site.btaArgentine Artist Alberto Morales Comes to Bulgaria to Present Book on His Travel in Antarctica

Argentine sculptor Alberto Morales, known as "the artist of Antarctica", is coming to Bulgaria to present his book "Al sur del Sur, mi Antarctica" (South of the South, My Antarctica) and to make a retrospective exhibition of his works from 2005-2023, the organizers of the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute said on Saturday.

The exhibition will be on display in Sofia University's Central Foyer from September 12 to 20. 

"The book is the result of my travel and stay in the Argentine Antarctic bases for forty days in 2005, invited by the National Antarctic Directorate (DNA) as a plastic artist, with the rank of researcher for the Argentine Antarctic Cultural Project. This is the story, the journey and the adventure of an Argentine artist on the White Continent," Morales said. "My mission was to interpret Antarctica as a working theme: to collect images and sensations from the territory, to get in direct contact with its nature and with the people who work there. In this way we can reflect a poetic vision of Antarctica for a wide audience," he added.

"I worked on small sketches, notes, paintings and photographs and then, back in my workshop in Buenos Aires, I created the work that describes this experience. I paint what happens to the human soul in extreme territory in everything and in pure isolation. Paint the white on white, the stone and ice, the light, the long day in summer and the long night in winter, the atmosphere, the wind and the cold and, the most painful in the current reality, the impact of climate change," said the artist.

The sounds of Antarctica can be heard on a recording of the sound montage "Everything is White," organizers said. 

The works contained in the publication have been declared of cultural interest by the Culture Commission of the Chamber of Deputies of the Nation in 2018 and by the Buenos Aires Autonomous City Legislature in 2019. The book "Al sur del Sur, mi Antarctica" has been declared of cultural interest by the Buenos Aires Autonomous City Legislature in 2021 and by the Chamber of Deputies of the Nation in 2022.