site.btaZahari Zograph’s Revival-Era Masterpieces Brought to Life in Immersive Show

The National Gallery offers visitors a new experience with its first immersive art exhibition. The show is dedicated to Zahari Zograph, one of the most significant figures in Bulgarian art of the National Revival Period (18th-19th centuries), the organizers said. The project, created by Sensor Studio and based on the possibilities offered by new technologies, runs for 20 minutes and includes reproductions of the painter's religious and secular masterpieces and a visualization of elements of his creative process.

The exhibition will be held in the Kvadrat 500 building of the National Gallery at 95 Vasil Levski Boulevard in Sofia. It will open at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, December 10, 2025, and will be on view until January 30, 2027.

An immersive art exhibition is a type of display in which the visitor does not simply observe the works of art but fully sinks into the experience through a combination of light, sound, movement, digital technologies and sometimes even scents or interactive elements. The aim is to create a sense of being inside the work itself rather than merely viewing it from the outside, the organizers explained.

The idea stems from the desire to popularize the art of the Bulgarian Revival, a time of economic, social and cultural upsurge inseparably linked to the struggle for church and national independence. The beginning of this period dates to the mid-18th century, when Paisii Hilendarski wrote Slav-Bulgarian History in 1762, a work that played a pivotal role in the spiritual awakening of the Bulgarian people by boosting their national awareness.

The exhibition includes icons, drawings, tracings, letters and documents, as well as the artist’s early secular portraits. A large number of murals are also presented, from the earliest ones created in 1838 for the chapel of St John the Baptist at the Church of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary in Asenovgrad, to his distinctive swan song, the murals in the narthex of the Great Lavra Monastery in Mount Athos, created in 1851–1852.

The project is supported financially by the National Culture Fund under the 2024 Creation Programme. The media partners are the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) and Sof Connect.

Zahari Zograph (1810–1853) of Samokov is a central figure in the transition between church and secular painting on the path towards the Europeanization of Bulgarian art. Researchers describe him as an unconventional personality, distinguished by a propensity for artistic experimentation and a bold approach to professional challenges. He painted portraits, plants, animals, nudes, landscapes and ancient ruins from life, and in church mural ensembles he introduced the images of Bulgarian and Slav saints, placing alongside them self-portraits and portraits of his contemporaries. He took an active part in the struggle for church and national independence, supported the publication of books and backed initiatives to establish Bulgarian schools.