May 5, 2020

Arnold Bennett (English writer) Your own mind is a sacred enclosure into which nothing 12 harmful can enter except by your permission. Arts & Culture

License Holder: Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) Has the digital museum finally Editor-in-Chief: Kambakhsh Khalaji Editorial Dept. Tel: +98 21 88755761-2 Editorial Dept. Fax: +98 21 88761869 come of age? Subscription Dept. Tel: +98 21 88748800 ICPI Publisher: +98 21 88548892, 5 Advertising Dept. Tel & Email: +98 21 88500617 - [email protected] Thomas Campbell* We b s it e : www.iran-daily.com newspaper.iran-daily.com Two days after 9/11, Mayor Giuliani called the leaders of New Email: [email protected] York’s museums and asked them to reopen as fast as possible. Dur- Printing House: Iran Cultural & Press Institute ing the following weeks, the museums were packed with dazed New Yorkers looking for solace in their favorite works of art and Address: Iran Cultural & Press Institute, #208 Khorramshahr Avenue -Iran familiar buildings. The unusual aspect of the coronavirus crisis is Iran Daily has no responsibility whatsoever for the advertisements and promotional material printed in the newspaper. that social engagement is the medium of transfer; isolation the pro- phylactic. Had we faced this pandemic in 2001, the impact on the art world would have been even more devastating. Today, as much of the globe undergoes some form of quarantine, we are able to continue many of our business and social interactions in the virtual realm. Museums that have invested in their digital assets over the last 20 years are set to benefit from this moment. Renowned Iranian translator Daryabandari dies at 91 There is ferocious competition to jump into action. Museums and galleries worldwide are now poised to deliver virtual tours, cclaimed Iranian author and among his friends. artworks of the day, web seminars and discussions, social engage- translator Najaf Daryabandari, He never attended university and was a ment and, especially in the US, online fundraising. Audiences are Awho translated many of the self-taught teacher. downloading this content at unprecedented levels, with many re- world’s outstanding literary works into Daryabandari once said that transla- sponding in creative ways: Witness the hilarious responses to the Persian, died on Monday at the age of 91. tion is not a science; it is an action to be Rijksmuseum and Getty Museum promoting challenges to rec- His son, Sohrab, gave the news on his learned through regular or irregular prac- reate works of art with household items. The speed with which Instagram page. He wanted Daryaban- tice – through trial and error. museums and audiences have adapted to this enforced shift from dari’s fans not to visit his house because analogue operations to virtual activity is staggering. of the coronavirus outbreak, IRNA re- Condolences pour in It’s amazing to me how im- ported. possible this would have been Daryabandari began his translation ca- Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman 20 years ago. As a curator at the reer at the age of 18 with short works by Seyyed Abbas Mousavi, officials and Metropolitan Museum of Art in . literary figures and organizations have the late 1990s, I recall my own Born in 1929 in Iran’s southern city of expressed their condolences over the sad resistance to writing for the web- Abadan, Daryabandari has some master- demise of the acclaimed Iranian transla- site. But a team of digital evange- pieces in his works, including ‘A Fare- tor. lists in the education department well to Arms’ and ‘The Old Man and the Mousavi said on his Twitter page on was determined to get every cura- Sea’ by . Monday that Daryabandari introduced tor to write for the Timeline of Art Other translations by Najaf Daryaban- the world’s literary and philosophical History. I suddenly realized the dari include ‘The Prophet and the Mad- works with his unique style of prose. His power of a medium in which pro- man’ by Gibran Khalil Gibran, ‘Ragtime’ work is an artistic recreation in the Per- duction took days, not months, and ‘Billy Bathgate’ by Edgar Lawrence sian language. The role and name of this and which reached a much larger Doctorow, ‘A Rose for Emily’ and ‘As I famous translator will be eternal in pub-

audience than traditional publica- Lay Dying,’ by William Faulkner and ‘A YJC lic diplomacy and the minds of literature tions. That experience shaped my History of Western Philosophy’ by Ber- lovers. thinking when I was appointed trand Russell. In 2017, Iran’s Cultural Heritage, After losing his wife and suffer- Iran’s Deputy Tourism Minister Mo- director of the Met in late 2008. Timeline apart, the museum was Daryabandari received the Thornton Handicrafts, and Tourism Organization ing from brain strokes, Daryabandari hammad-Hassan Talebian also sent his lagging in the digital realm. The website had been developed as a Wilder Prize from Columbia University (ICHHTO) named Daryabandari as a stopped working. He was a sociable man condolences to Iran’s literary community marketing tool and our collection was only partly online – the mu- for translating American literary works. “Living Human Treasure.” and many Iranian writers and poets were for the loss of the great translator. seum had 23 separate collection databases that were not synced. We created a digital department, rebuilt the website, and consolidated the collections in a single database. Gallery descriptions and object labels were created for desktop exploration, and online publications Sydney Sydney FilmFilm FFestivalestival were envisioned that privileged beautiful photography of artworks alongside the voices of the people who cared for and about them. IIran’sran’s ‘‘TheThe SSilhouettes’ilhouettes’ aawardedwarded Yet when in 2010 I met with Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google at mmovesoves oonlinenline the time, and asked him where we should be putting our efforts, he pulled out his phone and said the future was all about handheld aatt SSwisswiss VVisionsisions dduu RReeleel FFestivalestival The Sydney Film Festival (SFF) will go ahead in a smaller and all-dig- devices – which he predicted would become smaller, more pow- ital format next month, organizers announced on Monday. They had erful, cheaper and therefore ubiquitous. Over the following three Iranian documentary, ‘The Silhouettes,’ di- repatriate to – to live and work previously announced that this year’s event would be canceled due to years, we invested heavily in wiring the whole museum for digital rected by Afsaneh Salari, received the Special there – but is confronted with the opposition the coronavirus outbreak, and that the next edition would be held in access, not an easy task in a building that covers the length of four Mention of the International Feature Film of his family. It’s a film about belonging, iden- 2021. city blocks, has multiple floors and in which the walls are as much Competition at the Visions du Réel Interna- tity, separation and connecting to your roots “It’s not so much a as 14-feet thick. As we continued to invest in curated content, up- tional Film Festival in Switzerland. through the past in order to reconcile with the change of heart. When loading all our publications online in searchable PDFs, and creating future. we announced the can- series such as 82nd and Fifth, The Artist Project, and #MetKids, we Francesca Maz- celation of the physical also began experimenting with social media. It took a lot of people zoleni’s ‘Punta- festival we mentioned and investment to push the Met into the digital age, but proportion- sacra,’ Francisco that in the coming al to what we were spending each year on acquisitions, exhibitions Bermejo’s ‘The months we would look and traditional publications it seemed an appropriate extension of Other One’ and for opportunities to our mission. And while there were a few sceptics among the trust- Nick Brandestini’s celebrate films and ees and staff, I believed strongly that, as with the televising of sport, ‘Sapelo’ scooped filmmakers. We’re the new technology would enhance the experience of existing audi- the top prizes for very determined to ences, while helping us to reach new ones. Best Feature Film, support the film indus- johnmcdonald.net.au Today, as art lovers around the world browse the web for re- Best Medium try, and the Australian search, entertainment and distraction, there is no doubt that the Length or Feature film industry in particular, and this virtual edition is a way of doing digital museum has truly arrived. But I also think that this will be Film and National that while remaining connected to our very enthusiastic audience,” a a time of reckoning and reflection for museums trying to substanti- Competition. festival spokesman told Variety. ate their footing in the digital world. For all the feverish diversity Most Innovative The virtual festival will run June 10-21. The program will include: of content now on offer, the digital platform is often facile, super- Feature Film award World premieres of compelling true stories from some of Australian ficial, and undiscriminating. I suspect that within a few years, the of the festival went documentary filmmakers; a program of shorts from rising stars of the augmented and virtual-reality technologies being developed in the to ‘Anerca, Breath Australian film industry; and films from European female directors. gaming industry will result in more convincing simulacrums of be- ISNA of Life,’ (Markku All film screenings will be ticketed and require payment. ing in the world’s great museums. And we’ll be able to choose from The film won the award jointly with, ‘El Lehmuskallio, Johannes Lehmuskallio, Fin- It will also host a series of prize events: The Documentary Australia a range of customized curatorial avatars to guide us. Father Plays Himself,’ Mo Scarpelli’s docu- land). Foundation Award for Australian Documentary; the Dendy Awards for But for now, it is hard not to avoid intellectual indigestion from mentary which follows a father and son as The 51st edition of the festival was held Australian Short Films; and Europe! Voices of Women in Film. this smorgasbord of digital content. As I hunker down during this they shoot a film in which the father plays from April 24 to May 2, 2020 in Switzerland. “This year’s special 67th Sydney Film Festival: Virtual Edition and period of lockdown, I’m looking forward to balancing this digital himself, in the middle of the Amazonian The Iranian documentary, ‘Fish Eye,’ by Awards is all about bringing audiences across the nation together at learning experience with some serious analogue activity: Time to jungle. Amin Behruzzadeh and two Iranian short a particularly challenging time in celebration of filmmakers and par- finally alphabetize my library of art books, and to dig into a few of Swiss festival’s prize ceremony was held films, ‘A Horse Has More Blood Than a Hu- ticularly the Australian film industry,” said Sydney Film Festival Di- those tomes that I have been too busy to read in my life pre-isola- online due to COVID-19 crisis and one of the man,’ a co-production between Iran and the rector Nashen Moodley in a prepared statement. tion. They look so beautiful on my bookshelves and coffee table. major plaudits in the international competition UK by Iranian director, Abolfazl Taluni, and Organizers describe the virtual edition of the SFF as a national section of the festival went to Salari’s film. ‘The Leaves’ by Hamid Ja’fari also participat- event, and explained that screenings will be geo-blocked to be visible * Thomas Campbell is director and CEO of the Fine Arts ‘The Silhouettes’ is the story of an Afghan ed in the Swiss festival. in Australia only. The festival will rely on New Zealand-based startup Museums of San Francisco. This article was first published in family living in Iran for forty years. The film Variety, visionsdureel.ch, and ISNA con- Shift72 as its technology partner. apollo-magazine.com. follows the son of the family who wants to tributed to this story. Details of the lineup and ticket sales procedures will be unveiled on May 27.

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