site.btaMilitary History Museum Marks Three Major Anniversaries with New Exhibition

Three anniversaries related to Bulgarian and world history will be commemorated with an exhibition at the National Museum of Military History (NMMH) in Sofia, which will open on November 27. The exhibition is titled, War and the Artists. The Path Through the Darkness, and is dedicated to the 140th anniversary of the Serbo-Bulgarian War, the 110th anniversary of Bulgaria's entry into the First World War, and the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, the museum said on Monday.

The exhibition is an audio-visual journey in which war is presented through the eyes of artists – painters, writers and photographers who were on the battlefields of the five wars fought by Bulgaria. How they saw the Bulgarian soldier on the front line and the people behind the lines, how the heavy steps of war echoed through their inner world, are only some of the questions the display seeks to address. Some of the most emotional works revealing the feelings and experiences of these people of the written word are recreated by the renowned Bulgarian actors Asen Blatechki, Boyko Krastanov, Gergana Pletnyova, Rusi Chanev, Stefan Mavrodiev and Yuliyan Vergov.

This is a different, more human look at history – not through facts and dates, but through the emotion that remains in a person's inner world, the NMMH noted. Among the artists featured are military painters such as Jaroslav Vesin, Vladimir Dimitrov - the Master, Boris Denev and Yakim Banchev; writers Ivan Vazov, Yordan Yovkov, Dimcho Debelyanov, Stamen Panchev, Stefan Runevski, Georgi Raychev and Nikolay Liliev; and photographers such as the Karastoyanov family, Georgi Voltz and Petar Morozov – and dozens more who, with word, brush, camera or film camera, captured for future generations the image of war and shaped in a unique way the pulse of public sentiment, shining a light on what moves the ordinary person.

Using different artistic means and organically integrated digital solutions – augmented reality and interactive applications – the display offers a new approach in which modern technologies become a natural extension of the museum narrative and open the space towards the kind of experience sought by contemporary audiences.

Alongside the exhibition, the NMMH team has prepared an accompanying educational programme suitable for young people and families, through which they will acquire new knowledge while also developing their senses and creative approach to reality.

The exhibition and educational programme are carried out under a project implemented with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture and with the support of the Ministry of Defence.

The NMMH is reopening after several weeks of closure due to renovation. On November 28, the museum will offer free admission.