Portrait of Kražiai in Plovdiv, elections in Bulgaria
"Portrait of Kražiai" at Plovdiv Art Museum, Bulgaria. 2011
Plovdiv Photography Meetings the oldest photo festival in Bulgaria (founded in 1979), welcomes this year photography exhibitions from Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece, Czech Republic, Romania, Russia, Canada and Lithuania. Among more than 30 artists, the festival presents works of Lithuanian photographer Mindaugas Kavaliauskas.
An exhibition of 20 prints of “Portrait of Kražiai”, a signature work of Mindaugas Kavaliauskas, is exhibited in the Plovdiv Art Gallery. This and other venues of the festival exhibitions are unique examples of Plovdiv’s multi-cultural heritage. Most festival venues are distributed in the historic old town of Plovdiv on one of the six hills. Some parts of the old town, such as the perfectly conserved Roman theatre, bring evidence of the life in the antiquity in this town.
On October 16, 2011, during the meeting with the audience in the venue of exhibition of the Lithuanian photographer, Nikolai Lautliev, director of the Plovdiv photography festival pointed out that the exhibition of Mindaugas Kavaliauskas would restart the collaboration between Bulgarian and Lithuanian photography people, which was in its peak in the 1980s, but after 1990 had stopped until now.
Mindaugas Kavaliauskas was also invited to do several talks: to present Kaunas Photo festival I the conference of Oct 15, and on the following day, to present the idea and the background of “Portrait of Kražiai”.
The opening of the Plovdiv Photography Meetings started on Oct 14. On this day Mindaugas Kavaliauskas together with another Lithuanian photographer Gintaras Česonis (director of Kaunas Photography Gallery) were travelling from Grenoble (France), where they had been photographing the city for a documentary sister city project “Kaunas – Grenoble”. Two Lithuanians arrived to Plovdiv on the 15th of October to join the continuation of the exhibition opening tour of Plovdiv festival, watching the performances of political campaigns on the streets of Plovdiv weeks before elections.
