The Anna Lindh Foundation and its President André Azoulay has formally honoured Rima Maroun with the 2008 Euro-Med Award for Dialogue between Cultures, at the official bestowing ceremony held at the headquarters of Fondazione Mediterraneo in Naples, Italy.

The third edition of the Euro-Med Award, an initiative of the Anna Lindh Foundation and its partner Fondazione Mediterraneo, recognises this year the contribution of art in promoting mutual understanding in the Euromed space, with Rima Maroun elected from the Foundation’s region-wide network, which today brings together close to two thousand civil society organisations.

In his speech, Mr André Azoulay, President of the Anna Lindh Foundation highlighted the importance of art as an effective tool for the promotion of dialogue between cultures. He also went on to comment on the winner’s exhibition Les Murmures which pictures fourteen children from southern Lebanon suburbs facing the wall, saying :

“Those children are determined to seek a better future. These images are of challenge and not of defeat.”

In her speech, Rima expressed her deepest pleasure for being bestowed this prestigious award. “I always wished that these pictures could be awarded and known to the wide public and today this wish is coming true” - Rima says. She also dedicated this award to the photographed children who represent universal suffering resulting from violence and the atrocities of war anywhere.

The ceremony was held in the framework of the first meeting of the Anna Lindh Foundation’s Advisory Council, a body of leading intellectuals and personalities in the field of Euromed cooperation and intercultural dialogue, and concluded with the live performance of Eurgenio Bennato with artists of the Taranta Power in the exhibition hall of Les Murmures photo gallery by Rima Maroun.

The exhibition will be on display in Naples for the next month and the Anna Lindh Foundation and Fondazione Mediterraneo have announced that Rima Maroun will be a Good Will Ambassador for Dialogue Through Arts.