Iran highlights Venice Biennale’s title “ILLUMInations”

TEHRAN, June 8 (MNA) -- Iran’s pavilion at the International Art Exhibition of the 54th Venice Biennale 2011 was inaugurated Tuesday, highlighting the show with its significant artworks.

Opening under the title of ILLUMInations and having a strong connection to Iranian culture, this year’s biennale features works by national artists plus 82 artists from all over the world and runs from June 4 to November 27.

Mohsen Rastani, Morteza Darehbaghi, and the married couple Mohammad-Mehdi and Monir Qanbeigi are the four artists whose works are on display at the biennale.

Darehbaghi is taking his huge “Illumination and Peace”, bearing images of martyrs on mirror, to the exhibit.

Rastani is presenting four collages of photos in which lives of different Iranian nationals are portrayed.

And the couple is displaying 12 cubic pieces of earthenware inspired by the Kaba and the pre-historic cubic pieces discovered near Shahrud in Semnan Province.

The ceremony was inaugurated in the presence of Deputy Culture Minister for Artistic Affairs Hamid Shahabadi, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMCA) director Mahmud Shaluii and Iran’s ambassador to Italy Mohammad-Ali Hosseini.

“That Persian art bears a deep concept hardly ever found in Western art is quite clear here at the present show given by Iranian artists,” Shahabadi said in a press release by the TMCA Public Relations Office here on Wednesday.

Hosseini regarded the exhibit a representative of the art which speaks first in the world.

“Iranian artists have surprised visitors with the spirituality of their artworks and have attracted art lovers from around the world,” Shaluii said.

The warm reception given by the visitors encourages us to allocate a larger space for the show in the upcoming years, he added.