Polska | The other Iran

The first edition of the Tehran International Contemporary Music Festival was held last April at Roudaki Hall (Vahdat Hall), Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art and Iranian Artists’ Forum. The festival, an independent cultural and artistic endeavor that is planned to be held annually, included lectures about contemporary music and art in general, different stage performances and experimental improvised presentations by more than thirty ensembles.

A wide spectrum of national musicians like Mehdi Behboudi, Mohammadreza Govahi, Sina Shoaei, Siavash Sojoudi, Kian Hosseini, groups like “Arvand”, “A4” and “Trans-Modern” string quartets, “O.R.P. Quartet” and “Anil Guitar Quartet”, along flute recitals by Firouzeh Navaei and Ali Choupani, violin by Arash Asadnejad, guitar by Farzin Tehranian, double bass by Farshid Patinian and more performed at the week-long event.

The festival welcomed also many artists from abroad, including Geert Callaert (Piano) and Bert Helsen (Bassoon) from Belgium, the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, Opia Ensemble with Aleksandra Pykacz (Cello) from Poland and Ioana Mandrescu (Piano) from Romania, Reso Kiknadze from Georgia (Saxophone and Free Improvisation), Lugano Ensemble from Switzerland and Martyna Kosecka (Piano and Electronics) from Poland.

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016 - Tehran Percussion Ensemble - 05 - Iran

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016 - Tehran Percussion Ensemble - 01a - Iran

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016 - Tehran Percussion Ensemble - 02a - Iran

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016 - Parsina Ensemble - 01 - Iran

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016 - Pierrot Ensemble - 01 - Iran

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016 - Pierrot Ensemble - 02 - Iran

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016 - Pierrot Ensemble - 03 - Iran

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016 - Geert Callaert (Piano) - Belgium

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016 - Tabriz Experimental Music Ensemble - 01a - Iran

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016 - Anil Guitar Quartet - 02 - Iran

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016 - Anil Guitar Quartet - 03 - Iran

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016 - Firouzeh Navaei (Flute) and Daina Adama (Piano)

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016 - 25

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016 - Bert Helsen (Bassoon) and Geert Callaert (Piano) - 01 - Belgium

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016 - Ramin Behna and Siavash Emami - 01a - Iran

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016 - Lugano Ensemble - 01a - Switzerland

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016 - Lugano Ensemble - 02a - Switzerland

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016 - Lugano Ensemble - 04 - Switzerland

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016 - Stockholm Saxophone Quartet - 02 - Sweden

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016 - Stockholm Saxophone Quartet - 01a - Sweden

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016 - Nilper Orchestra - 01a - Iran

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016 - Nilper Orchestra - 02a - Iran

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016 - Nilper Orchestra - 04 - Iran

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016 - Firouzeh Navaei (Flute)

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016 - Opia Ensemble - Ioana Mandrescu (Piano) and Aleksandra Pykacz (Cello) - Romania & Poland

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016 - O.R.P. (Ordinary Routine People) Quartet - 01a - Iran

Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016 - Arvand String Quartet - 02 - Iran

Sources: Tehran Contemporary Music Frestival, Iran Daily, Facebook | Spectro Center,
(in Persian): tiwall.com, musicema.com 1, musicema.com 2, musicema.com 3, musicema.com 4, musicema.com 5, Honar Online 1, Honar Online 2, Honar Online 3, Honar Online 4, Honar Online 5, Honar Online 6, Honar Online 7, Honar Online 8, Honar Online 9, Honar Online 10

Fajr International Theater Festival (FITF) is a golden opportunity to enjoy theatre projects from other cultural backgrounds. This year over 300 plays from Japanese, Hungarian, Spanish, German, Norwegian, Polish, French as well as Iranian artists were presented on all theater stages as well as some outdoor public spaces in Tehran.

The members of the jury panel for the international section – Stefan Schmid from Germany, Jerzy Limon from Poland, Oleg Loevski from Russia and Iranians Masoud Delkhah and Farrindokht Zahedi – honored “Hamlet” with two awards; German director Thomas Ostermeier received the Grand Prix of the festival and Lars Eidinger won the Best Actor Award. The play had three completely sold-out performances.

34th Fajr International Theater Festival in Iran – Hamlet – Germany

Photos: “Hamlet” directed by Thomas Ostermeier, Germany

Norway participated with a powerful performance of Henrik Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler” by Visjoner Teater, founded by Juni Dahr in 1988. The play was staged at a house and not at a theatre to allow the site specific artistic concept of this production. The shows were sold out, thus an extra performance was organized. Actress and artistic director Juni Dahr won in 2014 the Jury’s FITF Special Prize for “Ibsen Women”.

34th Fajr International Theater Festival in Iran – Hedda Gabler – Norway

Photos: “Hedda Gabler” by Visjoner Teater, Norway

“The Shadow Game” written by Koichiro Iizuka and directed by Tatsuya Hasegawa from Japan’s Dazzle Dance Company took the stages by storm with four sold out shows at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall, leaving the audience breathless long after the actors have left the stage.

The play, about the clash between positive and negative energy to highlight the effects of the natural disasters in Japan, used a magnificent combination of street dance, electronic music, theater, elements of video games and anime plot with Japanese commentary all wrapped up in street and contemporary dance styles choreographed by Hasegawa himself. In 2012 Hasegawa’s “Misty Mansion” won the FITF Best Play Award.

34th Fajr International Theater Festival in Iran – The Shadow Game – Japan

Photos: “The Shadow Game” directed by Tatsuya Hasegawa, Japan

Hungary’s “Becoming Butterfly – Conspiracy” written and directed by Zsófia Bérczi, has taken the audience through an existential journey on the wings of imagination and visual aesthetics. There was something universal and deep about the play that made it connect with the audience no matter from which country and culture. “Human beings are not the most beautiful creation on earth, but they are the most beautiful dream of all creations on earth.” Bérczi also staged Living Surface at this year’s festival.

34th Fajr International Theater Festival in Iran – Living Surface – Hungary

Photos: “Living Surface” and “Becoming a Butterfly – Conspiracy” directed by Zsófia Bérczi, Hungary

“Peregrinus” from Poland’s KTO Theater is a performance without dialogue, illustrated by music that depicts a single day in the life of an individual of the 21st century. The contemporary “Everyman”, whose life is “suspended” between home and work for a corporation, identifies his or her “pathway through life” as a “pathway to work”. Homo Peregrinus is a formatted human being, stripped of emotionality, predictable and bereft of individual characteristics. Perigrinus’s belongings can be packed in one piece of hand luggage.

34th Fajr International Theater Festival in Iran – Peregrinus – Poland

Photos: “Peregrinus” from KTO Theater, Poland

“Katastrophe” and “A House in Asia” were presented by Agrupación Serrano, a Spanish theatre company that creates original productions based on stories drawn from contemporary times, blending stage performance, text, video, sound, and scale models to stage stories about discordant aspects of today’s human experience.

The FITF international section also included “Dance of Death B La La”, a joint Iranian-German production by Iranian director Yaser Khaseb from Crazy Body Group, “Body Revolution” by Belgium based Iraqi director Mokhallad Rasem, the monologue “Monsters” by Laurent Fraunie from France, Georgian “Me-Medea” written and directed by Salome Joglidze and more.