TEHRAN – The Islamic Revolution Art Week opened on Saturday in the capitals of 30 provinces across the country.

The art week is organized by the Art Bureau of the Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization every year to commemorate the martyrdom anniversary of documentarian Morteza Avini.

He was killed by a landmine in 1993 during his last trip to the former Iran-Iraq war zone in southwestern Iran while making a documentary about soldiers who were still listed as missing in action. 

Art exhibitions and workshops, and theatrical musical performances will be organized during this week.

One of the exhibitions, now underway at one of the galleries of the Art Bureau in Tehran, is dedicated to posters created by a group of graphic designers based on Avini’s discourses and writings.  

The bureau is also playing host to an exhibition of photos depicting Avini’s colleague Seyyed Ebrahim Asgharzadeh, when he was fighting as a teenage volunteer during the Iran-Iraq war.

These photos have never been showcased in any exhibition before. Asgahrzadeh was killed in 2001 in a plane crash while making a documentary about the mothers of several Iranian soldiers killed during the war.

The exhibition also puts on view four huge photos of the 1979 Islamic Revolution by French photojournalist Michel Setboun.

The Art Bureau is also displaying a collection of paintings created by revolutionary artists in the early months of the revolution.

A collection of 65 posters on the revolution is on view at the Art Bureau and the Niavaran Cultural Center.

Over 40 artists are also holding workshops on painting, sculpture and calligraphy in the courtyard of the Niavaran Cultural Center during the weeklong festival.

The General Office for Dramatic Arts of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance has arranged a vast array of street theater performances in Tehran.

The Islamic Revolution Artist of the Year will also be announced during this festival.

Author Vahid Yaminpur was named the Islamic Revolution Artist of the Year in 2021.

He received the title for “Apostasy”, an alternate history novel about the Islamic Revolution, as well as for his travelogue of Japan “The Jinja Monk”.

Photo: A poster for the Islamic Revolution Art Week.

MMS/YAW