The Exhibition "Miraculous Icons and Holy Relics in the Balkans" in the Program of the Sixteenth World Meeting of the Bulgarian Media
The exhibition "Miraculous Icons and Holy Relics of the Balkans" will be presented at the Art Gallery "Vladimir Dimitrov - The Master" in Kyustendil from 18 to 31 October as an accompanying program to the 16th World Meeting of Bulgarian Media, which will be held at the Rila Monastery and in Kyustendil between 16 and 18 October.
The exhibition is a new visual project, presenting a story about iconic icons, on which the State Institute for Culture is working together with a team of medieval researchers from the Center for Slavic-Byzantine Studies "Prof. Ivan Duychev" at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski".
Icons are one of the emblems of Orthodoxy and an integral part of the decoration of the Christian church from ancient times. In 24 panels (in Bulgarian and English) are shown churches and monasteries, which store miraculous icons and holy relics as precious relics. The exhibition uses photos from the archives of the Center for Slavic-Byzantine Studies "Prof. Ivan Duychev", as well as photos provided with the kind assistance of the abbots of the Rila, Bachkovo, Troyan and Bigorski monasteries.
The concept, in addition to a number of Bulgarian monasteries, includes photos and valuable information from Vatopedi Monastery and Iversky Monastery - Greece, Studenitsa Monastery - Serbia, Savina Monastery - Montenegro, Monastery "St. John Vladimir ”near Elbasan - Albania, Bigorski Monastery - Republic of Northern Macedonia.
The exhibition briefly describes the history of each monastery, the legendary biography of each miraculous icon and the customs associated with the temple festivals and the festivals of the saints whose relics are stored in them. Before the eyes of the visitors of the exhibition, a kind of narrative unfolds, which builds a bridge over the centuries and presents the challenge of living faith in miraculous images, in their power, not subject to time, ideologies, theories, philosophies.