Silk Roads Programme

2023 marks the 35th anniversary of the UNESCO Silk Roads program. This program was launched to preserve and promote the common heritage of cultural, scientific and commercial exchanges that took place along the Silk Roads.

The Silk Roads program continues to encourage research and knowledge on the shared heritage and plural identities of the Silk Roads, through a number of volumes of the “Thematic Collection of Cultural Exchanges of the Silk Roads: Textiles and clothing. The program also organizes two major annual initiatives: the Silk Roads Youth Research Grant, which awards 12 grants to young researchers, and the annual international photography competition “ Youth's Eye on the Silk Roads.”

An exhibition was displayed outside UNESCO headquarters in Paris, it presented 140 exceptional photographs from this competition, with the support of the Beijing International Peace Culture Foundation.

This collection of photographs gives us the opportunity to celebrate the creativity of young photographers and artists living or traveling along the Silk Roads.

The captions of the photos exhibited were written by the young photographers participating in the competition, aged 14 to 25.

To find out more: 35th anniversary photography exhibition