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VIRTUAL EXHIBITION «The Face of Europe»

The Day of Europe is celebrated annually on the third Saturday of May in Ukraine starting from 2003. The virtual exposition "The Face of Europe" was hosted in the regional art museum on 18^th of May on this occasion, which through the prism of art shows the versatility of the embodiment of this image in the works of fellow countrymen - from the illustration of the legend of the abduction of Europe to the image of grandiose architectural masterpieces.

         The holiday`s history begins after the declaration of the French Foreign Minister Robert Schumann, which included a call for unification, and it actually became the first step towards the creation of the European Union. What is Europe? What is «the European way»? A lot of questions.

         In conditions of the war in the East, passing a number of socio-economic tests and striving to restore historical memory, Ukraine clearly defined the vector in international politics and took an active course on European integration. Ukrainian society is ready to embody the system of pan-European values, to be  the part of the European cultural space. This is a special holiday, because Ukraine is the only state, which is not a member of the EU in which at the state level the Day of Europe is celebrated.

         The exhibition presents works by I. Smichko «Europe» (2013) and M. Nadezhdina «The Abduction of Europe» (1991), which are devoted to the interesting myth of the abduction of Europe, which became a favorite plot for many famous artists, including Titian, Claude Lorrain, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Valentin Serov, and others. It is about the kidnapping of a young beautiful girl, a Phoenician princess, whose name was Europe, passionately in love with the main deity of Olympus Zeus, when she played with her girlfriends on the beach, he stole her in the form of a white bull and brought it to the island of Crete. The name of this heroine of ancient Greek mythology gave the name of the whole part of the world in the Northern Hemisphere. Because the European culture inherited the achievements of antiquity. Pictures of Europe and the bull found on frescoes in Pompeii (1st century BC).

         Part of the submitted works belongs to the fellow artist countryman S. Drisi, a brush in his hands which cleverly reveals the romantic mood of the famous European cities - the evening, or even the night, illuminated by the light of city lights – «Lights of Valkenburg» (1999) and morning and fog – «Morning in Antwerp» (1999). The themes of Roman landscapes with majestic architectural complexes are presented in works by V. Belous «Bridge of Saint Angel» (2014), «Forum» (2014).

         Сulture and civilization are the basis of economic and social prosperity of Europe. It laid the foundations of modern civilization, civil society, an efficient market economy, and a system of social justice. European history is the story of wars, victories, technical achievements, but first and foremost, it is the story of the birth of ideas and values which united people. And Ukraine is the part of this story.

         Anna Nedlinskaya – the research fellow at the department of scientific and educational work of the regional art museum