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On 6 February, Minister of Foreign Affairs Petras Vaitiekūnas opened a photograph exhibition OBJECTIVe Lithuania. The exhibition of the photographs by the students of European Humanities University (EHU) was opened at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Minister was glad that thanks to this exhibition, Lithuanians and Belarusians became closer to each other.

‘A common 679 kilometres long Lithuanian-Belarusian border obliges us to search and not to forget each other, and to remember that Belarusians are a European nation. We have to reduce the barriers between us and communicate more. Therefore, every initiative of this kind is welcome. I would be very joyful to see the photographs, in which Lithuanians living in Belarus would also catch the glimpse of this country,’ said P.Vatiekūnas.

During the opening of the exhibition, EHU Rector Anatoly Mikhailov stressed the many centuries of common experience, uniting the Lithuanian and Belarusian nations.

‘This project is important to our region, this is the way to form the young generation, which unites the Lithuanian and Belarusian societies,’ said A.Mikhailov.

This exhibition presents an outlook on Lithuania by the participants of the joint seminar Creative Summer Academy 2007, which was attended by the Belarusian students from Vilnius-based EHU and students from two Lithuanian institutions of higher education.

Creative Summer Academy 2007 is a part of the EHU project ‘The Lithuanian language and culture studies for EHU students, teachers and staff’. The implementation of this project was financed by the Development cooperation and democracy promotion program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

During the implementation of this project, key attention was dedicated to the studying of the Lithuanian language by Belarusian students. The participants also implemented creative projects and took artistic photographs. According to the Art Director of Creative Summer Academy 2007, Belarusian painter Tatjana Bembel, the title of the exhibition OBJECTIVe Lithuania symbolizes a look, investigating the world around us.

According to the project coordinator Kaciaryna Radzko, the photographs by the participants of the Academy show the whole colour spectre of Lithuania and Vilnius.

The students of law, journalism, philosophy, design and culture from Lithuania and Belarus participated together in the project.

The opening of the exhibition was also attended by Undersecretary of Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Laimonas Talat-Kelpša, members of the Seimas, diplomats and pupils from Vilnius Belarusian secondary school named after Francysk Skaryna.