Initiatives on the Occasion of the Day of the National Leaders
The renovated Mission Gallery of the State Institute for Culture in August 2021 presented the documentary exhibition "Miraculous Icons and Holy Relics of the Balkans" and the echo of it once again gave us confidence of the importance of intercultural dialogue in the region as a means of understanding.
Over the years, the Institute has implemented numerous projects in the Balkan countries - documentary exhibitions and film presentations, literary meetings and readings, forums dedicated to cooperation in the field of culture in the context of European cultural policy or UNESCO. Invaluable for us is the experience in partnership with academic and cultural organizations such as the Center for Slavic-Byzantine Studies "Ivan Duychev", the Bulgarian PEN Club, training programs for young filmmakers of the Balkan Documentary Center, film producers, the Union of Bulgarian Artists and freelance artists. Numerous artists and international forums in Bulgaria are presented in the programs of the Bulgarian diplomatic missions.
We intend to lay this experience as a basis for a new stage in our efforts to develop intercultural dialogue in the region. We call it the Balkan Dialogues Platform, which aims to promote sustainability in interactions, bilateral and multilateral dialogue between Bulgaria and the countries of the Western Balkans region. We plan to hold a series of exhibitions, talks with artists and professionals in the field of culture, literary readings, music events, performances and film screenings to acquaint the Bulgarian audience with the achievements in culture and arts of young and prominent artists from the Balkans. A special focus in the program will be the development of the idea of dialogue through the prism of new media in art and its contemporary forms.
The Balkan Dialogues platform started with a conversation and planning of a solo exhibition at the Mission Gallery of the director of the National Art Gallery in Skopje - Dr. Dita Starova-Kerimi, who visited Sofia in October this year.
At the initiative of the State Institute for Culture, selected photographs of the great Bulgarian photographer Ivo Hadjimishev from the Balkan Heritage project visited the New Bulgarian University in October/November 2021, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the university.
An exposition from the series "Balkan Heritage", which is also part of the platform "Balkan Dialogues", has been diplayed at the Central Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the occasion of the Day of National Leaders. The exhibition is a donation from Ivo Hadjimishev and can be viewed by registration on tel. 02 903 0641 until the end of December.