LIGHT & SHADOWS on the BALKANS
Hellenic Foundation for Culture,
Belgrade
April 9 - May 24, 2009
 
The photographers who take part in the exhibition are Stelios Efstathopoulos (Greece), Nina Nikolova (Bulgaria), Bevis Fusha (Albania), Stanko Abadzic (Κροατία), Imre Szabό (Serbia),Virgil Mlesnita (Romania), Timourtas Onan (Turkey), Milomir Kovacevic (Bosnia). Each photographer presents ten photographs demonstrating the contemporaneous artistic activity and creativity, the life and historical development in a region which has been constantly changed by events, and vignettes from the everyday life of the people of the Balkans.
 
Separately and together, the photographs from the small communities of the region which have lived next to each other for more than a hundred years serve to confirm the particularity of each people, while at the same time they bear witness to the common denominator of origin of this art, as momentarily captured by the lens, which is none other than man, regardless of nationality, religion, language.
 
"The Balkan region, with its long past, full of wars, incursions, and uprisings, with the fluidity of its frontiers as a distinguishing characteristic, today lays claim to the right to peace and co-operation, and the prospect of democratic multicultural co-existence"
stresses Professor Georgios Babiniotis, President of the Hellenic Foundation for Culture. "The Hellenic Foundation for Culture, always a supporter of co-operation on equal terms and of pluralism, in an effort to contribute to the promotion of intercultural dialogue, peaceful co-existence, and the co-operation of the peoples of South-Eastern Europe, has undertaken the initiative of rallying the photographers of the Balkans, of supporting the Light and Shadows on the Balkans photography exhibition, and of choosing it as the opening event at its Centre in one of the oldest cities in Europe – Belgrade, in Serbia."
 
"The selection of the works has to do with the redefinition of space which arises through a record of time and of people," comments Mrs. Magdalena Michailidou, curator of the Exhibition. "Fears, insecurities, or deep desires rise to the surface as in a dream. Harsh tones of black and white set a scene which is cruel and at the same time tender.The subject-matter emerges from the personal histories of each photographer. The individual style of each artist shapes the framework within which he/she lives and moves. If you put together these differing visual angles, you gain a feeling of a 'pan-Balkan' space."
Organisation: HFC
Curator: Magdalena Mihailidou
Exhibition hours: MONDAY-TUESDAY-FRIDAY: 10.00-17.00,
WEDNESDAY: 12.00-18.30, THURSDAY: 12.00-20.00, SATURDAY: 11.00-14.00
Address: Kneza Milosa 14, 11080 Belgrade
From the introduction of Dr Jordan Baev |
