Museum of Socialist Art

Museum of Socialist Art, Sofia

Музей на социалистическото изкуство
Front view of the Museum of Socialist Art with statue of Lenin in the statue park
Location within Bulgaria
Established	2011
Location	Sofia, Bulgaria
Collection size	200 artifacts
Director	Bisera Yosifova
Curator	Bisera Yosifova

The Museum of Socialist Art, Sofia (Bulgarian: Музей на социалистическото изкуство, Muzey na sotsialisticheskoto izkustvo) is a museum of art on the past history that evolved during the communist regime in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. It was established on 19 September 2011 amidst a controversy on the name which was initially proposed as "Museum of Totalitarian art," was changed to "Museum of Socialist Art".

The museum's collection, which represents the period from 1944 to 1989, when communism prevailed in the country till 1989 and when the totalitarian regime came to an end. The exhibits consist of large and small statues, busts and paintings of this period collected from various regions of the country.

History

"Five-pointed star" of the former the Party House now at the entrance of the Museum of Socialist Art

Many projects were mooted since the 1990s for establishing museums of communism in Sofia, Dimitrovgrad, and Haskovo but none had come to fruition. Earlier during the same period many monuments of the Soviet regime had been destroyed or dismantled. There was a lull in decision making. During the summer of 2011 attempts to create exhibits on role of the communist regime in Bulgaria was marked by a group of artists, when in June 2011, created paintings of "pop icons" in the Soviet army memorial in Sofia. Then the government took a decision to establish museums in Bulgaria and also restore dismantled monuments. As a part of this decision the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Ancient Sofia, and the National Museum Complex (renamed as "the Bulgarian Louvre") came to be established in Sofia. At the same time it was decided to create the "Museum of Socialist Art" in Sofia to enhance its cultural ambiance, as a very major tourist attraction, in conformity with similarly themed museums that had been established in many cities of Eastern Europe. It was also considered and accepted that the museum would be a subsidiary of the National Gallery of Art. Vezhdi Rashidov, the Minister of Culture, who was himself a sculptor took the initiative to see the project of creating the museum for exhibiting the artistic heritage of the communist regime. Then, the Government of Bulgaria fully supported the initiative and provided funds to the extent of 1.5 million euro to establish the museum hoping that the revenue from the sale of entry tickets would recover this cost in a period of 2 years. Amidst controversy the museum's name which was originally planned as a "Museum of Totalitarian Art" was changed into "Museum of Socialist Art". The new museum was built and formally inaugurated on 19 September 2011.

At the inauguration of the museum, when Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, Yordanka Fandakova, Mayor of Sofia and many ministers were present, Simeon Djankov, the Finance Minister stated: "We are closing one page of the Bulgarian history and communism is going where it belongs -- in the museum..."Bulgaria has already shaken it off and is moving forward." The date of inauguration of 19 September 2011 also marked the formal occupation of Bulgaria by communists in 1944. A Georgi Lozanov, a journalist had noted: "Bulgaria must have a museum of communism that will tell new generations the story of a period that should never again become reality.

Features

Exhibits in the museum

The museum is spread over an area of 7,500 square metres (81,000 sq ft) in the Sofia suburb known as "Red Star". The museum created, within this space to project past history of the country of mostly a display of totalitarianism, consists of three wings - a park where 77 statues or sculptures, including statue of Vladimir Lenin, drawn from the communist period have been erected; an exhibition hall which has 60 paintings and 25 easel representations; a media hall or video hall where films and newsreels related to the communist period are screened. There is also a souvenir kiosk where communist period memorabilia are on sale.

At the entry into the museum there is a big "five-pointed star" which had earlier adorned the Party House in Sofia from 1954 to 1984. In the statue park, which is said to be the "most representative part of the museum", there are statues, busts and figures of popular communist leaders and activists, of poets, sculptures of Red army soldiers, agricultural and industrial workers, and so forth.

Within the museum hall there are sculptures of communist leaders Todor Zhivkov, Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin. Some of the exhibits with artistic expression are attributed to many well known sculptors of that communist regime. The paintings made by the artists during the communist regime are also on display which include entry of Soviet army in 1944, creation of communist party branches, portraits, and landscapes. Most of the exhibits on display are of "trials of the partisan and resistance movement during World War II", creation of the socialistic pattern of society and people's contended life. Some of the paintings are also of "Herculean-sized laborers." Display inside the museum has many oil paintings extolling the presumed theme "eternal friendship" between Bulgaria and the Soviet Union.