The VIII International Festival of Visual Arts “VERA” opened for the first time in Portugal on September 17, 2014 with great success.
This festival was held in one of the most prestigious exhibition halls of Lisbon “Cordoaria National” with the participation of artists from different countries: Russia, Portugal, Angola, Sweden, Australia, Brazil, Belarus, Israel, France, Germany, Azerbaijan, Romania, China, Turkey, Czech Republic, Uzbekistan. The entire city of Lisbon was decorated with large posters, as well as LED screens advertising the festival. The exhibition was widely covered by the media in Portugal and attracted the attention of many Portuguese who visited with great interest.
This project fulfills a great and important task – it supports talented emerging artists, reveals new names in contemporary world art, contributes to the aesthetic education of young people and the expansion of cultural dialog between masters of art. This is the eighth festival, which once again confirmed its significance and importance for the cultural rapprochement of peoples. The festival was held at a decent level. The area occupied by the exposition hall is 3700 square meters. The International Festival of Fine Arts “VERA” is the only art festival that unites 8 directions in one cultural exhibition space: painting, graphics, sculpture, photography, installation, applied art, architecture and museum work. About 100 participants from 16 countries showed their creativity. The main organizers are two foundations – the Moscow Public Foundation for Support of Culture and Development of Contemporary Art and the Portuguese International Foundation “World without Borders”. The festival is organized with the support of the official partner – the Main Directorate for Diplomatic Corps Services under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, as well as with the support of the Parliamentary Group for Friendly Relations between Portugal and Russia, the Portuguese Navy, the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Portugal, the Lisbon City Hall, the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. For realization, organization and implementation of activities in preparation and holding of the Festival a colossal amount of work is involved: working bodies – Organizing Committee, Board of Trustees, Expert Council and International Jury have been created, which consist of representatives from legislative and executive authorities, authoritative figures of culture and art, commercial structures and individual entrepreneurs. The chairman of the organizing committee and curator is Vera Nikolaevna Kiseleva, Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Arts. The chairman of the international jury of the festival is Vice-President of the RAKh, Hero of Socialist Labor, winner of state prizes of the USSR, Azerbaijan and Russia – Salakhov Tair Teymurovich. 2014 has been declared the Year of Culture in Russia. From Russia to the festival invited People’s Artists of the USSR, Azerbaijan and Russia, as well as young artists, including: T.T. Salakhov, Z. K. Tsereteli, V. I. Nesterenko, V. A. Surovtsev, V. M. Zaitsev, TNK ART Gallery, N. Somova, L. Slavinskaya, O. Molchanov, I. Kormyshev and A. Margulis. Charitable Foundation named after M.V. Kovalev. P.M. Tretyakov presented a bronze bas-relief of Karl Bryullov (sculptor Pyotr Gerasimov) donated to the Multilingual Schools Foundation and the Millennium BCP Bank in Portugal for installation on the Golden Gate building in Funchal. Among the participants of the project are Portuguese Diago Navarro, Luis Noronha da Costa, Sandra Baia, Luis Bigotte, António Homem Cardoso, João Feijó, Viera Rodrigues, Alisher Narzullaev (Uzbekistan), Phillipe Lebon (Iceland), Aziz Art gallery – a creative collaboration of father and son, Rafik Aziz and Emil Aziz (Turkey). Ilona (Belarus), Igor Frank (Austria), Alexander Lee (Sweden), Mu Ke (China). The unique exposition was presented by Azerbaijani artists, including Sakit Mammadov, Ulviya Khamzaeva, Farid Alakbarov, Shavlad Mammadov. The festival was attended by representatives of spiritual, political and business elite from the country, business community, Ambassadors of different states, representatives of embassies and cultural centers of different countries of the world. The Festival included master classes, forums and conferences designed to consolidate masters of various creative professions. Following the results of the festival, the winners were awarded its main prize – the professional international award in the field of fine arts “VERA”, a bronze statuette symbolizing faith in creativity, love and success.
Venue: September 16-21, 2014. Portugal, Lisbon, exhibition hall “Cordoaria National”
Number of participants: more than 70 participants
Number of exhibits: More than 900 exhibits
Number of participating countries: 21 countries
Participating countries: Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Principe, Austria, Australia, Brazil, Belarus, Russia, Israel, France, Germany, Azerbaijan, Romania, China, Turkey, Czech Republic, Uzbekistan.
