TEHRAN -- Deputy Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Morteza Kazemi said here on Sunday, "given 94 artistic events were presented with the close cooperation of 35 world countries last (Iranian) year (ended March 20), last year marked a turning point for Iranian art at international fora", IRNA reported. According to a report released by the ministry quoting Kazemi, "our attempts in the past year in introducing art were directed towards finding an honorable status for the Iranian art in the international arena."

"Last year 38 international events were presented by Iran at 22 world countries, while 56 art events from 34 states were performed in Iran.

Kazemi pointed to Iran's appearance on the international markets as a decisive factor in introducing Iranian arts to foreigners and said that such a presence provides the suitable grounds to present Iranian art and economy to the world.

"The quantitative indices, which were of priority in the assessment of the ministry's artistic activity in the past year, showed a remarkable surge," he added.

Concerning theater, Kazemi said that last year 4,054 plays were performed across the country, which shows a boost of 35 percent compared to the previous year.

"In the field of plastic art, around 920 domestic exhibitions were held by various artistic centers, which shows a boost of 19 percent compared to the previous year," he added.

He then referred to the average number of music tapes which increased from 115,000 in 2000 to 150,000 in 2001.

Pointing to live music, he added that last year 182 concerts were performed by 91 orchestras at Tehran's Vahdat Hall.

He hoped that the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance will manage to extend most of its artistic commitments to the non-governmental art institutions and associations.

Referring to another index in last year's assessment, namely the participation of the nation's third generation of artists, he said that in the past 3-4 years the young generation - referred to as 3rd generation - have gradually appeared on the domestic artistic arena.

`Courage in innovation and initiation', `tendency towards identification' and `intellectual communication with the contemporary world' were mentioned by Kazemi as the distinct features of the third generation.

He underlined the need to pay more attention to the potentials of the third generation and provide further grounds for their education.