2018-07-05

A photo exhibition has been opened in Strasbourg, presenting the szekler traditional crafts, its traditional countryside lifestyle and architectural culture. MEP Csaba Sógor has invited the exhibition of Harghita County Tradition Resource Center to be presented in the closing ceremony event of the European Parliamentary Association.
 

„These lands safeguard some traditions that in other regions of Europe are only recalled with nostalgy of times past”– said the RMDSZ MEP at the opening ceremony. Csaba Sógor encouraged the audience to visit Szekerland, a mostly Hungarian inhabited region, where, naturally, both influences of globalization and the European Union’s dynamism can be experienced, along with the well-known traditional lifestyle of the rural environment. „The European Union is indeed diverse and its secret relies in supporting  both old and new values. Therefore, it is our responsability to present again and again our century long traditions in an ever-changing Europe” – said the Transylvanian MEP.
 
The Harghita County Tradition Resource Center’s exhibition called Rural stills - A glance at traditional values of Europe presents the photo material of the documentary camps called In the footsteps of Balázs Orbán. Ödön Balázs, the Resource Center’s photographer and the documentary camps’ organiser selected the presentation consisting of 16 szekler photograpers’ 40 arts.
 
At the ceremony, Hungarian photographer Béla Zoltán Szabó welcomed the audience and described the background work of the exhibition. He explained that the goal of these photo camps is to capture moments mainly in the villages of Udvarhelyszék. „Throughout the project, during one and a half decades, more than 50 photographers participated for a shorter or longer period of time, working in approx. 140 villages. Most of them are Hungarian artists in Transylvania but as time went by, others from Hungary joined as well. The intriguing part of the project were the two creative periods during spring and autumn so that the most important moments of the rural life would be captured in these two seasons.” Béla Zoltán Szabó emphasized that the photos of the exhibition aim to show the living past. „We don’t need to travel far, it’s enough to take a look around the European Union. Our generation is still given the opportunity to meet and experience this living past.” – said the photographer.
 
Similar to last years, on the closing ceremony of the parliamentary session szekler drinks were served for the MEP’s, council and staff members of the European Parliament. This year, Csaba Sógor put Transylvania on the European products’ map bringing over quality champagne and wine of the finest international award-winning Kárásztelek Sparklinf Wine Cellar.