Culture across borders

The International Forum “The Culture of the Barents Region ”, the fourth of its kind, brought together 140 participants from several countries, and first of all from the four countries of the Barents Region. Among the participants were top level officials as Trond Giske, the Norwegian Minister of Culture and Church Affairs, Aleksandr Avdeev, Russian Minister of Culture, Jean-Yves Gallardo, Senior Adviser of the Nordic Council of Ministers and several more.

The forum was a chance to gather, take a look at what has been achieved, ponder on the role of culture in the international cooperation and on future prospects.

Trond Giske at the press-conference held at the Arkhangelsk Oblast regional administration spoke a lot about the borders.

During the Cold War borders alienated people from each other and how important it is to simplify border formalities. Closed borders create the image of an enemy, suspicion and hostility, while open borders serve for trust, friendship and cooperation. Some steps have already been taken and now it is easier for residents of the Russian Barents Region to obtain visas to Norway. Mr. Giske expressed his assuredness, that soon Russian citizens will travel to the European Union without visas and the cooperation in the Barents Region will set an example. He also mentioned his favorite Russian artists, such as Petr Chaykovskiy, Sergey Prokofiev, in his turn Aleksandr Avdeev mentioned Edvard Grieg and Edvard Munch as his favourites.

Text and photo: BarentsObserver Arkhangelsk

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