The exhibition comes as a surprise, twenty years after the dramatic political events that followed the Fall of the Wall in Berlin. Finally, the socialist art appeared from the underground, where it was diligently forgotten. Pathetic realism, noble faces of party leaders, pioneers, red carnation and lots of nation-wide joy –these are some of its recognizable signs- became once again the word of the day. Thankfully, not in real life but in the spaces of a musum for a period of two months.
Through the works on display, curator of the exhibition, art expert Bisera Iosifova, gives us facts from the social life of that time, without memories of eyewitnesses and subjective moods.
The works of art cover two historical periods:
The first starts right after September 9, 1944, the day of the Red Army-backed coup d'état, which installed a new government led by the Communist Fatherland Front (FF). As a consequence of that event, Bulgaria broke its alliance and declared war on Nazi Germany. After the war, Georgi Dimitrov, a close friend of Josef Stalin, became prime minister, monarchy was abolished and Bulgaria was declared a people's republic.
The second period is that of the late socialism with all its stylistic and ideological peculiarities.
Part of the exhibition is dedicated to contemporary art. In this context, visual artist Adelina Popnedeleva presents her video installation, photographs of graffiti that refer to the causes and consequences of today’s political process.