in Sofia: Museum of Socialist Art

Museum of Socialist Art in Sofia opened on 19 September, 2011. According to its website “it presents works from the period of Socialist rule in Bulgaria (1944–1989). Over 70 works of monumental sculpture are exhibited in a park covering 7,500 sq.m. On a special pedestal, the large five-pointed star that once crowned the former Party House in the centre of Sofia is on display. In a hall of an area of 550 sq. m., temporary exhibitions based on a content and thematic principle show present ideological forms of art. Archival and documentary films are projected in a video room. The shop offers catalogues and a variety of promotional materials and souvenirs.” According to Nikolai Vukov “the various positions on the purpose of this museum and on the ways to achieve a more adequate representation in it testify also of the complicated attitude that Bulgarian society maintains to its communist past. Well aware of the necessity to present this epoch in historical and museum terms, they also demonstrate both the confusion with how to narrate that period, and the constraints in undertaking a more reflective approach.” These photos were taken in August 2018.