On May 16 and 17, the Centre for Oriental Literature of the Russian State Library with the support of the Ibn Sina Foundation hosted a number of lectures delivered by the leading experts in the art of Greater Iran. The visitors of the two-day workshop “A Line and a dot: Visualization of the Iranian East” had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the unique Muslim calligraphy and traditional Iranian fabrics.
Following the first meeting of the lecture course, Hamid-Reza Kelichkhani, a famous Iranian art critic and calligrapher, director of the Tehran gallery, addressed the visitors with a speech on the modern Iranian calligraphy and its contribution to the development of other fine arts, which was complemented with the film “The Dot” (2020) directed by Emir Valinejad. This guide to the visual world of ancient crafts received critical acclaim at international documentary film festivals. On the next day Vera Myasina, senior researcher of the Caucasus, Central Asia, Siberia and Far North department of the State Museum of Oriental Art, revealed the archaic symbolism and traditional technique of the Central Asian embroidery pattern “suzani”. The event was finalized with a screening of E. Valinejad’s documentary “Beauty Woven from Secrets” (2018) dedicated to the the Pazyryk rug.
The lectures and documentaries were accompanied by a mini-exhibition of art reproductions of Persian miniatures, handwritten materials, painted ceramics and wedding veils from the collections of the Pierpont Morgan Library, the Metropolitan Museum, the Mardjani Foundation and the State Museum of Oriental Art.
