TEHRAN – The 4th Homam International Festival for Persons with Disabilities will be held in Tehran from October 23 to 30, with the participation of more than 200 artists from 13 countries, festival secretary general Mohammad Reza Mashadi said at a press conference on Saturday.
ISNA reports that this year’s festival selected more than 400 works in the fields of visual arts, handicrafts and music from around 3,000 submissions by Iranian and foreign artists with disabilities.
“This year’s festival will have artists participating from Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, South Korea, Turkey, South Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Spain, Japan, Nigeria and Iran. Lebanon will also collaborate in part of the visual arts sector,” Mashhadi added.
Regarding the national division of the festival, the Director-General said, “This year we received works from 30 states across the country, and the number of participants increased by 67 percent compared to last year, demonstrating the active presence of the disabled community in the arts field.”
“The largest number of works were submitted in Tehran, followed by Khorasan Razavi, Fars, Kerman, Isfahan, Mazandaran and Gilan,” he pointed out.
“Ninety-five percent of qualified artists in the handicraft and visual arts fields are disabled and 5% are veterans,” the festival office said.
“Due to the number and quality of the works, art associations and curators from various countries are eager to participate in the festival. This year, we are close to signing three cultural agreements with Japan, Tajikistan and Turkey, focusing on the exchange of artistic experiences, education and exhibition of works by artists with disabilities,” he said.
Also speaking at the event, Ethan Hajipour, the festival’s artistic director, said: “Specialized sessions will be held in the fields of visual arts, handicrafts, music, art economics, accessible applications and digital spaces. The drama therapy section will focus on the therapeutic relationship between art and the spirit, and 36 environmental performances will be staged as well.”
“In the theater department, written and directed by Mariam Yasinzadeh, for the first time a play has been designed to be easily accessible to all people with disabilities. Special attention has also been paid to digital art, and the media supports audiences with disabilities to increase accessibility,” he added.
SS/SAB