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At a small open-air ceremony, State Enterprise Radioactive Waste awarded the students ranked at a national level following completion of the first stage of the Danube Art Master 2021 international competition, which was the focus put by the enterprise during the traditional Danube Day celebration at the end of June this year. As part of the volunteer’s initiative to clean up the river bank, SERAW fortified the creative interpretation of the children’s messages through artworks and coordinated their participation in the competition.
Nine children and four of their teachers placed Kozloduy at the top of the national ranking in different age groups and categories, whereas the projects of six of them will continue their participation at an international level, at which the holder of the “Danube Art Master” title will be selected. An international jury composed of national representatives of all the countries from the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) will examine their works alongside those of participants from Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine.
In the “Artwork” category in the age group of 12-18 years old, two first places were awarded. With her work “Danube Bay”, made from natural materials collected along the river bank, the eighth-grader from the “RAW Management” class at Igor Kurchatov Vocational School of Nuclear Energy, Simona Yankova, with her mentor, the Bulgarian language teacher Nonka Dekova, won one of them. “As trite as this expression has become – I love nature in all its forms and manifestations. So, in creating this particular piece of art, my idea was to gather all the beauty of the river in one small format that one could hold in their hands. The whole creative process, which lasted almost four months, convinced me once again of the truth of a principle that applies to absolutely everything in our lives – everything we do takes time and effort, and the greatest reward is the feeling of satisfaction!,” said Simona.
The other first prize was awarded to Ani Genadieva from the School of Fine and Applied Arts at the Support and Personal Development Centre (SPDC) with Mariana Angelova as a mentor for the “Nest of Danube Eagles” artwork, made from river stones and a wooden figure, which resembles an eagle’s body. With her rest three artworks, Ani took the next two places in her age group. She was succinct in her comment: “The Danube is a good painter of natural artworks!”
“Danube – I am life” is the title of a videoclip by a team of four teenagers, graduates of Hristo Botev High School, which was selected to top the national ranking in the “Video” category. In the one-minute movie, Victoria Nikolaeva, Elaine Manasieva, Svetoslava Stoykova, Lyudmila Ivanova, and their mentor, Teodor Pironkov, have managed to gather in an impressive manner much of the diversity of plant and animal life along the Danube in their routine rhythm of life.
Thrilled with the historical heritage, Georgi Zhechkov, Ivo Svilenov and Danaya Lazarova from the “Birds, Ecology and Tourism” club at the SPDC, together with their leader, Petya Lazarova, became the authors of one of the city’s symbols – the Radetski Steamship made from river stone and shells. Their artwork was placed at the top of the ranking in the 6 to 11 years old age group of young people. Ivo and Danaya placed their conservation messages and images of the local fauna and flora on river stones so that every visitor to the town could think about the importance and protection of the river. Their “Danube Messages” also ranked them second in their age group.
Jointly organized by the Global Water Partnership Central and Eastern Europe (GWP CEE) and the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR), the Danube Art Master international competition encourages teenagers to take a closer look at the river and think about the possibilities for its protection by creating original artworks. Since 2004 up to the present day, the art competition has brought together thousands of children from the countries along the entire Danube basin in an effort to remind them of the river’s inherent value and importance and give them the opportunity to elaborate on the future of their environment.