The representative exhibition "Diplomacy and Art" opened at the National Gallery in Skopje
The representative exhibition "Diplomacy and Art" of the State Institute for Culture under the Minister of Foreign Affairs opened in the National Gallery in Skopje, which successfully attracted admirers of contemporary Bulgarian art, diplomats and the media.
In 2022, the exhibition "Diplomacy and Art" was successfully presented in the National Museum of Montenegro in Cetinje and in the Museum of Literature and Theater Art in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The exhibition, including 22 paintings by well-established Bulgarian artists from the post-war period, who managed to preserve the achievements in the field of fine art from previous generations of artists, adding their creative pursuits, is organized in partnership with the Bulgarian Cultural and Information Center in Skopje and the National Art Gallery of The Republic of North Macedonia, with the assistance of the Bulgarian Embassy in Skopje, and with the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency as a media partner.
At the opening, Dr. Dita Starova Kerimi, director of the National Art Gallery of North Macedonia, said: "Through culture and art, we will build bridges. Because only art brings us together by getting to know each other, and through it, we will overcome everything that we carry. As an artist, I want to thank precisely for these canvases, because our audience will have the rare opportunity to see landscapes with motifs from Bulgaria, which show the great craftsmanship of Bulgarian artists".
"This exhibition is very dear to me and the people from the Embassy of Bulgaria in the Republic of North Macedonia, because we know these paintings from the corridors of the ministry, and it was organized for almost a year. In the halls of Cifte Hamam, it will be exhibited until 8 November, after which the paintings will be able to be seen in the new home of the Bulgarian Cultural and Information Center", said the director of the Cultural and Information Center of Bulgaria in Skopje, Antonia Veleva.
"The story that we are presenting here today is related to the history of Bulgarian art and is the result of the work of the team of the State Institute for Culture under the Minister of Foreign Affairs to show Bulgarian fine art in different periods. From the 1940s to the new time and the new impulses of our artists, up to the very modern cuts in it," said Snezhana Joveva, director of the State Institute for Culture under the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, who thanked the National Art Gallery in North Macedonia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, of the embassy of our country in North Macedonia and the Bulgarian cultural and information center, defining the exhibited canvases as "an emotionally experienced exhibition that shows that culture and art are that bridge that everyone passes through together and that brings them closer together".
The official opening was also attended by His Excellency Angel Angelov, the ambassador of Bulgaria in North Macedonia: "These paintings give a different perspective to life. This is not everyday life, this is a bigger picture. A picture of pictures, look at it. These steps we are taking, what we are presenting will quickly bring back the cooperation of the two communities".
Among the guests at the opening of the exhibition were the Deputy Minister of Culture of the Republic of North Macedonia Daim Lucci, Jadranka Dimov, Director of the Directorate of Bilateral Relations with the Countries of South-Eastern Europe in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia, representatives of the Bulgarian Embassy, curators and artists , artists from Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia.
This exhibition is a continuation of the original exhibition "Diplomacy and Art", dedicated to 140 years since the establishment of the Bulgarian Diplomatic Service, which was presented in a number of national and regional museums and galleries in the period 2019-2021. It includes authors who worked from the 1940s to contemporary Bulgarian artists - Konstantin Shtarkelov, Denyu Chokanov, Atanas Mihov, Zdravko Alexandrov, Vasil Stoilov, Vladimir Manski, Vanya Decheva, Todor Dinov, Boris Nenov, Vladimir Goev, Nayden Petkov, Andrei Lekarski, Georgi Bozhilov, Yordan Katsamunski, Svetlin Rusev, followed by Georgi Baev, Svilen Blazhev, Stoyan Tsanev, Veliko Marinchevsky, Ivan Milev. The exhibition is dominated by picturesque canvases, mainly landscapes. The list of authors presented in the exhibition ends with Altsek Mishev. His miniature on a board recreates his action "Swimming across the Atlantic" /1979 - 1982/, when Mishev crossed the Atlantic Ocean.
The canvases presented in Skopje are part of the fund of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, created over decades, and in the building of the ministry in Sofia, this collection numbers over 400 works, and in the Bulgarian missions abroad, nearly 2,000 are exhibited. The exhibition is on display in Cifte Hamam, converted into a national art gallery in the Old Skopje Bazaar and will be there until November 8.