MINSK, 2 March (BelTA) – The international exhibition "One Hundred Smiles of Gagarin. A Smile for Peace" opened at the National Center for Contemporary Arts in Minsk on 1 march, BelTA has learned.
"The world is celebrating a big date - the 90th anniversary of the birth of the first cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin. He was the first man into space and will remain so forever. Yuri Gagarin's personal charm and his famous smile are remembered all over the world. With this exhibition, we wanted to show that a smile can help solve many things in difficult times," said Olesya Inozemtseva, Deputy Director at the National Center for Contemporary Arts, one of the authors and curators of the exhibition.
She added that the exhibition consists of three parts, which are of equal importance. The first part presents the Yuri Gagarin photographs from partners: the Yuri Gagarin United Memorial Museum-Reserve and the cosmonaut's niece Natalia Gagarina from the family archive.
The second part includes paintings selected during the open-call process. Anyone could send their works on the theme of peace, flight, space and the life of Yuri Gagarin himself. The exhibition features drawings from different countries. The third part is the international event "A Smile for Peace", held with the assistance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus. People who wanted to pitch in have sent photos from different parts of the world. To participate in the event, it was enough to take a picture against the background of the image of Yuri Gagarin and send the photo to Belarus. Now the museum's exposition presents more than 200 photographs from 32 countries of the world.
Olesya Inozemtseva stressed that the campaign does not end with the launch of the exhibition. It only begins. Photos can be sent to the museum until 1 April. The museum will also celebrate International Cosmonautics Day which is marked w on 12 April and will announce a more detailed program later.
"This project is very important. Because the movement towards peace drawing together hundreds and thousands of people will definitely bring the conflict-free world in which we want to live closer," said Sergei Krishtapovich, Director of the National Center for Contemporary Arts. He stressed that this is the third project that the center has implemented together with the Yuri Gagarin United Memorial Museum-Reserve.
