The opening ceremony of an exhibition of the works by the participants and winners of the joint project of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the State Service for Culture of the PMR – the photo contest “On the banks of the free Dniester” was held in the Palace of the Republic in Tiraspol today. Taking part in the event were Deputy Prime Minister of the PMR for International cooperation, Foreign Minister Nina Shtanski and Head of the State Service for Culture Maria Kyrmyz.
Opening the event, Maria Kyrmyz told how the project had developed. According to her, the idea to hold the contest arose in the preparations for the 25th anniversary of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic when it was decided to prepare for the holiday a presentation publication about Pridnestrovie. The Head of the State Service for Culture emphasized that the idea had very lively response from the creative society of the republic.
“During the competition more than 400 works were submitted, which reflected our history, nature and sights of Pridnestrovie, cities and regions of the republic. The competition created an atmosphere in which the creative initiative became active and new photo masters came out,” – she said.
Nina Shtanski, in her turn, noted that the photo contest is not only cultural, but also became a fully image project aimed at telling guests about Pridnestrovie.
“Coming to our republic, guests rarely go outside Tiraspol, and unfortunately, many people even cannot imagine what beautiful places we have. The goal was set: to try through photos “to tell about Pridnestrovie without words”. We did not set any frames, it was a kind of experiment: we tried to understand how the artist would in the place of a diplomat describe his country, because popular, public diplomacy is sometimes far more successful than the official diplomacy,” – she said.
According to her, the success of the photo contest allowed to initiate on its basis a number of new cultural projects. “We decided not to be limited by publishing the photo album about Pridnestrovie – the works of the photo contest will be exhibited in our brotherly republics of South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Nagorny Karabakh, we planned a number of expositions in the Russian Federation,” – stressed Nina Shtanski.
The event ended with the awards ceremony of the winners in the photo contest, as well as those participants whose works will be included in the presentation publication coinciding with the 25th anniversary of Pridnestrovie.
In the Palace of the Republic the photo exhibition “On the banks of the free Dniester” will last until the end of January next year. In prospect placement of the exhibition is scheduled to be held in State administrations of cities and regions.
