Actor Kianian discusses relationship between cinema and visual arts

Kianian said, “Cinema is related to visual arts and if an actor has information about visual arts and knows composition well, he or she can recognize how to pose for the camera and how to act in front of it.”

Kianian is keen on photography, too. He held his first solo exhibit entitled “Photos of Loneliness” at the Niavaran Cultural Center in 2008. His wood artworks also went on show at the Iranian Artists Forum in 2007.

The actor next continued to talk about cinema and its participation in foreign festivals.

“The condition of Iran’s art is not natural. In past years, one could scarcely find a festival in which no Iranian entries were competing. Now, this wave has subsided and most foreign festivals are held without entry of any Iranian films.

“Participation of Iranian films in foreign festivals was equal to thousands of words written about Iran in the foreign media, and those thousand words were worth how many dollars?!!! Our officials seem to be oblivious of this issue. In other countries, officials dedicate a special budget to the media to write about their countries while we were doing this free of charge with our cinema.

“Today, submitting a film to a foreign festival is a bad thing to do. It is also true about artwork and international expos and auctions. Our artists and collectors attend these auctions secretly, while the proper sale of Iranian artwork draws the attention of other countries to Iran and thousand of words would be inscribed about art of Iran,” he commented.

Parviz Kalantari also agreed that Iranian paintings have been able to attain international recognition through auctions held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

“Iran has no similarities to its neighboring countries. In the field of cinema, Iran’s cinema speaks first. And the sales volume of visual arts at auctions demonstrates that Iran possesses greater potential in art as compared to its neighbors,” Kalantari stated.

The session was brought to an end by several short speeches delivered by the participants.

A selection of artwork created by 87 contemporary Iranian artists including Aidin Aghdashlu, Mohammad Ehsaii, Reza Kianian and Parviz Kalantari are on display until July 20 in an exhibition called “Layers of Nature” at the gallery in the Mellat Cinema Complex.

RM/YAW
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MNA