The next stop in the dense train of events which Mercator College enjoyed this November was Vernissage 2007 - the traditional, yet new every single time, official "opening" of the latest art pieces you can find around your favourite college, this year taking place on November 23rd. The dust had not quite settled over the common room after a week (and especially a day) of heavy preparations, when the first guest started to arrive. Among them were the honorary members of Mercator College and founders and patrons of the Vernissage event - Klaus and Mandy Boehnke, together with the star of the evening - their new born child, whose first going out of home was our art event. Now this is what I call a start in life!

The official start of the evening was marked with a speech by our college master Vikram, followed by a short - according to his own standards ;-) - introduction by Klaus. Due to many ongoing events around campus, not many people had gathered in the common room, but a nice cosy atmosphere was nevertheless created in the candle-lit college. Klaus lead the traditional tour, presenting the awards from the spring art contest. Some of the artist - Shaswat Sapkota and Marie Haude - were there to shed some light on the background and the history behind their pieces, making the artistic experience of the evening complete.

The photos by Shaswat you can find in the common room; the other new set of photos, which won the fourth prize is found in the hallway between A block and the QSA; the little clay sculpture and the beautifull painting by Marie (3rd and 2nd prize respectively) are exhibited in front of the College Office and between 2nd and 3rd floor of the inner staircase; the winner of the contest - "Lebenslauf" by Desislava Parashkevova is currently occupying central place in our common room. Another new art piece, which was unveiled at this Vernissage, though not part of the art contest, was the "Mercator Map" by Vihren "Glo" Stoev - a hand-drawn 15-16th century map of the world using the Mercator projection, and can be seen in the "green" niche of the common room.

After the tour had finished, the guests assembled in the common room for a glass of champaigne and a nice talk, thus concluding Vernissage 2007. More pictures from the event you can find here.