TEHRAN -- Three European countries, Italy, Austria and the Netherlands, will be playing host to Iran’s third edition of the Fajr Visual Arts Festival in February.

In a press conference held here on Monday, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMCA) director Mahmud Shaluii said that concurrent with Iran, the three European countries as well as Lebanon and Syria will be hosting the event.
This year the festival covers the different categories of painting, calligraphy, pottery and ceramic, miniature, photography, poster and cartoon opening on February one, the Persian service of MNA reported on Monday.
Iranian exhibition centers in Venice and Rotterdam as well as Iranian cultural offices in Austria, Lebanon and Syria will be displaying selected works for one month concurrent with Iran, Shaluii said, adding that their official inauguration would be on February 5.
Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Iranian Artists Forum, Niavaran Cultural Center, Saba Art and Cultural Institute, Tehran’s Palestine Museum of Contemporary Art, along with art centers in 20 other provinces will be hosting the festival, said secretary of the event Abbas Mirhashemi.
Almost 20,000 works created by 5,000 artists will be competing in different national sections. Cartoon is the lone section to be held internationally this year, Mirhashemi added.
Several seminars, workshops and exhibitions of artworks by masters are also arranged on the side section of the festival at TMCA, he added.
Pardeh-khani, a form of naqqali mostly dedicated to tragic stories of Muslim leaders, especially the Imams of the Shia, as well as screening films on masters of visual arts will be among other side-section programs.