site.btaPhoto Exhibition in Sofia Shows City's Wild Birds

A photo exhibition in central Sofia presents the city's wild birds. The exhibition opened Tuesday in the park outside the NDK convention centre. It is the closing even of the CULTURAMA festival.

The organizers say that the exhibition takes up a topic that was first raised by the Sofia Regional History Museum in 2020, when a team of photographers and artists offered their rendition of animals in the city - familiar ones that people see every day, or less familiar ones, more secretive, that roam the city during the night. The focus was on birds: one of the most telling indicators of the quality of life in a city.

Every time a tree or bush is chopped down to be replaced by a sterile meadow, birds have less space to hide and feed. By contrast, an abandoned backyard where vegetation is left to its own devices, is a home to thriving bird community, say the organizers.

The exhibition includes photos by Atanas Grozdanov, Asen Ignatov, Dimitar Dimitrov, Diyan Yankulov, Zhivko Nakev, Katerina Kavaldjieva, Polish Ambassador Maciej  Szymanski, as well as original illustrations by Anelia Pashova, Assen Ignatov, Asya Kamenova, Ventsislav Krastev, Georgi Pchellarov, Denitsa Peneva, Maria Krumovska. Curator is Hristina Grozdanova.

This is the third exhibition of the 2023 CULTURAMA. The first one, titled Bird: Paradise on Earth, was arranged on the pedestrian bridge near the NDK convention centre June 13-27, and the second one, Paradise Nostalgia, was on between June 18 and July 15.

The exhibition aims to raise awareness of the dwindling of bird populations and the effect that human activity has on environment and wild life, and birds more specifically. Among these is more scarce food sources, changing migratory routes, loss of nesting areas. Its message is that not all is lost and people still have a chance to change their ways and pool efforts to preserve bio diversity by everyone making little steps. "Everyone has its key role to play: businesses, state institutions, every human being," say the organizers.

The exhibition will be on until August 15.