to edited by Lila Azam Zanganeh

friday 4 July at 21.30

TRADITIONAL CONCERT AND CONTEMPORARY POETRY

with

Nilou Ghodsi Azam Zanganeh poetess

**Dariush Talai **master of Tar and Setar.

**Keyvan Chemirani **master of Zarb.

Nilou Ghodsi Azam Zanganeh's poem is presented by professor Domenico De Masi

"When Talai and Shemirani play, the gates of heaven open."

The recitation in Italian of poems from the book The Dawn of Tomorrow by Nilou Azam Zanganeh (Atelier 65, 2014) is accompanied by Persian classical music by internationally renowned masters Talai and Chemirani.

_L'Alba del domani _is the title of Iranian poet Nilou Azam Zanganeh's second collection, after Questa Nessuna Terra. The choice to write in Italian, which is not her native language, creates a feeling of estrangement that amplifies the effect of nostalgia without rhetoric. Zanganeh uses the word as an evoker of a world lost but still very much alive thanks to the poetic word. It is a word of love for the childhood home, the splendor and culture of the ancient country. The verses, like fragments of a lost picture, evoke objects, roads and sunsets, sunrises and winds, time erasing, but the nostalgia does not close, it plays on a verse always poised between fragment and prose, and then becomes a prayer for everything to rise again like a new dawn.

NILOU GHODSI AZAM ZANGANEH

Nilou Ghodsi Azam Zanganeh was born to Tehran and currently lives to Paris. After attending the French high school in Tehran, she pursued studies in sociology and letters to London, Paris, Hamburg and Rome. Before moving to Europe permanently in 1979, he was a member of the diplomatic corps of Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Iran. He participated as guest of honor at the 2005 Ravello Festival and his first collection, This No Land (MUP, 2007), had its world premiere at the 2007 Parma Poetry Festival. His second collection, L'Alba del Domani (Atelier 65, 2014) was published this spring in Italy.

DARIUSH TALAI

Dariush Talai is the great master of traditional Persian classical music. He plays the Tar and Setar (ancient instruments to string). In Iran, he studied Persian music with Radif masters Ali Akbar Shahnazi, Nur Ali Borumand, Youssef Forutan and Abdollah Davami. He has taught at Sorbonne University, Tehran University, and Washington-Seattle University. He has participated to numerous music events and received various awards for his performances and CDs. He has collaborated with artists such as Maurice Béjart, Carolyn Carlson, and Michel Portal.

KEYVAN CHEMIRANI

Keyvan Chemirani is a Franco-Iranian musician. In the 1960s, his father, renowned zarb (percussion) player Djamchid Chemirani moved to to Paris, bringing Persian music to European audiences. Keyvan began to playing the zarb to 16 years old, developing an interest in both Persian and European music. In addition to the zarb, he also plays the darf, udu, bendir and riqq. With his father and brother, he formed the Chemirani Trio, the internationally renowned classical Persian music group. He has collaborated with artists of different musical styles such as Ensemble Ross Daly, Trio Eric Marchand, Thierry Robin, Juan Carmona, David Hykes, and Percussion Orchestra.

Saturday 5 July at 18.00

SHIRIN NESHAT: TURBULENT TRILOGY (1998), RAPTURE (1999), FERVOR (2000)

Shirin Neshat´s entireopera is a metaphor for the complexity of relationships between men and women.

The Trilogy shorts express the political, mystical, feminist and deeply poetic vision of the established Iranian filmmaker. Each film in the trilogy is often screened with a to double-screen installation.

Turbulent presents a woman and a man singing. While the man receives applause, the woman sings - and enchants - in silence.

Rapture frames two groups of men and women. The men aggressively enter the city, while the women remain in the boat quietly.

_Fervor _takes the same theme of man-woman separation in Islamic culture and tells two parallel stories of a man and a woman who will never meet.

SHIRIN NESHAT

Shirin Neshat is an Iranian artist living to New York. Her works use media such as film, photography and video. She is a graduate of the University of California Berkeley. Her works have been exhibited in the United States, Mexico, Asia and Europe. She participated in the Venice Biennale in 1999, the Whiteny Biennial in 2000, to documenta 11, and the New Orleans Biennial in 2008. In 2013, the Detroit Institute of Arts organized a retrospective of his work. He has also participated to various film festivals such as Telluride Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, and Cannes Film Festival. His film _Men Without Women _won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2009. He has received other awards for his artistic activity, such as from the Wexner Center for the Arts (2000) and MASS MoCA (2001), an honorary professorship at the Universität der Künste to Berlin, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Award, and Artist of the Decade from the Huffington Post (2010).

at 21.30

DIALOGUE BETWEEN PHILOSOPHY AND POETRY

IN THE MIDDLE EAST

VISIONS AND VISIONARIES: THE MODERNITY OF MEDIEVAL GENIUS OMAR KHAYYAM

with

**Roberto Toscano **Former Italian Ambassador to Iran

**Daryush Shayegan **philosopher

A dialogue between Iran's best-known contemporary philosopher, Daryush Shayegan, and former Italian Ambassador to Tehran, Roberto Toscano, intended to be an exploration of the visionary genius and artistic magic of Omar Khayyam. Who was Omar Khayyam and why does he continue to to inspire so many Eastern and Western artists? What was his relationship with God? And how would he interpret the meaning of a theocracy in the modern world? This discussion of visions and visionaries is accompanied from by readings of Khayyam in the original Persian and modern Italian translations.

DARIUSH SHAYEGAN

Dariush Shayegan is one of Iran's best-known contemporary philosophers. After studying at the University of Geneva, he received his doctorate in comparative philosophy from La Sorbonne with a thesis on Sufism and Hinduism. He was a professor of Iranian studies and comparative philosophy at Tehran University. After his teaching experience, he became director of the Center for the Dialogue of Civilizations. In 1977 he created the international conference "On the Dialogue Between Civilizations." In 2009 he received the first Global Dialogue Prize. He has written many books in French and Persian dealing with the topics of Persian mysticism and mystical poetry, and is well known in Europe and Iran. In 2004 he received the ADELF award from the Association of French Authors for his book Land of Mirage. Other books in French include: Qu'est-qu'une révolution religieuse?, Le regard mutilé, Schizophrénie Among other books in French are: Qu'est-qu'une révolution religieuse?, Le regard mutilé, Schizophrénie culturelle: pays traditionnels face à la modernité, La lumière vient de l'Occident: Le réenchantement du monde et la pensée nomade.

ROBERTO TOSCANO

Roberto Toscano has been a member of the Italian diplomatic corps for 40 years. After experiences to Santiago, Moscow, Madrid, Washington, Geneva/UN, he was ambassador to Iran from 2003-2008 and to India from 2008-2010. He holds a law degree from the University of Parma and an M.to. in international relations from SAIS. He has been a fellow at the Center for International Affairs to Harvard University and a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He has been a professor of international relations at the University of Pisa and LUISS in Rome. He has published many books and articles on international relations, conflict prevention, and Iran. He currently resides in Spain where he is Senior Research Assistant at CIDOB to Barcelona.

Sunday, July 6 at 6 p.m.

SCREENING OF BAHMAN GHOBADI'S "RHINO SEASON"

AND CONVERSATION WITH WRITER LILA AZAM ZANGANEH

RHINO SEASON

Martin Scorsese production

directed by Bahman Ghobadi

with Monica Bellucci, Behrouz Vossoughi

interview Lila Azam Zanganeh

film winner of the Un Certain Regard and Caméra D'Or awards at the Cannes Film Festival

A tormented love story inspired by the tragic story of a Kurdish poet, a friend of filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi, who was unjustly imprisoned during Iran's Islamic revolution. The poet Sahel is the victim of a personal vendetta and is locked up together with his wife Mina. The woman is inexplicably released after ten years and is told that her husband is dead. Heartbroken, she leaves Iran to travel to Istanbul along with her children, unaware that she is abandoning her husband who will remain in prison for another twenty years. Once freed, Sahel begins his adventure to find his wife, whose ardent memory is the only thing that allows him to survive to that hell. For so many years he had clung to the hope of finding her again, but he will instead have to confront a very different reality.

BAHMAN GHOBADI

Bahman Ghobadi is an Iranian filmmaker of Kurdish origin. He graduated in filmmaking from Iran Broadcasting College. In 2000, he created Mij Film, which produces Iranian films depicting the various ethnic groups in Iran. His films have been awarded to numerous film festivals. to Time for Drunken Horses (2000), the first Kurdish film produced in Iran, won the Caméra d'Or to Cannes and his next film, Marooned in Iraq (2002), won the Golden Plaque at the to Chicago International Film Festival. In 2004, _Turtles Can Fly _won the Glass Bear and Peace award at the to Berlin International Film Festival, and the Golden Shell at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. His latest films _No One Knows About Persian Cats _(2009) and Rhino Season (2012) both won the Un Certain Regard award at the Cannes Film Festival.

LILA AZAM ZANGANEH

Lila Azam Zanganeh is a French-Iranian writer who currently resides to New York. After studying literature and philosophy at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, she moved to the United States to teach literature, film, and languages at Harvard University. In 2002, she began to writing articles, interviews, and essays for various American and European publications. Her first book, An Enchanting Dream of Happiness(The Enchanter, Penguin Press), was published internationally. Azam Zanganeh serves on the Board of Overseers of the International Rescue Committee, and on the advisory board of Words Without Borders. He is currently writing a novel entitled The Orlando Inventions.

at 21.30

NAKISSA DANCE COMPANY

THE SEVEN PAVILIONS OF LOVE

PERSIAN MYSTICAL DANCE

inspired from NizamiGanjavi, the great Persian mystic poet (1141-1209)

choreography Shahrokh Moshkin-Ghalam

Nakissa Dance Company

first dancer Shahrokh Moshkin-Ghalam

The Nakissa Dance Company and Shahrokh Moshkin-Ghalam of the Comédie Française interpret the famous medieval poem_ The Seven Pavilions of Love_ by Nizami Ganjavi, which tells the story of the Sasanian prince Bahram Gur and the seven princesses from from seven different worlds, with whom he falls in love. _The Seven Pavilions_ represents the best and most beautiful epic poem of the so-called "new Persian poetry" and also one of the most important creations of Indo-European literature. The poem illustrates the harmony of the universe, the affinity of the sacred and the profane, and the concordances between ancient and Islamic Iran. For the first time to Spoleto, this poetic masterpiece is presented in a sensual and exquisitely choreographed interpretation, featuring Bahram Gur, his seven princesses, and the ancient storyteller Sheherazade.

SHAHROKH MOSHKIN-GHALAM

Shahrokh Moshkin-Ghalam is a dancer, choreographer, actor and director. He was born in Iran but moved to Paris where he studied art history and theater at Paris 8 University. While living to Paris, he specialized in various dance forms. Today as a choreographer and director, Moshkin-Ghalam combines Persian myths, poetry, and dance to create performances between East and West. His works such as Seven Pavilions of Love, Dance Variations on Persian themes, Omar Khayyam Ballet, and Mythological Danses have been staged to London, Paris, Stockholm, Los Angeles, and New York. He is the founder of the Nakissa Dance Company, which has performed in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Moshkin-Ghalam is also an actor, and has collaborated with various theater groups. He has been a member of the prestigious French theater company La Comédie Française since 2004.