The exhibition hall of the Interior Ministry Museum in Sofia features a display including prints and figurines by Bulgarian artists who were active in the 1970s and 1980s. The title Accelerated Time of a work by Hristo Staykov is the display's motto as most pieces on show recreate the busy agenda of policemen. The Interior Ministryowns 560 pieces by leading artists collected and preserved in the Artworks Collection of the Ministry. Many of them are being shown to wider audiences for the first time.

More from art critic Petar Stankov, director of the Interior Ministry Museum:

„The first event inviting artists to recreate the schedule of policemen was back in 1975, under communism. Back at that time the foremost satiristartists were commissioned to work in the project. The theme of the display was as follows: Caricature Art in the Fight Against Delinquency. The very best artists in the genre joined the forum including Boris Dimovski, Donyo Donev, Schmeiser, Karandash and other talented graphic artists. One of the ideas was to let artists have an insider look at the work of the Interior Ministry. The exhibition Accelerated Time was arranged with great enthusiasm by us. The works were created during the late 20 c. in a cooperation effort of the Interior Ministry and the Union of Bulgarian Artists.”

„There are a few photographs on show but they represent art with their messages”, Petar Stankov says further. This, he says, is the mission of creativity: to touch the emotions of the viewer and to set him or her thinking.

„There is a lot of storytelling in the works and this is challenging for any artist. The artists however responded with lots of imagination and creativity highlighting the fine and invisible nuances in the daily agenda of Interior Ministry staff. And their works recreate the duties of road policemen, firemen, criminologists and investigators. Graphic artists featured include Katya Kostova, Rumen Skorchev, Hristo Staykov and Hristo Neykov. Petar Chuklev's artworks stand out with a fairytale quality. A younger generation of artists including Dechko Todorov and Yordan Parushev are more extravagant in their expression. The Interior Ministry owns pieces of great masters such as Stoyan Venev, Iliya Petrov and Nikola Tanev created in the 1940s. In the genre of figurines we show works of Dimitar Ostoich with his portrait of a killed border guard. Skirmish by Georgi Radulov is a stylized work. Firefighters are sculpted from plaster. All these masters of graphic art and sculpture had many students and followers, and we invited them to visit the exhibition at the Interior Ministry."

English Daniela Konstantinova

Photos: Gergana Mancheva