site.btaNot only Architects, Artists, But also Specialists in Digital, Visual Techniques Create Bulgaria's Image at World Expos, Says Prof. Ionov

Now not only architects and artists, but also specialists in digital and visual techniques create the images of the countries at the world EXPO exhibitions, said Prof. Bojidar Ionov, an artist, poster designer and former rector of the National Academy of Art (2003-2007) during the launch of the April issue themed “Bulgaria at the World Expos” at BTA's MaxiM Hall on Sunday.

"Starting in Chicago and going all the way to Osaka, all the exhibition spaces are obsessed with amazing ideas by artists - architects, artists and other specialists. In recent years, it has been impressive that all kinds of other specialists in spatial design, digital and lighting effects are now getting into the layouts of the spaces," Ionov said.

He recalled that in the Union of Bulgarian Artists a special department worked on spatial layout and graphic design, and later such a specialty was created at the National Academy of Art.

"Thus, over the years, the aesthetic activity associated with these exhibitions is the fruit of artists from the National Academy of Art. Other specialists are now entering the field of digital and visual electronic imaging techniques. It would be very interesting for me to have a better visual idea of the Osaka exhibition from the Bulgarian side. I wish there would be not only yoghurt, but also other things to impress the Japanese," Ionov concluded.

The April issue of LIK magazine, titled Bulgaria at the World Expos and published in English and Japanese, was presented simultaneously in Osaka, Sofia and in 40 BTA national press clubs across Bulgaria and abroad.

The magazine, timed to Expo 2025’s 13 April opening and Bulgaria’s new type-A pavilion, blends on-site reporting by Ivan Lazarov with essays on how Bulgarian culture travels. It traces this journey from Aleko Konstantinov’s 19th-century world-fair diaries through the 1970 Osaka Expo—where yoghurt, the Children’s Radio Choir and a pyramid-shaped pavilion won Japan’s heart—to today’s drive, described by SME Agency head Boyko Takov, to make Bulgaria “a factor” in tourism, investment and science. The pavilion’s designers promise an “experience that leaves a mark,” while pieces on Bulgarian yoghurt, the Valley of Roses’ ties with Fukuyama and Munakata, and a chronology of global expos, all drawn from BTA’s expanding digital archives, show how national identity is forged in dialogue with the world.

Since January 2024 LIK has been freely accessible. All issues since its revival in 2022 can be downloaded from the BTA website. The April issue Bulgaria and the World Expos is available in Bulgarian, English and Japanese.