Press releases

MOSCOW, 15 September (BelTA) – The international ethnocultural festival Ethno Art Fest 2017 kicked off at the business and cultural center of the Belarusian Embassy in Russia in the evening of 14 September to bring together Zurab Tsereteli’s paintings and attire designed by Valentin Yudashkin and Vyacheslav Zaitsev, BelTA has learned.

Minister Counsellor of the Belarusian Embassy in Russia Yuri Yaroshevich addressed the guests with a welcoming speech. The event was attended by representatives of the CIS Executive Committee, the Moscow House of Nationalities, Russia’s Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudichestvo), the Russian Culture Ministry, embassies and diasporas of the CIS member states in Russia. Yuri Yaroshevich noted that the Belarusian business and cultural center has become a significant cultural hub in the Russian capital. The events it hosts draw the attention of prominent members of the art community. Yuri Yaroshevich expressed confidence that the pieces of art and works by modern fashion designers displayed at the festival will help visitors learn how to understand each other better and see the world’s beauty in all its forms.

The festival is seeing a diverse program. It started with the Dialogue of Cultures exhibition timed to the 260th anniversary of the Russian Academy of Arts. The exhibition features works by prominent painters, sculptors, and applied artists from Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine. The exhibition features the works by Zurab Tsereteli, Tahir Salahov, Boris Messerer, and other members of the Russian Academy of Arts. Unique works and sketches by Valentin Yudashkin and Vyacheslav Zaitsev, and other Russian fashion designers are among the highlights, too.

The fest continued with an ethnic-style fashion show featuring traditional folk costumes and modern clothes embellished with ethnocultural elements by modern Russian and CIS couturiers. Another event was a fair of arts and crafts and other ethnocultural products made by people living in the CIS. The fair drew together organizations, companies, private entrepreneurs and authors, whose products contain ethnic, national, and cultural components. Among the exhibits were works by craftsmen and national costumes, ceramic art, leatherwork, metal goods, weaving art, embroidery, lace, and jewelry.

Ethno Art Fest was first held in 2016 and was dedicated to the CIS’s 25th anniversary. The project’s main events are held in Russia and the UK. The festival has several distinctive features: an ethnocultural focus, a wide geographical coverage, and multinational participants. Ethno Art Fest is designed to preserve ethnocultural diversity, popularize historic and cultural heritage, folk traditions, national crafts, and UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the CIS.