site.btaWalking Tour in Sofia to Trace Life of Artist Ivan Milev

A guided walking tour dedicated to Bulgarian artist Ivan Milev will take place in Sofia on March 7, organisers from the Art Gallery Kazanlak announced on their official Facebook page.

The tour, titled "…the great cold city that cries out and calls the tormented… Ivan Milev through the streets of Sofia", will begin at Arianna Lake in central Sofia. It will be led by historian, publicist and art critic Plamen Petrov and is expected to last approximately two and a half hours.

The event is organized shortly after the 129th anniversary of Ivan Milev’s birth, marked on March 3. The tour invites residents and visitors of Sofia to follow the artist’s path through the capital during his formative years, the organizers say.

The initiative is organized in partnership with the Ivan Vazov National Theatre and forms part of the cultural programme of the Kazanlak Art Gallery marking the 125th anniversary since the foundation of its art collection.

Born in 1897 in Kazanlak to a shepherd’s family, Milev served as a soldier in World War I before studying at the National Academy of Arts in Sofia and working briefly as a stage designer at the Ivan Vazov National Theatre. He died of Spanish flu in 1927, just weeks before his 30th birthday, on the very day he received an invitation to exhibit his work in Dresden.

After his move to Sofia, the city became the setting for key personal and professional developments, including the creation of some of his most notable works and encounters with prominent figures of Bulgaria’s cultural scene. He kept a personal diary, in which he recorded impressions of life in the capital during World War I.

Milev's legacy lies in his role as a founder of the Bulgarian Secession and as a central figure of Bulgarian modernism. His work brings together elements of Art Nouveau, symbolism, expressionism and modernism, fused with two defining local influences: Bulgarian folklore and Eastern Orthodox icon painting. Through ritual motifs, folk imagery, icon-like composition and the frequent use of gold tones, Milev created a modern visual language that was both European in form and distinctly Bulgarian in spirit, leading critics to describe him as “the most Bulgarian” of modern artists.

According to the organizers, the walking tour will cover locations connected to Milev’s life, including references to his studies, his work in theatre, and a drawing linked to the 1925 bombing at St. Nedelya Church. The route will conclude at the Church of Seven Saints, where Milev’s funeral procession ended.

As a continuation of the initiative, the Kazanlak Art Gallery will host the premiere of the visual dance performance “Scent of Violets” by Derida Dance Company on March 21 at 7:30 p.m., inspired by Ivan Milev’s work. A video mapping event featuring selected images from his paintings is scheduled for March 20 on the gallery’s façade.

Both events are open to the public with free admission and are part of the project “Whispers from the Past”, funded by the European Union under NextGenerationEU.