"Applied Nostalgia", an exhibition of photographs taken in Belgrade and Sofia, was mounted to honour the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The exhibition was inaugurated on 7 June, at the Academia Gallery of the Bulgarian National Academy of Arts. It was co-hosted by Serbia's Ministry of European Integration and the State Institute for Culture to Bulgaria's MFA, and sponsored by the Embassy of Serbia in Bulgaria and the Embassy of Bulgaria in Belgrade.

The exhibition features a selection of forty best fine art photographs taken by two authors – Dragana Udovicic from Serbia and Hristo Russev from Bulgaria. The said authors' photographs capture interesting social and architectural details from the everyday life of Belgrade and Sofia, as seen through camera lenses, with emphasis on cultural similarities between the two capitals' residents.

Rector of the National Academy of Art in Sofia, Prof Nikolay Drachev, State Secretary at Serbia's Ministry of European Integration Anja Rovic and author Hristo Russev spoke at the opening.

The state-owned Bulgarian National Television (BNT) broadcast a report from the exhibition, while the highly popular daily "Standart" published a richly illustrated story about the event headlined "Nostalgic Revival of Sofia and Belgrade".

The "Applied Nostalgia" photographic exhibition is part of a broader project developed since 2007 by Serbia's Ministry charged with European integration. The project has so far witnessed inauguration of several exhibitions in EU capitals holding the Presidency of the EU Council.