What do former, current and future country presidents, presidents of football clubs and the “President” cheese have in common? It is that they are all part of the autumn exhibition of Bulgarian artists under the title “President.”

The attention of Bulgarian society is currently focused on the presidential candidates. Elections are coming and the competition is becoming fierce. This gives fuel for the work of the masters of caricatures. The "heroes of the day" are colorful, depicted in pathetic postures, or rushing towards the presidency.

It is claimed that Bulgarian caricature is among the top 10 in the world. This is proved by the bold cartoons on topical issues presented in this exhibition.

"Politicians are forced to live with caricatures and they are part of their lives. If you are broad-minded; if you're smart, you will not be offended,” Ivailo Tsvetkov - Secretary of the Cartoon Department at Union of Bulgarian Artists says. For him, drawing presidents is not different than depicting other famous and not so famous people. He has created caricatures of former president of France - Charles de Gaulle and of Brazil -Dilma Rousseff just for his own pleasure. Actually, his satirical work was presented to Rousseff during her visit to Bulgaria in 2011.

"I have not met a cartoonist who starts drawing with malice in his heart and who intentionally wants to offend people with his drawing. But there is always a risk that someone would get offended, especially when people take themselves too seriously. I remember one of the major presidential candidates now, who called me to say that I drew him with pants being too short. It would have been understandable if I drew him with a long nose, but he was offended by the short pants. In the next cartoon I did not correct this detail, because artists have their own vision and should maintain it. In Bulgaria we have very spicy politics; our politicians are colorful characters. If an official from the EP came on a visit they would often be impenetrable, looking through their glasses. At the same time Bulgarian politicians are all natural, starting from Mityo Pishtova and going to Parliament President Tsetska Tsacheva. In this country there are stone faces too, but they are few. Despite there are many things we want to tell politicians through the cartoons, they do not pay much attention. Faces of politicians change, but their shortcomings remain the same. An exhibition of caricatures is a little revenge of the common man. People come to the gallery to laugh over the image of people who stay higher in the hierarchy, but do not work in the interest of the others."

Ivaylo Ninov is popular among artists in this country and his caricatures are easily recognizable. His works can be seen in a popular daily newspaper.

"For better or worse, electronic and newspaper media have been filling the heads of Bulgarians from morning to night with the same problems and images. A person, no matter how intelligent, starts becoming confused. There is no way to find the right direction unless one becomes resilient to the environment. To survive in this environment, one must turn on the instinct for self-preservation. Probably satire helps in doing this. Caricature has the quality of being perceived immediately. One does not need to look at it for long time or to read a long text. Cartoons are not just painting, but a form of journalism. A person who deals with newspaper cartoons must have serious life experience in order to make these graphical analyses. It takes maturity, not just talent. One cannot create a new caricature every day. It is enough to create two cartoons a week, but they must shed light on important events. In order to do this you must live with the problems of society and to make your drawing understandable to a wide audience. It is good to have good radar for the truth, but one is not born with it. This quality needs to be cultivated. Doing art is a complex activity that involves education, upbringing, friends, music you listen to and everything else. "

English: Alexander Markov