site.btaSofia Hosts Exhibition of Bulgarian Artwork Nominated for European Parliament

Bulgarian artwork nominated for the European Parliament's (EP) art collection will be exhibited in Sofia Arsenal - Museum of Contemporary Art. The exhibition will be unveiled on Wednesday evening, the State Institute for Culture with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported on its Facebook page.

Art aficionados will see works by Bora Petkova, Borjana Ventzislavova, Daniela Kostova, Elizabeth Thallauer, Leda Vaneva, Leda Starcheva, Maria Nalbantova, Marta Djourina, Nevena Ekimova and Rada Boukova until October 22. The artists were selected by a four-person panel using the following criteria: they had to be women artists from Bulgaria working with contemporary techniques, and their works had to address current themes and subjects that correspond with European values.

After the exhibition in Sofia, an art committee in Brussels will decide which of the selected pieces will be purchased for the EP's collection and exhibited in Strasbourg, Brussels and Luxembourg.

The EP's art collection was created in 1980 on the initiative of Simone Veil, the first directly elected EP President.

The EP is proud of the cultural diversity of the European Union. The aim of the collection is to develop at European level the traditional practice of national parliaments of purchasing and promoting contemporary works of art representing national artistic achievements.

Over the last four decades, the EP has acquired over 500 works from EU Member States, focusing on young up-and-coming artists at the start of their careers. The EP's collection has also been enriched by more than 120 donations from national parliaments and various organizations. The first pieces from Bulgaria and Romania were acquired in 2011.