About 200 works will represent Belarus in the "Drawn Equator" by Slovak artist Andrej Smolak

August 12, Vitebsk /Olga Bogacheva - BELTA/. About 200 works will represent Belarus in the art project "Drawn Equator" by Slovak artist Andrey Smolák. 49 of them can be seen at the exhibition that opened today at the art gallery of the National Polotsk Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve, Andrey Smolák told a BELTA correspondent.

The exhibition features works by Alexander Konovalov, Georgy Poplavsky, Vladimir and Andrey Savich, Vladimir Vishnevsky, and other artists and cultural figures of Belarus. According to the project's terms, each author presents only one personal work on a canvas measuring 20 cm by 20 cm, dedicated to any theme except terrorism, fascism, and other tragic events that carry negative, sad emotions. "The project is designed to promote friendship and mutual understanding among people of different countries, so only positive works are accepted," the artist emphasized. He also noted that their authors are not necessarily brush masters. They can be cultural and science figures, politicians, famous athletes.

To date, the project, launched in 2007, has already collected about 1.3 thousand works from Israel, Russia, Cuba, China, Japan, Poland, Germany, and most other European countries. Each artwork corresponds to 1 km of the Earth's equator. The length of the latter is 40,075 km – this is exactly how many works Andrey Smolák plans to collect. The collected paintings will be stored in the artist's gallery in Slovakia, and upon completion of the project, they will be exhibited in a gallery specially created for this purpose.

Andrey Smolák is a prominent artist and public figure in Slovakia. He has organized and conducted numerous exhibitions, international symposiums, and art projects. He is a laureate of the European Union of Art Prize (2002), the World Salvador Dalí Prize (2004), and other prestigious awards.-0-