TEHRAN – Maestro Loris Tjeknavorian, filmmaker Amir Naderi and Persian literature scholar Mohammadreza Shafiei Kadkani have been honored with medals at Iran’s Art for Peace Festival.

Iran’s Art for Peace Festival annually honors several artists and literati who have made a significant contribution to peace with a medal. 

Maestro Tjeknavorian received the award for his lifelong career in music, Naderi for his portrayal of love in cinema and Shafiei Kadkani for his promotion of Persian culture and literature.

A large number of artists and literati, including Hossein Mahjubi, Kambiz Derambakhsh, Taha Behbahani, Mona Zandi and Amir Esfandiyari, attended the honoring ceremony, which took place in Tehran on Thursday at Baroque Gallery, the host of the festival.

“This is a memorable night and I am happy to have received this award. I hope I can serve Iran with my art to achieve peace,” Tjeknavorian said in his acceptance speech.

Last week, the Peace and Friendship Ambassadors Group in Tehran proposed that the United Nations select Tjeknavorian as a peace ambassador.

The proposal was made by Tayyebeh Mohammad, the founder of the Peace and Friendship Ambassadors Group at the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in Tehran.

Naderi, who lives in New York, could not attend the ceremony, so photographer Nader Samavati received the award on his behalf. 

“I will give the award to Naderi and I will tell him that everybody in Iran loves him,” Samavati said.

Naderi is mostly famous in Iran for his hits “Harmonica” (1974) and “The Runner” (1984).

Shafiei Kadkani also could not attend the ceremony, so the director of the festival, Fereidun Farbud, received the award on his behalf.

Shafiei Kadkani, 80, is a professor at the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad and a member of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature.

He rose to fame with his collection “On the Avenues of Neyshabur”.

He is also the author of “With Light and Mirror; In Quest of Roots of Iran’s Contemporary Poetry Evolution”, which reviews the impact of social and political factors on Persian poetry.  

Iran’s Art for Peace Festival opened at Baroque Gallery in Tehran on September 20 with the motto “The World Is Colorful”.

Artists from 20 countries displayed 200 works in the media of painting, photo, sculpture, motion graphics, installation, video art, cinema and theater during the seventh edition of the festival.

The artworks came from Italy, Germany, Australia, Spain, South Korea, Brazil and several other countries.

A lineup of 23 films was also screened during the festival at the Farhang Theater Hall in Tehran for four days.

The Art for Peace Festival is a non-competitive event, which was established in 2013 by the Iran Art for Peace Group, an independent ensemble led by graphic designer Farbud.

The festival is organized every year in Tehran to promote world peace as well as to attract attention to the environmental issues in the country. 

Photo: Maestro Loris Tjeknavorian poses for a photo with his award at the closing ceremony of the Art for Peace Festival at Tehran’s Baroque Gallery on October 3, 2019.

RM/MMS/YAW