Opening of the Balticeye Exhibition in Brussels
Approximately seventy guests attended the opening of the #balticeye exhibition on 29 January, 2015 at the building of the European Commission / Directorates-General for Regional Policy. Four EUSTORY alumni who contributed to the exhibition were also present.
Lena Andersson Pench, Director of the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy at the European Commission, welcomed the guests. She explained why the cross-border dialogue of young Europeans about questions of regional identity is of great concern to the EU.
Ambassador Eduardas Borisovas, Deputy Director General of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) Secretariat, emphasised the necessity of an open discussion about whether a Baltic identity exists, and if it did, what it would look like.
Gabriele Woidelko, expert for European affairs at the Körber Foundation and Spokesperson of the Steering Committee of the EUSTORY network added: "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."
Four of the young photographers of #balticeye attended the opening in Brussels: Bartłomiej Kokot from Poland, Johanna Evensen from Sweden, Maria Zatoplyaeva from Russia and Benedicte Popkema from Norway.On behalf of all photographers who contributed to this exhibition, they explained how they approached the task and how they translated the topics #wherewecomefrom, #sharedpast, #borderlife, #identities and #ourgeneration into photos.
Bartłomiej Kokot addressed the guests briefly and emphasised the relevance of the Baltic Sea Youth Dialogue for his own personal coming to terms with questions of regional history and regional identity. A special challenge for him was working with the medium photo as he was forced to simplify complex topics and content in order to visualise them in a photo.
Twenty-eight of these photographs have been printed and framed and willl be exhibited in Brussels from 29 January to 28 February, 2015.
The Körber Foundation and the CBSS plan to continue the "Baltic Sea Youth Dialogue" in 2015.