Winners of 8th Tehran Intl. Cartoon Biennial announced

Over 600 works were selected to compete in the money, freestyle, comic strips, and caricature sections, and a Luciano Pavarotti Special Prize was also awarded.

Biennial secretary Masud Shojaii Tabatabaii made a short speech during the awards ceremony and gave some details about the event.

Tabatabaii said that the biennial has been able to find its place in the world and expressed hope that it would be able to help promote Iran’s cartoons throughout the world.

He went on to say that cartoonists from 85 countries took part in the biennial, adding, “Over 900 Iranian artists submitted works to the secretariat of the biennial and the countries China, Turkey, Italy, and Poland had the most participants.”

Afterward the winners werer announced, renowned Iranian cartoonists Bahman Abdi and Mohammad-Rafi’ Ziaii were honored.

In the money section, the grand prize went to Jitet Koestana from Indonesia, first prize to Alessandro Gatto from Italy, second prize went to Seyran Caferli from the Azerbaijan Republic, and third prize to Hamid Bahrami from Iran.

In the freestyle section, Didie Sw from Indonesia received first prize and Mikio Nakahara and Masafumi Kikuchi from Japan received the second and the third prizes respectively.

In the comic strip section, the three winners were from Iran, with Bahman Abdi receiving the first prize, Mehdi Ali-Beigi getting the second prize, and Abolfazl Mohtarami taking home the third prize.

In the caricature section, the first and second prizes went to Iranian artists Bozorgmehr Hosseinpur and Arash Farrokhi and third prize went to Omar Figueroa Turcios from Spain.

Shiva Zamanfar of Iran received the Luciano Pavarotti Special Prize.

Bank-e Eqtesad Novin, one of the sponsors of the event, also announced its winners in each section, Mohmmadreza Dustmohammadi from Iran in the caricature section, Zeng Zhi Dong from China in the freestyle section, and Ali Radmand in the comic strip section.

The Visual Arts Center also granted its special prize to Alessandro Gatto from Italy.

Kambriz Derambakhsh, Tuka Neystani, and Bahram Azimi were the Iranian members of the jury. Eduardo Baptistao from Brazil, Oleg Gutsol from Belarus, and Romanian cartoonist Florian Doru Crihana were the foreign jurors.

The top works of the biennial were displayed at the Saba Art and Cultural Institute from November 19 until December 13.

RM/HG

END

MNA