site.btaThe New Precious: Contemporary Craft Art from Bulgaria on Display in Etar Museum

"The New Precious: Contemporary Craft Art from Bulgaria" is the title of the latest exhibition at the Etar Ethnographic Open-Air Museum in Gabrovo, which will be on view until November 15. The exhibition is part of the 19th International Fair of Traditional Crafts, which is to take place on September 6-8, with the participation of artisans from Europe, Asia and Africa, the museum said.

The exhibition will open formally on September 6, the first day of the 19th International Fair of Traditional Crafts. During the three festival days, six of the artisans featured in the exhibition will demonstrate their skills.

Tihomir Tsarov, the Museum's PR Officer, said: "In a world where machines make almost everything, handmade art once again draws attention. It carries form as well as a story, gesture and attitude. For more than 60 years, the Etar Museum has collected, preserved and showcased crafts as both tangible and intangible living cultural heritage. The exhibition features over 100 works by 41 contemporary Bulgarian artisans: jewelry, vessels, furniture, toys, sculptures and ritual objects crafted from ceramics, textiles, metal, leather, wood and stone. Each work bears the imprint of personal style, skill and imagination."

Bulgarian master artisans are placed in an international context. A key partner is the Michelangelo Foundation through its Homo Faber network, whose online guide includes many of the creators featured in the exhibition. Traditional techniques and forms are reinterpreted by contemporary artists, who transform craftsmanship into art. Different generations, styles and materials converge in a shared message: the handmade has a future and it is beautiful, the museum says.

"Visitors are invited to feel the pulse of contemporary craftsmanship and to see how tradition adapts to new aesthetics and ways of life," Tsarov added.

The exhibition was conceived by Prof. Svetla Dimitrova, the Museum's Director, and curated by Bulgaria's Homo Faber ambassador Rosina Pencheva. The design was created by architect Antonina Ilieva's team, with Assoc. Prof. Krasimira Krastanova as consultant. The project is supported by the Ministry of Culture.

The Etar Museum in Gabrovo was founded by Lazar Donkov and opened as an ethnographic park-museum in 1964. It is now a centre for the study of the traditional culture of Bulgarians living in the Balkan Mountains, from pre-industrial society to the present day. The museum recreates Bulgarian customs and traditions, with a team of 70 specialists dedicated to their preservation and promotion.