Balticeye Exhibition at the European Commission in Brussels
On 29 January, the photo exhibition #balticeye will be opened in Brussels. Among others, EUSTORY alumni contributed to this visual result of the first "Baltic Sea Youth Dialogue." Four alumni will attend the vernissage at the building of the European Commission / Directorates-General for Regional Policy.
In September 2014, twenty-two young people from twelve countries followed the invitation of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) and the Körber Foundation to attend the "Baltic Sea Youth Dialogue" at the Estonian-Russian border. In the one-week programme entitled “Europe on the Move – History and Future of Borders and Identities," they investigated the meaning of shared borders and border changes in history and in the present.
The participants captured the visual impressions of their investigations in the virtual photo exhibition #balticeye. Thirty of these photographs will be printed, framed and exhibited in Brussels from 29 January to 28 February, 2015. They illustrate the topics #wherewecomefrom, #sharedpast, #borderlife, #identities and #ourgeneration.
The exhibition #balticeye will be opened by the Director of the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy at the European Commission, Lena Andersson Pench, Ambassador Eduardas Borisovas, Deputy Director General of the CBSS Secretariat, and Gabriele Woidelko, expert for European affairs at the Körber Foundation and Spokesperson of the Steering Committee of the EUSTORY network. Four of the young photographers of #balticeye will also come to Brussels for this occasion: Bartłomiej Kokot from Poland, Johanna Evensen from Sweden, Maria Zatoplyaeva from Russia and Benedicte Popkema from Norway.
"The current developments in Europe show the importance of cross-border dialogue and exchange. We cannot ignore questions of identity in Europe's multiethnic and multicultural societies. This question is of utmost importance in a regional environment like the Baltic Sea area which is connected by a common, often conflict-laden history upon which a new basis of dialogue and coexistence has to be built. Roughly twenty-five years after the fall of the Iron Curtain today's Europe is faced with new borders. By inviting young people to participate in a transnational dialogue we aim to involve that very generation that will shape the future of Europe and the responsible and future-oriented handling of the question of European identity", explains Gabi Woidelko. The Körber Foundation and the CBSS plan to continue the "Baltic Sea Youth Dialogue" in 2015.
This way to the virtual exhibition.