Bismillah Festival opens at Niavaran Cultural Center

TEHRAN,Aug.5(MNA) – The 9th edition of Bismillah Festival was inaugurated at Tehran’s Niavaran Cultural Center on Friday. Works by masters and veterans are on display in the competitive and non-competitive sections of the festival, organizers announced on Saturday. Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Hosseini made a brief speech at the opening ceremony, in which he stressed on the development of Iranian culture in different fields of the visual arts. He said that the exhibition of Quranic products help make people more familiar with the Holy Quran. Hosseini also announced that the Culture Ministry and the public sector have plans to purchase some of the works to help encourage artists to create more artworks of this kind. The ceremony continued with the unveiling of the book “Secret of Line” by veteran calligrapher Jalil Rasuli. Over 70 works mostly focusing on calligraphy and illumination are on show in the competition section, while 120 are on display in the non-competition section. Works by veterans including Gholamhossein Amirkhani, Esrafil Shirchi and Jalil Rasuli as well as two calligraphy works by Iranian First Vice President Mohammadreza Rahimi are among the displayed works at the exhibit. The exhibit will be running until Thursday.