The Days of Ossetian Culture in Europe were held annually in parallel at several venues, for two years the COVID-19 pandemic prevented their holding, this year the project was resumed, said during the video bridge Tskhinval-Brussels, Plenipotentiary Representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Ossetia in the Benelux countries, the head of the international association "Renaissance-Sandidzan" Radion Pukhaev.
“In 2020, it was planned to hold the events in Greece, Luxembourg, but the coronavirus pandemic made its own adjustments. It was very difficult to cancel everything, because so much work was put, but it was impossible to act otherwise,”Pukhaev noted.
He told about a large-scale exhibition of the Ossetian brush masters, which took place in the Netherlands.
“It was a grandiose exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum, which featured more than a hundred works by 23 Ossetian artists. In Brussels, the events were timed to coincide with the Day of the Republic of South Ossetia and the 1100th anniversary of the baptism of Alania. The events went well and aroused great interest,” Pukhaev said.
According to Juliet Tskhovrebova, chief specialist in fine arts of the Ministry of Culture of South Ossetia, Pukhaev's activities are of great benefit to South Ossetian culture.
“I believe that culture is the basis of any nation and Radion is doing a tremendous job. The Van Gogh Museum is truly a unique venue. What Pukhaev is doing is a huge job, and I understand how hard it is to reschedule such large-scale events.
The most important thing is that the culture of the Ossetian people has preserved its national identity in complex historical transformations, but at the same time we have preserved autochthonous elements and therefore we have our own cultural codes, which is very important,” Tskhovrebova said.
In her opinion, in order to preserve all this, intercultural interaction and political cultural ties are necessary.
Tskhovrebova asked which South Ossetian artists' works impressed the European audience the most.
As noted by Pukhaev, at one of the last exhibitions, an elderly man visited the exposition.
“He said that he had been teaching at the Academy of Arts in Holland. After viewing the exhibition, he said that he was most inspired by the works of Lavrenty Kasoev, he was deeply impressed. He also liked the paintings of Magrez Kelekhsaev, the works of Vadim Pukhaev and Vadim Kadzhaev were also noted,” Pukhaev said.
As noted by Tskhovrebova, Ministry of Culture of South Ossetia also plans to hold an exhibition.
“A very good exhibition space has appeared in St. Petersburg in the Aslan Chekhoev Museum. His family, which organizes exhibitions, tried to provide us with an exhibition space, and the work on this is underway. This initiative was supported by the head of the Republic, Alan Gagloev," the employee of the Ministry of Culture has emphasized.
Radion Pukhaev spoke about the exhibition of the Ossetian artists of different generations in Brussels.
“I personally selected the paintings; unfortunately, it is difficult for the authors of the paintings to be present at the exhibition themselves. The works of 11 artists are exhibited there. Nowadays it is very difficult to organize everything, in particular with logistics, but the main thing is not to give up,” he said.
At the end of the video bridge, Pukhaev told about his intentions to make innovations in the Days of Ossetian Culture, namely, to follow in the footsteps of the Alans in Europe and organize exhibitions in the places of their settlements.
He has noted that this is a big project, but due to the tense global situation, it is still only in the future and has expressed hope that it will still be implemented.
