TEHRAN – The 4th Homam International Festival for People with Disabilities will be held in Tehran from October 23 to 30, with the presence of more than 200 artists from 13 countries, the festival’s secretary Mohammad Reza Mashhadi said at a press conference on Saturday.

Over 400 works in the fields of visual arts, handicrafts, and music have been selected from about 3,000 submissions by disabled Iranian and foreign artists for this year’s edition of the festival, ISNA reported.

“This year, the festival will host artists from Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, South Korea, Turkey, South Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Spain, Japan, Nigeria, and Iran. Lebanon will also collaborate in part of the visual arts section,” Mashhadi added.
 
Speaking about the domestic section of the festival, the secretary said: “This year, works have been received from 30 provinces of the country and the number of participants has increased by 67 percent compared to last year, indicating the active presence of the disabled community in the field of art.”

“Tehran ranks first with the most submitted works, followed by Khorasan Razavi, Fars, Kerman, Isfahan, Mazandaran, and Gilan provinces,” he noted.

“95 percent of the artists who have qualified in the fields of handicrafts and visual arts are people with disabilities, and 5 percent are war veterans,” the festival secretary said.
 
“The number and high quality of the works have made art associations and curators from different countries eager to attend the festival. This year, three cultural agreements are on the verge of being signed with Japan, Tajikistan, and Turkey, which focus on the exchange of artistic experiences, education, and exhibition of works by disabled artists,” he stated.
 
Also speaking at the event, Ehsan Hajipour, artistic secretary of the festival, said: “Specialized sessions will be held in the fields of visual arts, handicrafts, music, art economics, accessible applications, and digital space. The drama therapy section will focus on the therapeutic relationship between art and the psyche, and 36 environmental performances will be performed as well”.
 
“In the theater section, for the first time, a play has been designed with easy access for all people with disabilities, written and directed by Maryam Yasinzadeh. Special attention has also been paid to digital art, and the media is supporting the disabled audience to increase accessibility,” he added.

SS/SAB