JOY OF EUROPE
“Joy of Europe”, the largest and the oldest international manifestation of children’s creativity, was established back in 1969, on the occasion of the World Children’s Day. Since 1998, the International Visual Arts Competition “Joy of Europe” is included in the manifestation and, ever since its foundation, it outgrew the limits of the European continent and united children and the youth from all over the world. This competition brought to the Children’s Cultural Centre Belgrade a rich treasury of artworks that carry within themselves immense artistic values from diverse cultural backgrounds.
Because of the global pandemic, the Children’s Cultural Centre decided to cancel the scheduled programme related to the International Visual Arts Competition “Joy of Europe”. As the visual art meeting and support to natural and creative way of life have been the essence of the international competition for more than twenty years now, it is decided that this year the visual meeting would take a virtual form, and the 23rd International Visual Arts Competition “Joy of Europe” will have the character of a non-competitive show. The visual art schools and ateliers that have been represented in the visual art meetings “Joy of Europe” for more than ten years are cordially invited to display the recent works of their young artists.
This year, the selection of artworks for postal stamp, vignette and envelope is characterised by global pandemics, and the message is clear. The fear of unknown, isolation and tension affect the children and the youth around the world in many ways. In this time of isolation, the communication is most important of all. More than ever before, young people have the opportunity to introspect, to learn to communicate with their inner selves, to discover their talents, practice art, find the beauty of literature, film, painting, music… The beauty will save the world, said the great Dostoevsky, whose message tells us that we can make this dark period surprisingly useful if only we discover the beauty of the art.
Motif on the stamp: drawing by Tanja Novaković (15 years, Serbia). The authors of drawings on vignettes are: Preslava Staneva (13 years, Bulgaria), Munjapara Vraj Adarshbhai (7 years, India), Guo Ziwei (14 years, China), Nataša Vlahović (7 years, Serbia), Selen Naimova (13 years, Bulgaria), Sara Matić (13 years, Serbia), Raima Amandbhai Maniyar (13 years, India). Motif on the envelope: drawing by Tsz Yan Katlyn Lai (8 years, China).
Expert collaboration: Lidija Seničar, editor of drawing and painting competition, Children’s cultural centre Belgrade. Graphic realization of the issue: MA Jakša Vlahović, academic graphic artist.
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