Over 1,000 artisans and artists gathered at the 21st "Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk"

On July 11, Vitebsk /Olga Bogacheva - BELTA/. Over 1,000 artisans and artists gathered at the XXI International Festival of Arts "Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk", reports BELTA correspondent. Artists will be the first to start working at the forum today. Traditionally, the open-air art gallery "Vitebsk Vernissage" will be located on the pedestrian streets of Tolstoy and Suvorov near the Vitebsk Regional Museum of Local Lore. "This year, about 150 artists from all over Belarus will present their works on various themes and tastes to Vitebsk residents and festival guests," reported the Vitebsk Center for Contemporary Art. The representation of folk masters and artisans is more numerous than ever, with about a thousand people gathered for the celebration. They will present crafts such as wood carving; painting on wood, fabric, glass; weaving products from local plant materials (wicker, reeds, roots, birch bark, wood chips, bast, etc.); appliqué and inlay with straw; weaving on hand and loom looms; belt weaving; hand embroidery; lace making and knitting; pottery; making clay toys; blacksmithing; cooperage; making national costumes in local and regional traditions while preserving traditional weaving and embroidery technologies; making souvenir ethnographic dolls in national costumes; hand artistic knitting in Belarusian folk traditions; artistic leather processing; beadwork; pysanka. The majority of masters and artisans will work at the folk crafts and arts fair "Zadzvinski Kirmaš", the grand opening of which will take place on July 12 on the territory of the Cultural and Historical Complex "Golden Ring of the City of Vitebsk "Dvina". Visitors to the fair will be able to take master classes from potters, blacksmiths, ceramists, and also watch wood carvers at work. Representatives of the latter craft, gathered from Belarus, Poland, and Russia, will take part in the plein air "Pohlyad u Mіnulaе". The joint exhibition "Patchwork Mosaic" will bring together masters from Obninsk, Kaluga region, and the "Phoenix" club from Polotsk.

The "City of Masters" this year is located on a new site in Victory Park on Kalinin Street. The exhibition-sale has brought together about 200 representatives of Houses of Crafts and Folk Masters' Clubs from the Vitebsk region to present the traditional art of the Dvina region and the specifics of its regional development to the festival participants as fully as possible. On July 14-15, the unforgettable "Openwork Dreams" cut-paper art festival-competition will be held here. Participants will compete in seven nominations: traditional item, composition with traditional motifs, silhouette cut-outs, author's development of traditions, three-dimensional cut-paper art (lamps, angels, etc.), collection of domestic works, and creative debut. You can enjoy the works of artists and craftspeople until the closing of "Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk". -0-

BELTA