Category: Events

Collaborative activities with the University of Information Science and Technology “St. Paul the Apostle” – Ohrid

With the signing of a Memorandum of Collaboration by Acting Director of the Museum, Irena Shajn, M.Sc.  and Vice-Rector Professor Dr. Ustijana Rechkoska Shikoska, the previously established collaboration between the two institutions has been formalized. The commencement of the project titled “Strengthening the Capacities for Managing the Cultural Heritage of the Ohrid Region: GIS Database Development Training for the Institute and Museum – Ohrid” initiative of Goran Patchev, M.Sc., serves as the occasion for this Memorandum signing. The project encompasses a range of activities, including the organization of a “Regional Restoration Camp” (RRC) in partnership with “Cultural Heritage Without Borders – Albania” (CHwB Albania).

Some of the activities take place in the auditorium of the University of Information Science and Technology “St. Paul the Apostle”, where there will be presentations by experts from various fields and part of it will take place in the field, organized in both locations on the Macedonian and Albanian sides, consecutively, from September 10 to 22, for records, inventory, digitization and use of modern technology for 3D recording with the help of drones and photogrammetry for the preparation of orthophotos and topographic maps. The results of the camp will be the basis for the creation of a GIS platform for immovable cultural heritage and archaeological sites from the Ohrid region, which will provide a WEBGIS database that can be used by the general public and will be fed with data about immovable cultural heritage and the protected archaeological sites collected and documented during the project.

“Strengthening the Capacities to Manage the Cultural Heritage of the Ohrid Region: GIS Database Development Training for the Institute and Museum – Ohrid”

We inform you that we have started with the implementation of the project entitled: ‘Strengthening the Capacities to Manage the Cultural Heritage of the Ohrid Region: GIS Database Development Training for the Institute and Museum-Ohrid”. https://whc.unesco.org/en/intassistance/3274

The project is implemented by the Institute and Museum-Ohrid and has a total amount of 55 thousand US dollars, and aims to upgrade the knowledge and ability of the professionals in the Institute and Museum – Ohrid in terms of GIS-skills with the help of international experts and in cooperation with experts involved in the development of a GIS platform from our side and from the Albanian side. The project includes various activities, such as: Reviewing the existing documentation and conducting a field inspection of the current state of the cultural heritage based on a list of registered sites of the cultural and archaeological heritage in the Ohrid region and documenting with photos and GPS locating. Digitization of the documentation with a standardized procedure for recording the cultural heritage to be established within the project, which will have to be compatible with the systems already established in our institution with the system of the national electronic register but also with European standards;

The next step will be the cooperation with experts involved in the development of a national GIS platform for archaeological and architectural monuments in Albania and with the with the Regional Directorate of Cultural Heritage, Korce in Albania, in order to strengthen cross-border cooperation for the specific needs of the Ohrid Lake region.

For this purpose, we concluded a memorandum of cooperation with “Cultural Heritage without Borders – Albania” (CHwB Albania), with whom we will jointly conduct training for participants in the “Regional Restoration Camp ” (RRC), organized in both locations consecutively, from September 10 to 22, for Documentation of Historic Places with 21st Century Technology 3D rapid recording using drones & photogrammetry to produce orthophotography and topographic maps for a Geographic Information System of the World Heritage property of the Orhid Region Albania/Northern Macedonia.

You can find an application for participating in the camp in the following link:

(https://www.facebook.com/CHwBAlbania/posts/pfbid0oBsvmZSESgwhjr71tKVrsULjtir5ZcngxM2ZqDCMiwijdWN4pbyenHfYRYnpiVYYl).

Visit of the Minister of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China, Luo Shugang

23. 11. 2019

The Minister of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China, Luo Shugang and the Minister of Culture of the Republic of North Macedonia, Hysni Ismaili, visited Ohrid on November 23, 2019.  Minister Shugang heads the Chinese delegation to the Fourth Ministerial Forum for Cultural Cooperation between China and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, which is hosted by our country.

 During the visit to Ohrid, the two ministers and the high Chinese delegation, accompanied by the hosts from our institution, visited some of the cultural monuments and museum exhibits that are being cared for by the NI Institute and Museum-Ohrid. They reviewed the permanent display in the world-famous Icon Gallery, the churches of the Holy Mother of God Peribleptos and St. Sophia, the archaeological site Plaosnhik and the archaeological and ethnological exhibitions at the Robev family house. While visiting the old part of Ohrid, Minister Shugang had the opportunity to get acquainted with the rich cultural heritage of our city, expressing great interest in it and expressing satisfaction with its condition, presentation and care for it.  During the visit, the delegation took a stroll through the Old Ohrid Bazaar, and also visited the handmade paper workshop, where the process of making the paper was demonstrated, as well as the method of making the unique Ohrid pearl while visiting one of the shops of the Filev family.

VISIT OF THE US SECRETARY OF STATE MR. MIKE POMPEO TO THE ICON GALLERY-OHRID AND THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY MOTHER OF GOD PERIBLEPTOS

04. 10. 2019

During the official visit to our country on 04. 10. 2019, the Secretary of State of the United States of America, Mr. Mike Pompeo, together with his wife, Mrs. Susan Pompeo, was in Ohrid. The Secretary of State and his entourage, which included the former ambassador to our country and now the US Assistant Secretary of State for Europe  andEurasia, Philip Reeker, US Ambassador to Skopje Kate Marie Burns, and advisers Mary Kisel and Ricky Waddell, visited the Icon Gallery within the NI Institute and Museum – Ohrid. They were visibly amazed by the splendor and beauty of the Ohrid collection of icons, expressing great interest about their value and significance.

Manuscripts from IX and X century, which are part of the collection of the NI Institute and Museum-Ohrid, were also temporarily exhibited in the Icon Gallery especially for this occasion and presented to the high guests from theUnited States.

In addition to the Icon Gallery, the guests from the United States also visited the church of the Holy Mother of God Peribleptos from 1295, which is one of the most significant Christian shrines and masterpieces of Byzantine architecture and wall painting.

The conservation of architecture and fresco-paintings of this church, as an important church and cultural heritage site, was implemented as part of a project that ran from 2009 to 2016, with funds of $ 650.000, provided through USAID’s programs and the Special Ambassadors Fund for the Protection of Civilizational Artifacts of Cultural and Historical Heritage.

Exhibition “Lust for nostalgia” of the Ohrid painter Sasho Blazes

 28. 07. 2017 – 10. 08. 2017

Last night at the Gallery “Robevci” in Ohrid the sixth solo exhibition of the Ohrid painter Sasho Blazes, entitled “Lust for nostalgia”, was opened.

Sasho Blazes was born in Ohrid in 1980, and this is his third solo presentation to the Ohrid audience. In addition to the five solo exhibitions, this artist, who completed his education at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Bucharest, Romania (2002-2006), where he received his MA in 2008, has so far participated in numerous group exhibitions in the country and the world.

His latest cycle of paintings, made in the last few years (2015-2017), consists of a series of portraits that seem to refer to the classical concept and procedure in their creation. These portraits of celebrities and close people are striking through the deconstruction of the represented character, a deconstruction that can be interpreted as a transformation of the actual appearance by penetrating into the structural sediments that construct the person. The author himself, defines the appearance in his previous works as “memories”, “mirrors of reality”, “narratives”, “different realities”, represented through a combination of various coloristic abstract and/or figurative fragments.

In the same time, Blazhe’s color is a pronounced element with its artistic and sign autonomy in resolving the surface of the image and defining the character of the presented physiognomy, and the vibrant coloristic solutions associate to the view in a blurred mirror.

The exhibition will last till 10 August.

Exhibition of pictures by Stefan Hadzi-Nikolov

14. 07. 2017 – 27. 07. 2017

Within the program of this year’s edition of the Ohrid Summer Festival and as a part of the summer exhibition program of the NI Institute and Museum-Ohrid, the exhibition of pictures by Stefan Hadzi-Nikolov was opened at the Gallery Robevci in Ohrid.

This renowned Macedonian painter, who presented himself in the same space in Ohrid two years ago with his 60th solo exhibition titled “Light from the Past”, presented at this exhibition his latest works from the rich opus.

So far, Hadzi-Nikolov has realized many solo exhibitions, not only in Macedonia, but also around the world, starting from 1982 until today.

Hadzi-Nikolov participated in more than 100 group exhibitions in the country and abroad. He is a participant of several international fine art colonies. From 2002 to 2006 he participated at the Art Exhibition “Impression” in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

Stefan Hadzi-Nikolov has received numerous awards and prestigious awards in the field of art, confirming his work.

The exhibition of pictures by Stefan Hadzi-Nikolov at the Gallery Robevci in Ohrid.

Visit of the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Macedonia, Mr. Robert Alagjozovski

13. 07. 2017

Today, the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Macedonia, Mr. Robert Alagjozovski, accompanied by the head of his office Todorce Tasevski and the adviser Petrit Sarachini, had the first official visit of the NI Institute and Museum-Ohrid.

They had a brief working meeting with the director Tanja Paskali-Buntasheska, that was spent in a pleasant atmosphere with presentation of the current projects of our institution, but also the overall work in the past period, as well as certain problems that we face in our day-to-day operations.

After the meeting, the Minister, with his escort, made a tour of the working premises and depots in the administrative building “Radnichka”, where he met the employees and had an opportunity to get acquainted directly with several different segments of the overall work of the NI Institute and Museum-Ohrid, in particular from the field of ​​protection and museology, as the core activities of our institution.

At the end of his stay, the Minister and his associates, accompanied by the director Tanja Paskali-Buntasheska, visited the Icon Gallery and the church of the Mother of God Periblepos and expressed satisfaction with the way of preservation, securing and displaying the valuable icons and the overall condition of the Gallery, as well as the condition of the church after comprehensive conservation (architecture and fresco painting), carried out in the past two years.

Visit of the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Macedonia, Mr. Robert Alagjozovski to the NI Institute for Protection Monuments of Culture and Museum-Ohrid

Monetary Circulation at Plaoshnik-Ohrid in the Roman Imperial Period

07. 07. 2017

Last night, in the house of Urania was held a promotion of the scientific work “The Monetary circulation at Plaoshnik-Ohrid in the Imperial Period” by Sanja Bitrak, archaeologist and numismatist from Ohrid who is employed at the Archaeological Museum in Skopje.
In antiquity, the ancient Lychnidos was a significant economic center and a minted its own coins called lychnidions, and also their coins have minted the Desaretti tribe that inhabited this area.

During the excavations of Plaoshnik, over 20,000 coins were discovered that not only enriched the city’s numismatic fund, but also gave some data on the economic and historical activity of this city and region.

The book contains 287 coins found at this site in the period from 2001 to 2010. The coins are minted of silver and bronze, and they are very important as a cultural heritage.
The book promoter, Dr. Slavica Babamova, noted that it contains many important data, unknown to the scientific public and that it fills an important segment of the history of Macedonia in the Roman period, a historical era for which the events in Macedonia are quite briefly mentioned in ancient sources.

The book “Monetary Circulation at Plaoshnik-Ohrid in the Roman Imperial Period” is the first work of Sanja Bitrak, and the promotion was organized by the NI Institute and Museum Ohrid.

Promotion of the book “Monetary Circulation at Plaoshnik-Ohrid in the Roman Imperial Period” by the archaeologist and numismatist Sanja Bitrak

Exhibition of fresco copies, church embroideries and liturgical items

25. 06. 2017 – 30. 06. 2017

By the end of June 2017, another part of the rich heritage from the collections of the NI Institute and Museum-Ohrid was exhibited in the lower space of the Icon Gallery-Ohrid.

It is about twenty frescoes with the images of Slavic Enlighteners Ss. Clement and Naum of Ohrid, but also Ss. Cyril and Methodius and other saints from the churches in Macedonia and neighboring countries, but also one from Rome, Italy. Copies were made mostly in 1966 and 1980, on the occasion of the celebration of the 1050th anniversary of the death of St. Clement of Ohrid (1966) and the opening of the Museum of Slavic Literacy in Ohrid (1980) by the most famous copists of the time, such as Dragomir Jasovic, Zdenka Zivkovic, Nikola Conev and others. Last year, 2016, most of these frescoes were exhibited at the exhibition “St. Clement of Ohrid and his presentations in the art” at the University Urbaniana in the Vatican, as well as at two other exhibitions in Skopje and Ohrid.

Within this exhibition are exhibited a certain number of church embroideries and liturgical items from the collection, in order to enrich the content and diversity of objects presented to visitors of the Gallery of Icons-Ohrid.

Exhibition of fresco copies, church embroideries and liturgical items