Event
Photo Exhibition 'Silk Roads: Routes of dialogue, exchange, and creativity'
2023 marks the 35th anniversary of the UNESCO Silk Roads Programme.
The Programme fosters research and knowledge on the shared heritage and plural identities along the Silk Roads, through a number of thematic volumes and an interactive Atlas. Two major annual initiatives are also organized: a Youth Research Grant, awarding 12 grants to young researchers, and the annual Youth Eyes on the Silk Roads international photo contest.
With this photo exhibition, UNESCO is pleased to present 140 exceptional photographs from the Youth Eyes on the Silk Roads contest, with the support of the Beijing International Peace Culture Foundation. This is an opportunity to celebrate the creativity of young photographers and artists living in or traveling along the Silk Roads.
The UNESCO Silk Roads Programme was launched to preserve and promote the shared legacy of the cultural, scientific, and commercial exchanges which occurred along the Silk Roads. These complex land and maritime routes historically connected East and Southeast Asia to Central Asia, the Russian steppes, the Iranian and Anatolian Plateaus, and the Arabian Peninsula before crossing into North and Northeast Africa, as well as Eastern and Southern Europe. These roads have facilitated the movement of goods, people, and ideas contributing to a vast intercultural exchange fostering a shared sense of understanding, which persists today.
The Programme has promoted the unique history associated with these routes for over three decades. The Programme’s first phase was launched in 1988 with an ‘Integral Study of the Silk Roads: Roads of Dialogue’, through five major scientific expeditions, aiming to highlight the cultural interaction between the peoples of Eurasia. Hundreds of conferences, seminars, exhibitions, and other cultural events were organised along with thousands of research papers, films, and photographs documenting this heritage.
Phase II of the Programme ‘The Silk Roads Programme for Dialogue, Diversity and Development’ was launched in 2012 to build partnerships and cooperation across the region. An International Network was established to facilitate exchanges between its Member States. In 2014, after years of collaborative effort, the ‘Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang’an-Tianshan Corridor’ in China, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan was inscribed onto the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The captions of the exhibited photos were written by the young photographers participating in the contest, aged between 14 and 25 years old.
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