Cartoonists from Portugal and Bulgaria received the Silver and Bronze Hats respectively. Participants were free to choose the theme of their entries. Displaying of selected works has started from June 30 in Knokke-Heist and will end on September 9.

An exhibition under the title “Iran; the cradle of civilization” opened in the Netherlands on Sunday. At the exhibition, 196 artefacts from 60 historic and archeological sites in Iran are being staged. The exhibition is divided into seven sections from Paleolithic age to the Islamic era.

Iranian photographer Parviz Nourizad has won silver medal at the 11th Salon Daguerre in France. The event is one of the most prestigious photo contests hosted by France. Nearly 8000 pictures were received at the 2018 edition of the event. Nourizad’s photograph ‘Mr. Naeb’ won the silver medal at the contest.

The 11th Daguerre exhibition is organized by the Photoclub Paris Val-de-Bièvre in Paris, France.

According to FIAP (Fédération Internationale de l’Art Photographique) center in Iran, the event held in Finland awarded ‘Vision Bronze Medal’ and ‘The Best Friendship photo’ title to Kiarang Alaei, for his photo, named ‘Loyalty’. Meanwhile, the photo ‘Single’ by Hamid Reza Helali won the ‘PSA Honorable Mention.’

The festival was held in Finland by the Finnish Museum of Photography, under the auspices of the FIAP and the Photographic Society of America (PSA) in three different sections. It displayed works by photographers from Iran, who are members of the FIAP center in Iran including Kiarang Alaei, Bahram Yazdanpanah, Hamid Reza Helali, Ahmad Khatieri and Amir Hossein Honarvar.

Iranian films are to be screened in Copenhagen during a festival of Iranian films at Denmark’s Film Institute in April 15-28, 2018.

Works by a number of Iranian directors will be screened during the festival: Abbas Kiarostami, Narges Abyar, Behnam Behzadi, Rokhsare Ghaemmaghami, Shahin Armin, Sohrab Daryabandari, Ali Souzandeh. The Home directed and produced by Asghar Yousefi-Nejad, is one of the films to be shown.

The Iranian photographers participating at the Bristol Festival of Photography in Britain were honored in various parts of the festival. Eyes photo collection by Negar Aqaalitari won the Bronze medal and Crossing photo collection by Ehsan Nikfarjam and Iron Seller photo collection by Amirali Navadeh-shahla were given the Honorable Mention.

The festival was organized under the supervision of the Fédération Internationale de l’Art Photographique (FIAP), and the American Photography Society of America (PSA) in four sections on free color, free monochrome, travel, and nature issues.

Following the success of their space in Tehran, CAMA Gallery, the new international market leaders in Modern and Contemporary Iranian art, have announced the opening of their London gallery on the 5th of April with an inaugural exhibition of 19 Contemporary Iranian artists. The 19 artists are Bita Vakili, Meghdad Lorpour, Behrang Samadzadegan, Mojtaba Tajik, Flora Feizbakshsh, Samira Alikhanzadeh, Azra Aghighi Bakhshayeshi, Saeid Ahmadzadeh, Morteza Pourhosseini, Elham Yazdanian, Babak Roshaninejad, Ali Nedaei, Tahereh Samadi Tari, Ojan Shirozhan, Mostafa Nourbakhsh, Fereydoon Omidi, Maryam Salour, Mohsen Jamalinik and Mohammad Tabatabai.

“The Prince and the Shah: Royal Portraits from Qajar Iran” offers a rare glimpse into the development and dissemination of royal and aristocratic portraiture in the 19th century and early 20th century in Iran at a time when the country underwent major political, societal and cultural changes. On view at the Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Feb. 24–Aug. 5, the exhibition highlights about 30 paintings, photographs and lacquer works from the collections. The exhibition includes several major and otherwise unknown works, which the Freer|Sackler has recently acquired through gift and purchase: a monumental painting of Ahmad Shah Qajar and his cabinet from 1914, the portrait of Prince Jalal al-Din Mirza dated 1859 and attributed to the renowned Qajar artist Abu’l-Hasan Ghaffari, and a selection of finely painted lacquer works.

The exhibition “From Evin With Love” designed and developed by Mansoureh Shojaee, in collaboration with Vrije University Amsterdam will open on March 9, 2018 in The Hague, Netherlands, presenting the handicrafts of Imprisoned Iranian women activists. The exhibition will run through April 6, 2018 and will feature a number of prominent Iranian and foreign speakers as well as a performance by Nasrin Hobby & Ensemble.

Venue: Humanity Hoouse – Prinsegracht 8, 2512 GA The Hague, Netherlands

World Premiere screening of Taq Kasra: Wonder of Architecture, the first-ever documentary film on the world’s largest brickwork vault.

Date: 1 February 2018 at 7:00 PM

Venue: Russell Square: College Buildings, Khalili Lecture Theatre

Taq Kasra was in serious danger of ISIS attacks in 2015-2016 and this was the main motivation for documentary maker Pejman Akbarzadeh to film the arch before it was destroyed. The documentary is produced by the Persian Dutch Network, in association with Toos Foundation, and partially funded by the Soudavar Memorial Foundation.

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The Festival of Iranian Film, or ÍRÁN:CI, is taking place for the seventh time in Prague. The festival founder explained the theme of the latest edition which will open January 8, 2018 at Bakala Foundation as “Don’t be scared”.

“It’s about bringing films from filmmakers who didn’t hesitate to go beyond what are considered to be the boundaries of commercial cinema. They are experimenting, but in a way that still attracts the audience, in a very heart-felt way.”

The 93-year-old doyenne of Iranian art, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, has donated more than 50 of her works to a new museum dedicated to her oeuvre in Tehran. The Monir Museum, which openend on 15 December is the first institution in Iran devoted to a single female artist.

The Museum operates under the auspices of the University of Tehran and is housed in Negarestan Garden, a Qajar-era palace complex that became a museum of culture and later closed. The interior has been redesigned by the Iranian architect Reza Najafian.