Living in dreams of yesterday, we find ourselves still dreaming of impossible future conquests.


 

 Art & Culture Desk 

Iranian museums preserve three million historical and cultural objects, the director of museums and historical properties at Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (CHHTO) said on Wednesday.
Mohammadreza Kargar added stone tools belonging to 800 thousand years ago are the oldest items that were discovered in Khorasan, northeastern Iran, and are on display in museums.
Of 600 museums in the country, half are affiliated with CHHTO and the other half are run by other organizations and real entities, explained the official. Around 19 million people visited CHHTO’s museums in the past Iranian calendar year (ended March 20, 2018), said Kargar, predicting a 15 percent rise in the number of visitors this year. He described museums as representatives of different cultures and histories that could promote tourism if used appropriately.
 

 Compiled from Dispatches 

Art masterpieces from the Qajar era which were exhibited for about three months in the Louvre Museum in Paris are now back in Tehran and are open for public viewing from Wednesday.
Louvre Museum presented ‘The Rose Empire Masterpieces of 19th-Century Persian Art’ showcasing a vast collection of Qajar-era (1785-1925) objects at France’s Louvre-Lens art museum from March 28 to July 22.
The artworks were returned to Iran in mid-August and were displayed at Golestan Palace on September 12 for one week.
The exhibition was organized as per an agreement between Louvre and Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization during President Rouhani’s visit to Paris in January 2016.
“While many historians have studied the numerous civilizations which have flourished in this country three times the size of France, far fewer have focused on the 18th and 19th centuries,” the organizers of the exhibition in France said.
Among the exhibited artworks are 19 magnificent Qajar-era handicrafts including eight oil and watercolor paintings, a collection of photographs taken by Nassereddin Shah (who reigned from 1848 to 1896) along with his camera, a copper crown belonging to Agha Mohammad Khan (who reigned from 1794 to 1797) and two exquisite handwritten copies of the Holy Qur’an.

 

Oakland University Art Gallery’s latest exhibit combines art and literature in a way the gallery has never done before. In an age where physical books are considered obsolete, the exhibit showcases some of the most interesting and obscure books available to the campus community.
Director of Cinema Studies Andrea Eis is responsible for curating the collection and found inspiration in the Kresge Library. Specifically, Eis was inspired by ‘The Sophia Pamphlets’ — a series of pamphlets from the 1700-1800s — arguing for women’s rights, oaklandpostonline.com reported.
“The pamphlets are part of the 900 books in the Hicks collection of writings by and about women from the 17th to the 19th century,” Eis said.
‘Encountering the Rare Book’ is the gallery’s first exhibit to focus solely on literature. It also displays the wide variety of books in Kresge Library. In order to choose which books to showcase, Eis asked faculty members to explore the special collections area of the library and choose a book they found significant.
“They could choose something from their academic field, or something that unexpectedly fascinated them or something of personal significance,” Eis said in regard to the selection process.
“With their choices, the 21 faculty who participated broadened and enriched the range of books that are in the exhibition.”
Stephen Goody, director of the OU Art Gallery and professor of art, has been curating collections for the gallery since 2010. Previous exhibits — like ‘Employees Only’, which showcased art from OU faculty, and ‘Cynthia Greig: Subverting the (Un) Conventional’ — have showcased paintings and photography as opposed to literature.
“I’ve worked with Professor Eis before and she always brings surprising new perspectives on how we can experience an exhibition,” Goody said.
“A book tends to be a small object, and if it’s ancient and rare, people coming to the show can’t hold or touch the books, but she finds a way to make the experience visceral and palpable.”
Each book chosen was accompanied with a description of why the faculty member selected it. The books ranged from commentaries on social inequalities to a first edition of Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’, complete with illustrations.
“I enjoy working with Eis because she has a way of involving a diverse group of faculty from all sorts of different fields and making her exhibits truly interdisciplinary,” Goody said.

 Art & Culture Desk 

One of the greatest Iranian voice actors Hossein Erfani died on Wednesday due to lung cancer. He was 76.
Erfani was born in 1942 in Tehran. He acted in numerous films and series and for over five decades he dubbed voices of many renowned Iranian and international movie characters, IRNA wrote.
He played in series ‘Excellency’ directed by Sam Qaribian.
The veteran Iranian actor and voice artist is best known for ‘Sim-e Khardar’ (1981), ‘Cinema Nimkat’ (2016) and ‘Hormat-e Rafigh’ (1977).
He lent his voice to the characters of many big names in cinema such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Samuel L. Jackson, Morgan Freeman, Humphrey Bogart, Orson Welles, Marlon Brando, Liam Neeson and Harrison Ford.
 

Iranian professor and Faculty Member of Sharif University of Technology Reza Yousefi was awarded the ‘Order of the Rising Sun’” along with flower motif for his outstanding cultural and scientific activities.
The award-granting ceremony was held in Japanese Embassy to the Islamic Republic of Iran, based on which, the award was given to Yousefi, an assistant professor at the Tutorial Workshops Center of Sharif University of Technology.
He is the first Iranian to win ‘Order of the Rising Sun’ along with flower motif (Kyoko Jitsu Shujushu).
Yousefi holds a number of positions, including the head of Japan Graduates Association in Iran, which deals with the continuation of study of Iranians who have received Japanese government scholarships.
Moreover, he is cultural and scientific attaché of the embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Japan.
‘Order of the Rising Sun’ is a Japanese order, established in 1875. The order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese government, created on April 10, 1875 by decree of the Council of State.
The badge features rays of sunlight from the rising sun. The design of the Rising Sun symbolizes energy as powerful as the rising sun in parallel with the ‘rising sun’ concept of Japan (‘Land of the Rising Sun’).