An exhibition of photos taken by Uvindu Wijeweera, an outstanding student from Sri Lanka aka President of the Association of International Students of Southern Urals, opened at SUSU. The best artworks of the international photographer have been exhibited in the third floor hall of the main building.
This is the fifth year that Uvindu Wijeweera has been studying at SUSU. In 2015, he completed pre-university training at the Institute of Linguistics and International Communications. After that, he studied on the programme of Master’s degree in Political Science at the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities. Nowadays, Uvindu is studying Russian Language and Literature at the ILIC and getting ready to enroll to postgraduate studies at SUSU.
While studying in Russia, he took thousands of photos of the university and the city which has become his home.
“I never studied photography, this is just my hobby. When I lived in Sri Lanka, I loved travelling around the country and take pictures of the nature. Having arrived in Chelyabinsk and having started studying at SUSU, I started taking pictures of local landscapes and my friends. While studying here, I visited beautiful cities and sights of the Southern Urals: Kyshtym, Miass, Zlatoust, Zyuratkul, Taganay. I managed to visit many Russian cities: Khanty-Mansiysk, Kaliningrad, Rostov-on-Don, Sochi, the Caucasus, Krasnodar, etc. Each of them has their own beauty. Foreigners see Russia differently, and this is what I try to show in my photos” said Uvindu.
The exhibition was organised by SUSU’s Extracurricular Activities Department and the Photo School. Many of photos chosen for the exhibition depict architecture and sights of Chelyabinsk. Head of the Photo School, Marina Vyatkina, told us how the exhibition has been created:
“Selecting photos for the exhibition was difficult but interesting, because all pictures are worth exhibiting, and it was hard to fit in such a small limit and select the number of pictures that we could exhibit on this venue. Uvindu’s got talent; he is inspired by what he does. He told us that he frequently heard that Chelyabinsk is a tough industrial city, so all of his photos are intended to show the beauty of Chelyabinsk. I think he has accomplished this goal.”
Such events allow students from other countries fulfilling their talents and introduce Russian students and academics to their own vision of customary locations and events.
“Many international students of SUSU are very talented, and we try to find some distinctive features in every one of them. Uvindu is a unique student, he is a role model. He’s got many accomplishments. Moreover, he is the President of the Association of International Students of the Southern Urals. Uvindu is a great photographer and communicative person, who actively promotes Russian language and culture in his home country. Such events, where a student demonstrates one’s accomplishments to the university, mean a lot. This means that SUSU was able to support his initiatives and became a perfect venue for fulfillment of his talents,” said Head of International Student Support at the International Office, Ekaterina Yurovskaya.
On April 10 at 13.00, Uvindu Wijeweera will hold a presentation of his artworks and a ceremony of tasting of Sri Lankan tea in the third floor hall. Everyone’s invited.
The event begins at 13:00 in the third floor hall of the main building (76 Lenin prospect).