"Sofia is a vibrant, interesting, young and creative city, thanks to its multiple cultural projects and spaces as well as its talented artists and active audiences.

 

Sofia Municipality is developing an active policy in the field of culture and art. We believe this change should play a leading role for the development of the city.

We have established sustainable programs and incentives to enhance and support culture and performance of the creative industries in our city." These are the words of the Mayor of Sofia, Mrs.  Yordanka Fandakova, presented at the lecture delivered by Desislava Dimova – a curator of the Project "Collection of Bulgarian avant-garde and contemporary art for the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris, held in the Sofia City Hall Art Gallery attended by cultural scientists, artists, politicians.

Mayor Fandakova also pointed out that we are working on creating new spaces for culture, like building a contemporary art centre on the site of the old power plant in the park behind the National Palace of Culture. There was an international competition held specially for the development of this project. Now the implementation phase is forthcoming.

We are working together with outstanding Bulgarian artists on the establishment of a Contemporary Art Gallery in the undergrounds below the site of the Mausoleum, Fandakova also said.

 

We have many times contacted a number of colleagues from other European and leading cultural institutions. Today we are continuing our work on one of the the most important Contemporary Bulgarian Art projects and its knowledgeable introduction to the world - the first "Collection of Bulgarian avant-garde and contemporary art for the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris.

 

This initiative was launched last year when by invitation of Mayor Fandakova and the Minister of Culture we were happy to welcome in Sofia Mr. Bernard Blistene, Director of the Pompidou Centre, and his team to present to him the possible ideas to create a collection of avant-garde and contemporary Bulgarian art.

I congratulate Desislava Dimova, who is the curator of the future collection. It is important to encourage and support donation in this sector, Fandakova also said. The project is to be implemented at the end of 2020 with a spectacular exhibition of Bulgarian avant-garde and contemporary art at the Pompidou Centre in Paris and this will make our city visible as well as the work of many artists will find its due place on the world map of contemporary art.

The project for a collection of Bulgarian contemporary art in Paris is implemented with the financial support of Sofia Municipality under the Europe 2019 Program by the Musiz Foundation in partnership with the Sofia City Art Gallery.