Cultural Roundup
08/06/2005
A review of cultural developments in Southeast Europe since 1 June:
(Various sources -- 01/06/05 – 08/06/05)
 Romania's Catalina Ponor (pictured) and Marian Dragulescu won gold medals at the European Individual Artistic Gymnastics Championships held at the weekend in Debrecen, Hungary. They were the only defending champions to win titles. Ponor was first in the women's beam event, while Dragulescu won the men's floor category. [Getty Images] |
The fifth edition of the international music festival EXIT will be held from 7 July to 10 July in Novi Sad, Serbia-Montenegro. Over 600 performances by prominent musicians and bands are expected this year.
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An exhibition of works by the Italian artist Robert Simioni, who has been living in Albania for the past ten years, opened at the National Gallery of Arts on 3 June. The paintings depict the Albanian country and people.
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The Museum of Contemporary Art in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), is hosting an exhibition dedicated to Germany's Erich Mendelson (1887-1953), one of the greatest architects of the 20th century. The Goethe Institute in BiH organised the event, which opened on 6 June and continues for a month.
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Over 50,000 people gathered for this year's traditional Rose Festival in Kazanlak, the centre of the Bulgarian "Valley of Roses" -- one of the biggest producers of rose oil in the world -- on 5 June. The event drew heads of foreign diplomatic missions to Bulgaria as well as thousands of tourists from France, Germany, Greece and Japan.
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Verses of the German poet Friedrich Schiller covered a front wall of the Vassil Levski National Stadium in Sofia on 7 June as part of the European Commission's Wall-to-Wall project. The initiative, launched to commemorate the signing of Bulgaria's EU Accession Treaty, aims to promote the diversity of European languages and letters. Thus far, Belgium, Britain, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden have had their "national poetry" appear on the walls of public buildings in Sofia.
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The Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sports presented on 1 June the draft National Education Standard for primary schools in the country. The programme, based on input from 500 scientists, academics, experts and teachers, will be tested at 50 schools during the next school year.
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Skopje and UNICEF sealed a new action plan on 3 June for co-operation in 2005-2009. The document envisions the allocation of some $3m from UNICEF and an additional $10m from other sources for projects in Macedonia.
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The Mustafa Pasha mosque in Skopje will be rebuilt under a $10,000 project, jointly launched by the Macedonian National Centre for Conservation and the Turkish Embassy in Macedonia. Work on the monument, which dates back to the 15th century, should be completed within a month.
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