Edinburgh Iranian Festival 2015

Edinburgh Iranian Festival                                   "highlights,links & clips!"

February was quite a month .So much happened that it feels like a long time ago.The highlight was " The Edinburgh Iranian Festival" , my short video"Transformation" was selected for the group show "Perception" at The Summerhall, it was such an honor to be part of it.
Click here to see the exhibition's catalog.
I have tried to squeeze in a lot of details ,make sure that you click on the highlighted words to check the links and clips to find out more .

(Photo by Dr Laurent Galbrun) I managed to make it to the opening ceremony and the exhibition opening night.It was a flying visit but so lovely to visit the beautiful Edinburgh and the wonderful people that make their city shine so bright. The opening ceremony at the iconic St John's was truly packed and sold out.

My favorite part of the night was when the "Arezoo" Symphony Orchestra conducted by " Amin Keshmiri" played Majid Entezami's "Az Karkhe Ta Rhine" which he had to arrange himself for the orchestra as he didn't have any score for it .It took me back to my school days. I had forgotten how much I liked that piece. Click Here for his website and more details about his work and" Arezoo"symphony orchestra . (Watch the monoto+ clips below)                       Sara Kheradmand the director of Edinburgh Iranian Festival on the right who started the festival from 2009 is introducing the hardworking trustees and volunteers that made this year's festival happen.This was the 4th year and it has been growing every time.The festival was partly funded by different organisations such as "British Council "and "Iran Heritage " ,sponsored by many local businesses and also crowd funded.This selfless support of Iranian and none Iranian residents of Edinburgh has created a growing enthusiasm for Iranian art and culture .With series of diverse events during the festival there was so much to choose from.This success is hopefully inspiring other Iranian communities to bring people together by introducing different aspects of the rich Iranian culture .        The opening night of "Perception"exhibition was truly memorable , one of the          world's number one experts on Middle Eastern art Janet Rady who was also       one of the judges of the show gave a speeches about the selection process and    her views on Iranian contemporary art and how she finds the photographic works       from Iran very moving.The other judges that sadly couldn't attend the festival are    as follows : Gohar Dashti,Morteza Nematollahi and Helia Darabi.     During the show I found my male version Mohammad Ghorbankarimi, his film " Desert Fish " which is a true family production ,edited by his lovely and amazing sister Maryam Ghorbankarimi, translation by his other multi skilled sister Mahsa Ghorbankarimi and art direction by his talented wife Nasim Azadi ,was being shown in festival at Filmhouse the day after while I was on the way back to London it was a shame to miss it.This photo was encouraged by Janet Rady and taken by Nasim Azadi.(watch his interview in the clip above right)        ٬