BTA Director General: Latest Issue of LIK Is Dedicated to Memory for Memory&#03

BTA Director General Kiril Valchev, who spoke at the presentation of the latest issue of the LIK magazine entitled Bulgaria’s Cultural Heritage Travels the World, said that this issue is based on three foundations. One of them is the fact that this issue is about memory for memory’s sake, he said here at the National Archaeological Institute with Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences on Monday.

Valchev believes that the most appropriate place for the presentation of this issue is precisely the building of the National Archaeological Institute, because the monuments in this museum remind the public that “nothing starts with us.”

The magazine was inspired by the exhibition Ancient Thrace and the Classical World: Treasures from Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece that was hosted by the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

The first article in this issue is about an exhibition in Switzerland from 1958. BTA’s archives contain texts and photos from more than 60 exhibitions that have taken place since then, Valchev said.

The second foundation is the discussions that often grow into arguments on how the past should be presented. Valchev added: “And in fact, this issue turned out to be quite polemical and not at all promotional for Bulgaria.”

Some of the questions that LIK looks into are whether Bulgaria’s cultural heritage should travel abroad at all, or whether curious foreigners should have to travel to Bulgaria to see it; whether artefacts should be collected in one place to facilitate access to them, or whether they should remain in local museums close to the original sites where they were discovered, since the latter could boost the local economy of smaller towns.

This issue’s third foundation is the topic of cooperation between the museums of Bulgaria. Such cooperation led to the exhibition in Los Angeles. Valchev added: “This issue is also an example that Bulgarians can work together, and Bulgarian museums are setting an example of that.”