On March 20, in the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Science, an exhibition of old photographs telling about the life and collective memory of the Bulgarians from the areas of Tavria and Bessarabia, as well as from the Crimea opened. It seems that its goal is to revive the Bulgarian spirit in its purest form - beyond borders and statehood. The exhibition is part of a Bulgarian-Ukrainian project entitled “Identity construction in the context of pan- European mobility (Bulgarians in Ukraine and Ukrainians in Bulgaria)." It studies the life of our countrymen who settled the area two centuries ago. This exhibition has brought together two photographic projects, says the head of the initiative in Bulgaria Dr. Petko Hristov. For the first time the collection of old photos titled "Bulgarians in Bessarabia. Chronicle of the twentieth century" was shown in April 2010 in the Odessa Museum of Literature. Even then, it was clear that we should present the exhibition in Bulgaria.
"The objectives pursued by this project are the study of identity in the modern age - what the processes taking place among Bulgarian communities in Ukraine are,” says Prof. Hristov. "Part of this process and project is the topic of memory. How these communities keep their Bulgarian identity? This exhibition actually combines two exhibitions. One is by the Bulgarian youth club "Aktiv" in the city of Odessa, which presents the life of Bessarabian Bulgarians. The other is the work of our colleagues from the Centre for Bulgarian Studies at the University in Melitopol, Ukraine. We want to show that the Bulgarian communities in Ukraine are not only Bessarabian Bulgarians who are relatively well known in our country. There are other interesting but less studied diasporas. Therefore, we show images of the life of the Crimean Bulgarians, who were deported by Stalin during World War II. When in the 50s of the last century they were invited to return to their homelands, it turned out that they were not admitted to the Crimea but settled in several surrounding towns near Militopol."
The exhibition in the Ethnographic Museum consists of authentic old photographs of historical Bulgarian diasporas in Bessarabia, Tavria and the Crimea. They reveal the reality of the whole twentieth century. "Every picture is a short story about an individual or about a specific time of a historical process, or an event from the socio-cultural life of the Bulgarians - weddings, christenings, rituals. Photos have captured the spirit of those times and they communicate with us,” Prof. Hristov says.
The exhibition has already been shown in the middle of January in Sliven and in Varna in early March. In Sofia the exhibition will remain until April 4, before visiting several other Bulgarian cities.
English version: Alexander Markov
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