TEHRAN – Iranian illustrator and writer Hassan Musavi has won the grand prix of the Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava (BIB) in Slovakia for his book “The Boxer”. 

Winners were announced on Friday by a jury composed of Iranian illustrator Ali Buzari and nine other artists from other countries.

Published by the Fatemi publishing house, “The Boxer” narrates the story of the hectic life of a champion who is struggling between kindness and violence, the more he boxes, the smaller his surrounding world becomes.

15 Iranian illustrators also received nominations at the 2019 biennial.

The Bratislava biennial awarded a number of artists with the Bib Golden Apples. Janis Blanks from Latvia won the award for “Mole Cricket”. Other winners of the Bib Golden Apple were Soojung Myung from South Korea for “The Skirt That Spreads to the End of the World”, Anton Lomaev from Russia for “Lullaby for a Small Pirate”, Wen Dee Tan from Malaysia for “Lili, Circus of Monsters” and Chengliang Zhu from China for “Don’t Let the Sun Fall”.

Iranian illustrator Narges Mohammadi won a Golden Apple for her work in the book “I Was a Deer” at the previous edition of the biennial in 2017.

Photo: Front cover of “The Boxer” written and illustrated by Hassan Musavi.

RM/MMS/YAW