Artists Turn Bulgarian Village Into Open-air Gallery

Bulgarians may have only heard of New York's Museum of Modern Art, MoMA, but now they can see some the most iconic artworks there - without having to fly to the Big Apple.

They just have to come to the village of Staro Zhelezare, near Hisarya and Plovdiv in central Bulgaria, and stroll along its streets, which artists have turned into an open-air gallery.

Photo: PCCA Staro Zhelezare.

There, they can admire reproductions of world-famous pieces of art, including the clocks of Salvador Dali, the rural paintings of Marc Chagall, Warhols' iconic pop-art images of Marilyn Monroe and Campbell's soup cans, Marcel Duchamp's bicycle wheel, Jackson Pollock's abstraction and the white square on white background by Kazimir Malevich.

Photo: PCCA Staro Zhelezare.

But, next to these iconic images, visitors they can also enjoy portraits of Grandma Velika, Grandfather Ivan, Shaban, Janko and Ali from the Roma district, among many other locals.

Furthermore, these colourful locals, painted on the walls and fences of the village houses, welcome "guests" from around the world irrespective of their politics or ideology; images of Yasser Arafat, Che Guevara, several Popes and Donald Trump are painted next to them.

Photo: PCCA Staro Zhelezare.

This open-air gallery is the work of Polish-Bulgarian husband-and-wife Katarzyna and Ventsislav Piriankovi, as well as of the art students they teach in their home city of Poznan in Poland.

"While it is impossible to imagine that these two types of people will ever come together, the dream of an artist is to imagine that this is possible and bring them together," Katarzyna Piriankov told BIRN.

Photo: PCCA Staro Zhelezare.

Since 2015, the couple has organized a summer mural...