The Forum of Slavic Cultures presented itself at the second Festival of Slovak Naïve Painting in Serbia and engaged in activities to promote and study this fine art, which is inscribed on the list of intangible cultural heritage in Serbia and is applying for inscription on the UNESCO list.
The festival, which was held under the patronage of European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Culture Maja Gojković and FSK Director Dr Andreja Rihter, commenced in Kovačica in Vojvodina, considered the centre of naïve painting of the Slovak minority in Serbia, and then moved to Belgrade’s Institute for the Study of Cultural Development.
At the inauguration of the festival, which was accompanied by the exhibition “Reformers of Slavic Literacy and Slavic Languages” by the painter Vieroslava Svetlik, the organiser and head of the Babka Gallery Pavel Babka, Maja Gojković, Dr. Andreja Rihter, the Head of the EU Representation in Serbia Emanuele Giaufret, and the Slovak Ambassador to Serbia, Fedor Rosocha, addressed the gathered guests.
As part of the programme, Dr Rihter presented the activities of the Forum of Slavic Cultures and expressed the willingness of the FSK to actively engage in the study of naive painting in the Slavic countries and to support the compilation of a register of naive painters and institutions working in this genre of fine art.