On February 22, the virtual exhibition "Let's ask Siraka - 140 years since the birth of Sirak Skitnik" will be presented in Bratislava. The exhibition, work by Prof. Boyan Dobrev, a lecturer at the National Academy of Arts, and a team from the "Hristo Botev" program is one of the events with which the BNR celebrates the birth anniversary of its first director, Sirak Skitnik, and marks 80 years since his death. A team of BNR will visit the Bulgarian community in the Slovak capital and the Bulgarian Cultural Institute, where the creative heritage and ideas of the talented artist, critic, poet, theater and public figure Panayot Todorov Hristov - Sirak Skitnik, will be presented.

"If we analyze his works, we will see that he remains extremely relevant," the screenwriter of the digital project Mihailina Pavlova says. According to her, even today there are things we can "ask" Sirak about.

"Sirak was a great mediator, able to find people's goals,” Prof. Boyan Dobrev points out and tells us about his personal feelings: “His face is very pleasant and radiant and if we have to be honest, maybe it contains the best of Bulgaria from the 1930's and the 1940s, as style and spirit of that time."

Despite the fact that the radio theater was born in the former Radio Sofia thanks to its first director, who was extremely progressive in his views, as well as the idea of a sound archive, it turns out that BNR does not have an authentic recording of Sirak Skitnik and in the multimedia project he is represented by actor Rusi Chanev.

"This virtual exhibition received the Sirak Skitnik Award for the original digital work. Thanks to the hospitality of Mrs. Vanya Radeva in Bratislava, we are to present it together with its creator, Prof. Boyan Dobrev, who is expert in visual arts,” says Kin Stoyanov, director of the "Hristo Botev" program of the radio. Public radio listeners will witness the event through the broadcast program ‘What's Happening’, which for the first time will cross the borders of Bulgaria and can be heard on the ‘Hr. Botev’ program on February 22 from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Bulgarian time.

The event in Bratislava, which will be attended by the current General Director of the BNR, Milen Mitev, as well as the editor-in-chief of Radio Bulgaria, Krasimir Martinov, is part of the active program of the Bulgarian Cultural Institute for the promotion of Bulgarian art.

Two years ago, the Institute in Bratislava celebrated 50 years since its foundation, the director of the institute Vanya Radeva said in an interview with BNR.

The team of the Bulgarian Cultural Institute manages to carry out a variety of activities presenting Bulgarian culture, such as concerts and exhibitions, but the emphasis is placed on the popularization of Bulgarian literature, including through participation in the popular "Night of Literature" initiative in European capital cities. Preparations for this year's edition of the event have already started, as a reading of the novel "Time Shelter", by Booker Prize winner Georgi Gospodinov is planned to take place. It has already been translated by one of the greatest translators from Bulgarian to Slovak Igor Hochel, Vanya Radeva told us.

Editor: Elena Karkalanova

Publication in English: Al. Markov

Photos: bulkis.sk, bnr.bg/sirak-skitnik