Bucharest: The Embassy of the Republic of Serbia organised a literary evening and exhibition on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vasko Popa

The event was opened by the Ambassador of the Republic of Serbia in Romania, Stefan Tomašević.

"Today's gathering on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of Vasko Popa is much more than a tribute to the great poet. It represents the gratitude of us, Serbian and Romanian friends, for one of the most significant bridges that the great Vasile Vasko Popa bequeathed to us and our generations with his creative work," Tomašević pointed out.

Speaking about the place occupied by Vasko Popa's work in Serbian and Romanian poetry, the Ambassador emphasised that we could characterise his verses as an indispensable tissue of a healthy organism or, even better, a necessary substrate that makes that organism complete because it gives it a soul and a sense of existence.

"Generations have grown up and will grow up understanding the true meaning of love owing to the archetypal and avant-garde works of a creator and artist such as Vasko Popa," said Ambassador Tomašević.

The ambassador noted that Vaska Popa's threads, with which our peoples and countries are interwoven and firmly connected, in the artistic sense had become the root of new poets, gave them the second wind and obliged them to further deepen our cooperation through their creative work as well as translations of the poetry of other authors.

"In all respects, special and impressive, Vasko Popa covered the widest and reached the highest peaks with his poetic vocabulary, carving and inweaving his verses into the so-called miniatures. His works can be classified as utmost philosophy, and his style and ethics have become new benchmarks and a kind of principle in art. Vasko Popa enriched our culture in a timeless way, just like the great minds such as Dučić, Andrić, Rakić, Kostić, Crnjanski, and became a symbol of recognition of our culture," Ambassador Tomašević concluded.

Among others, the director of the Directorate for Cultural Diplomacy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania, Andrej Luka, the director of the National Museum of Romanian Literature, Ioan Cristescu, academician prof. Eugen Simion, PhD, poet and honorary president of the Union of Serbs in Romania, Slavomir Gvozdenović, poet Ljubica Rajkić, professor of the Serbian language at the Department of Russian and Slavic Philology, Faculty of Foreign Languages ​​and Literature, University of Bucharest, Oktavia Nedelku, assistant professor and PhD at the Department of Russian and Slavic Philology Dušica Ristin, researcher at the Romanian Academy Marija Žurka, PhD, wife of the poet Ioan Flora, Elena Flora, also addressed the visitors. Adam Puslojić, a poet, wrote a couple of lines in the form of a report on this occasion.

The verses of Vaska Popa were interpreted by the actors Ioana Flora and Filip Ristovski. Many fans of Popa's poetry, members of the diplomatic corps, Romanian institutions and the Serbian community took part in the event.