TEHRAN – The 12th Islamic Revolutionary Arts Week officially began across the country on Thursday, marking the anniversary of the martyrdom of Seyyed Morteza Avini.
Organized by the Arts Department of the Organization for the Propagation of Islamic Ideology, the week-long event features various street plays, poetry nights, and art exhibitions in Tehran and several other provinces.
This year’s festival is marked by a move into public spaces and aims to foster direct dialogue between artists and citizens through identity-driven national themes.
A series of field performances and interdisciplinary artworks will be held in nine key locations in the National Capital Region and three other provinces.
As this week began, the official poster for the 12th edition, designed by renowned artist Saber Sheikh Rezai, was released. The artwork reflects the current mood of the area and the spirit of resistance.
This edition of the poster reconsiders the event’s recurring motif, the “Entezar” (waiting) statue, transforming it from an introspective form into a dynamic symbol of action and epic struggle.
“This design evolves the statue’s previous posture, with a clenched fist raised towards the sky,” Sheikh Rezai explained. “It is an intentional metaphor for the clenched fist of our beloved leader at the moment of martyrdom, and is now a symbol shared by revolutionaries around the world. It combines the concept of ‘waiting’ with active struggle and enthusiasm.”
The poster background, featuring a bright sky and a rising sun, serves as a harbinger of hope and the dawn of a new era in modern development.
Islamic Revolutionary Art Week is held annually across Iran to celebrate the intersection of faith, art, and devotion while showcasing the evolution of revolutionary aesthetics in modern times. This art week is organized every year by the Art Bureau of the Organization for the Promotion of Islamic Thought to commemorate the anniversary of the martyrdom of documentarian Morteza Avini.
This week will feature art exhibitions, workshops and theatrical music performances.
Mr. Avini was martyred by a landmine in 1993 during his final trip to the former Iran-Iraq war zone in southwestern Iran while making the documentary “A City in the Sky,” about the fall of Khorramshahr and the liberation of the city in southwestern Iran during the Iran-Iraq War.
He became famous for his “triumphant narrations” and was called “the master of martyred writers” by colleagues and veterans for the passionate narrations he wrote for documentaries.
Avini has been memorialized on various occasions by various Iranian figures and organizations.
The leader of the Islamic revolution, Seyyed Ali Khamenei, took part in his funeral procession, which began on Qalani Street in Tehran, at the Lebayat-e-Fas (Story of Victory) Cultural Institute, which was established by the leader’s order in 1991 to produce films about the sacred defense.
The Cinema Vérité Festival, the main international event for Iranian documentary films, also annually honors films about war and resistance, awarding them the Avini Award in a special category.
SAB/