مصاحبه استاد مسعود شجاعی طباطبایی داور بخش طراحی و گرافیک با دبیرخانه جشنواره ساعت شنی

The interview of Mr. Masoud Shodjai Tabatabai , the judge of the design and graphic section of the festival with the secretariat of Hourglass Festival

 

In the name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful

 

Name and the logo of the festival

This festival is an excellent event specially because it is held in a time that is very similar to the time that the imposed war was started; at that time, all front of Kufr standed against us and the Iranian people and combatants resisted bravely with endeavor and gallantry ; even one inch of our land did not loosed. After that, in contemporary era we see the Zionists role and lobby on all the events and relations of Western states, its range reaches to united Nations too.

All of these signs show that all of these organizations are dominanted financially by Zionist regime and other countries that pay for their costs. For example, when the Saudi Arabia was considered in the list of countries who violate children rights, after some days its name was omitted because they had payed money for it.

When we review the backgrounds, we see some one like Ranan Laurie about whom I've talked before. We've published the accurate documents about him in art of resistance site; he declaires his enmity seriously without any scruple.

Now, who is Ranan Laurie? He is one who is seen in notable images published from him:

In spring 1948, when Tel Aviv was conquered by Britain, we see him wearing English soldiers' cloths, standing behind the machine gun and fight; or in Vietnam War, he participates voluntarily as us army; he has such bag plays and has images with all the fiendish personalities who had a role in formation of Zionist regime from Anwar Sadat to Yitzhak Shamir, Netanyahu, Ben Gurion, etc. He publishes these images gloriously. Then we see that United Nations propose a prize for caricature and cartoon festival entitled "Ranan Laurie award" and gives thousands of dollars annually to participants of this festival that is payed by nations. The secretary-general of the United Nations signs the appreciation letter himself.

On the contrary, when we propound Holocaust or Gaza issues, they get so madden, so they create an ambiance and talk against the supports for oppressed people and we can see the consequences in march in Iran with the slogan " no gaza, no Lebanon, my life is devoted to Iran". We have to clarify things and inform the people all around the world about the ones who manage the political events of the world in macro levels.

The igniferousness of Yemen, Gaza and Palestine people is that anyone is allowed to clarify their issue and declare the crimes of the Zionist regime and AL Saud. When some artists like Carlos Latuff visit Israel and see the situation in west Bank and compare them, decide to illuminate public opinion, but they are threated to death by groups such as Likud party.

All the social activists and artists afraid of illumination about Israel activities too and they're mostly forced to leave Israel. The culmination of these suppressions is martyrdom of the caricaturiste Nadji Al-Ali in London.

But we should be aware that someone like Nadji Al-Ali or Carlos Latuff who are expert in their work, are enough singly, for illumination against Zionist regime. Although these criminals can't tolerate even one activist; they get angry and take action against him.

In my opinion, the Hourglass Festival is a good event and it's held in a time that serious events are taking place. It was about half a century that the Zionist regime claimed that it has the military superiority in the region but the combatant of the resistance front had confuted this claim by destroying Merkava battle tanks and the iron dome, the missile defense system. There are some other events that are taking place like the interesting character of Trump to which, the Supreme leader has referred : " We actually thank this new president [Trump], because he revealed the real face of the United States."

Thank God, after defeating ISIS in the region, the presence of Iran in Syria and formation a common border between the resistance front and Israel, the Zionist regime feels dangers  more seriously than before.

Verifying the region, we see that there are nations around the Zionist regime that despite the treason of their governors, they extremely hate this regime; now, in addition to Palestine, Gaza and west bank people, all the nations are aware of Zionist regime oppression and we can see this awareness and anger in their artworks.

For example, there are someone like ms Doaa el-Adl, an expert egyption  caricaturiste who has persecuted the Zionist regime and publishes fine and valuable works singly . These are elites, ordinary people follow such mentality too; so the Zionist regime is actually bolekaded and the arena becomes increasingly tighten and dengerious for it.

Fencing in Palestine by Israel is so ridiculous because in the conceptual design of Israeli flag you can see two blue strips on the top and bellow the flag which represent the rivers Nile and Euphrates and the star of David that its angles show the desire of this regime for governing anywhere. This purposely design represents the massage that all of the land between the Nile and Euphrates rivers belongs to owner of this flag! While they are actually as much worried as they fenced all around the land and their fear increases daily.

Certainly after the establishment of stability in the region, this regime will be at serious risk because while the terrorist groups like ISIS and Al-Nusra endangered the security of the region, the Zionist regime had thoroughly supported them as far as the injured soldiers of these groups were going to Zionist regime for medical treatments. The images and documents of it exist and it was clear that who is offstage of these groups; also we've seen that Mr Trump had declared that ISIS was established by Obama and Hillary Clinton in election debates.

 Anyway, the situation is notable, as we see the evens occur in a way thoward the derogation of the Zionist regime and elimination of their time in the hourglass of their lifetime. Absolutely this annihilation is near and I congratulate you for choosing such name for the festival.

 

 

Is the influence of holding such festivals positive in associating artists of different countries?

 

Absolutely, one of the positive points of our works in art section is such events and some of our friends protest why we tend to work on Gaza, Yemen and Holocaust issues,etc. and don't care about domestic problems inside Iran!? While domestic artists are so active about these problems too and have notable works in this domain.

The positive point is that we've achieved a discourse and dialectology that results in acceptation of such mouvements by elites and it proves our sovereignty and influence and is considered as a bargaining chip. For example when we held Trumpism contest, 74 countries had participated, among which we can see  syndicate of Daryl Cagle who says that Iranians encourage artists to participate in their contests by 5 star hotels and well-off trips; he refers to the amount of prizes and says high sums are considered for these contests' prizes; while the highest amount had been 1500 dollars that is almost nothing, comparing with other festivals.

Others say that Iran expends millions of dollars against Israel each year and suppose that we devote big budgets to such events. Daryl Cagle and his like-minded feel sorry that why their allies and friends from Europe are cheated by Iranians, ones like world European caricaturistes' Federation that its commissioner had sent his works for Trumpism festival; additionally his deputy had sent his artwork too and was our guest at the festival. In that festival lots of elites had attended as participants and guests. One of them was Mr Michael Kountouris, a greek who had won the first prize of the festival ; he was selected as the best caricaturiste of Europe, last year too and Ms Doaa el-Adl about whom I spoke, was chosen as the best caricaturiste of Arab world.

We held a festival contest about the end of terrorism (ISIS) in the past that had participants from 64 countries. This amount is notable because in the most grand festivals, there are just 45 countries participating in the contest while singly from China, we had 200 participants . It proves that we've achieved a good position and it infuriate ones like Cagle. Their statements that they declare angrily promote our mouvement. They're angry because our words and logic are accepted and have pursuers. Unfortunately some of our authorities are not aware of these matters; they criticize us about it and ask us to work on domestic problems while domestic issues are pursued strongly in our programs.

The Supreme leader says: my problem is elites because they're not conscious about what I propose; so I have to hint them again.

Unfortunately in domestic festivals like Fajr virtual art festival, revolutionist artists are oppressed; even one artwork is not promoted with holy shrine defenders topic. When we verify the selected works of these festivals, we found that they're in low levels from the artistic point of view and they won't be published generally. They're scarcely published in booklets and released to limited number of people. In this regard we demand related entities why a salon is devoted to a couple of balloons, a chair and a mirror for some foreign authorities to come and take pictures ; these are pulses and massages that you send thoward them. This should be the claim of cultural authorities too but it's not and the activists of resistance art have lots of millstones for providing fundings for such mouvements.

One of the activities that benefits the popular capacity very well is Ammar festival. We should benefit popular capacities; for example we have 27 thousands center in mosques across the country, we have to utilize more from these potentials. Unfortunately there are some parties who don't want people to be informed about these revelation, defiance and seeking for justice. The government had invested all its capacity on JCPA; an act about which the Supreme leader had said we can't trust it from the beginning, they neglected of livelihood and economical issues and the result was dissatisfaction of people and street protests.

These are examples that if we don't care about them and don't seize the opportunities, the enemy will use them against us.

 

 

Participating in such festivals can cause dangers in different nations and religions for the artists, what is the stimulus that makes the participants to face with these dangers?

Fortunately the Zionist regime' dignity is not great as before; it stands strongly for its profits and benefits all the facilities of United Nations. Kufi Annan has relationships with Ranan Laurie or Jean Plantu who has started seriously a mouvement entitled "cartooning for peace" in France ;it represents different artists as ambassadors of peace; but such mouvements are not effective because people all around the world see the oppression and crimes of Zionist regime in the world; tanks God, NGOs are now waken about it and work against the Zionists and the dangers have decreased significantly for artists. For example, in the past, when an artiste published a critical caricature, they assassinated his/her  character greatly but now, the number of such artists has increased largely so they're confused that which one they should target.

When they threated Mr Carlos Latuff to death, all of his friends and his compatriots participated in Holocaust festival to show their protests in response to this threat . According to the Leader, the time of hitting and escaping is gone; now, if they hit, they will be hit back and they have to be responsible for it.

Mr Luc Descheemaeker is an ordinary teacher. He is a caricaturiste in Belgic who won the Holocaust contest prize. A ceremony was held at school for his success and all the press dominated by Zionist regime mobilized to assassinate his character; even they interviewed the schoolmaster and asked why they've held a ceremony for him. But he stands alone against them and respond to these attacks, he starts his activities and mortifies arrogance and Zionists. Also he participates in Trumpism and fighting against terrorism contests.

Now we see that another evil regime is going to be formed in the region named AL Saud. It suppresses larg-scale protests and the right claims of people in Yemen, Bahrain and even in Saudi Arabia itself and annonces its friendship with the Zionist regime. Actually we have to react against the oppressions of this regime too.