site.btaExhibition Showcases Bulgarian Community Life in Comodoro Rivadavia

An exhibition of drawings and photographs by members of the Bulgarian community in the Argentine city of Comodoro Rivadavia, titled Yesterday and Today, was presented at the city’s Cultural Centre on Tuesday.

The exhibition is divided into two parts. The first features works by six children from the Bulgarian diaspora in Comodoro Rivadavia and includes drawings inspired by Bulgaria’s Antarctic expeditions and by the voyage of the Bulgarian naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) to Antarctica.

The second part is dedicated to the city and its historical development over the past 100 years. The author of the exhibition, Erika Perales, used photographs taken by her grandmother, images from museum collections, and her own photos to illustrate what Comodoro Rivadavia looked like a century ago and how it has evolved historically, industrially, and in terms of infrastructure, as well as to tell the story of the Bulgarians who settled in the city.

“Photographs build a bridge between generations and connect us,” Perales told BTA, adding that through the exhibition she aims to show not only changes in the city’s landscape but also in the lives and everyday experiences of its residents. She said she was inspired by a planned travelling exhibition that presents the development of Sofia in a similar way through photographs.

Earlier in the day, RSV 421 was officially welcomed by representatives of the Bulgarian community in Comodoro Rivadavia.

About 2,000 descendants of Bulgarian immigrants live in Comodoro Rivadavia, which is home to the Cyril and Methodius Bulgarian Society. Founded in 1989, the society aims to bring together descendants of Bulgarians who settled in Argentina in the 1930s. It includes the Kirilcheta folk dance ensemble and the Orpheus music group, which perform at community celebrations and showcase Bulgarian culture and traditions to the wider Argentine public.

Comodoro Rivadavia is the largest city in the central section of the San Jorge Gulf coastline. With a population of about 180,000, it is the biggest city in Argentina’s Chubut Province in the Patagonian region. Established in 1901, the city was named after Commodore Martin Rivadavia, a prominent figure in the development of southern Argentina. After oil was discovered in the area in 1907, large numbers of immigrants, including Bulgarians, moved to Comodoro Rivadavia to work in the oil fields and at the refinery opened in 1922. A 1,770-kilometre gas pipeline was later built linking the city to the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires.

The Bulgarian naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) departed for Antarctica from Varna (on the Black Sea) on November 7, 2025. After a month-long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, the ship arrived at the Argentine naval base in Mar del Plata on December 13.

BTA has had a national press club on board the ship since 2022 and another on Livingston Island since February 2024. BTA Director General Kiril Valchev said they exist thanks to the generous support of RSV 421 and Bulgaria’s St Kliment Ohridski Base, which provide the necessary facilities. These two press clubs are added to the news agency’s other 41 national press clubs (33 in Bulgaria, seven abroad in neighbouring countries and in nations with large Bulgarian communities, and one mobile National Book Press Club). 

The news items of BTA's special correspondents on RSV 421 and Antarctica are freely available in Bulgarian and English on the agency's website. They can be used free of charge by all media, with attribution to BTA. Valchev recalled that thanks to its correspondents, the news agency appears among the top results on Google when searching for the phrase “Antarctica correspondent”.