The second round of the Second Cities project, the supporting event of the city´s application for nomination as ECOC 2013

The first round of the photo project Second Cities took place in autumn 2007, and ended in a photo show presenting the European second largest cities as viewed by their citizens, professional fine art photographers. The exhibition was displayed on the advertising light boards put up in the streets of this city, at the ECOC head office premises at Hlavná Steet 59, and can still be seen at the website  www.2ndcities.net.

We have also released a presentable catalogue to send to photographers, galleries and cultural institutions in the cities concerned. The catalogue is also available at the ECOC head office and at Department of Culture of the Košice municipality. The project was construed to last for several years. Pavel Maria Smejkal, the project author and exhibition curator, has now invited to Košice photographers from several second largest cities in Europe to spend here approximately a week each and produce his/her own author´s picture of this city.

The first participant to the photo project of Second Cities was Alnis Stakle from Daugavpils, the second largest city in Latvia. From June 23 to June 29 he was shooting the life on the Košice´s outskirts. The second and third participants, Gilles Verneret and Pierre Vallet, the French photographers from Lyon, drew inspiration from the people getting around the city centre.

Urszula Tarasiewicz, the Polish photographer from Lódź, is currently busy with her photographing of Košice while tomorrow we are expecting Evžen Sobek from Brno and Daniel Hermes from Graz in Austria to arrive and take over the would-be baton. Later, they will be joined by the last participant, Mindaugas Kavaliauskas from Kaunas. The photographers are working up their topics as they like to follow up with the concept laid down by P. M. Smejkal, the project author. He will later on prepare an exhibition catalogue and an on-line presentation. The catalogue will be a supplement to the final version of the application of Košice for ECOC 2013 competition.