LIK Unveils January Issue Dedicated to 60 Years Since Culture Magazine's Debut Issue

Dimitrina Solakova

LIK's debut issue of 1965 (BTA Photo)

Sofia,

23.01.2025 19:57

(BTA)

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At a series of events on Thursday, BTA unveiled the January edition of its LIK magazine for art and culture. It is titled "LIK at 60" and celebrates the anniversary of the debut issue of 1965.

The January issue was presented at BTA’s MaxiM Hall with the participation of the news agency's press clubs across the country via video conference.

In his remarks on the occasion, BTA Director Kiril Valchev said: "The entire history of this magazine is about opening a door to art and culture for Bulgarian people." Valchev also said that it did not really look like a magazine the way people imagine it now: it was more of a newsletter but even the first issue had "incredible content", to use the BTA Director General's words.

In its first issue, the magazine featured achievements of socialist art, an exploration of Salvador Dalí, and his announcement of a new art form that was a fusion of pop art and op art. Moreover, the issue boldly states that after Dalí, Picasso is the second-best artist in the world. “Can you imagine how daring that was? Not a Soviet or Bulgarian artist!” remarked the BTA Director General.

He told the audience that the magazine's publication had been interrupted twice in the past. In 2023, its monthly activity was restored. He highlighted that the print edition is distributed entirely free of charge to locations where many Bulgarians can access it, such as libraries and institutions.

“We’ve made it available for free on the BTA website,” he noted, announcing plans to increase circulation to reach Bulgarian communities abroad.

The Editor-in-Chief of LIK, Assoc. Prof. Georgi Lozanov, said that the magazine can represent the immanent essence of culture, the value of which lies in its own achievements, not its imported value - ideological, political, market, scandalous and whatever other conjunctures. To the extent that the magazine succeeds in achieving this, it provides five alternatives that are very important, he added.

He specified that the first alternative is to the networked subculture - to social networking, which is becoming increasingly all-ecompassing and in which cultural achievement does not precede fame; fame itself is the cultural achievement. "Moreover, we now see the great risks in the contemporary communicative world," said Assoc. Prof. Lozanov.

"The second alternative is to cultural prohibition. For a very long time, culture has been declared a boring territory, which turns it into some poor media relative who with the excuse that there is no interest in her achievements, stands somewhere on the periphery of media space. The LIK culture directorate that BTA has set up, a one-of-a-kind directorate, and the magazine are working firmly in the opposite direction," he went on to say.

In his words, the third alternative is to the presupposed evaluations of the cultural heritage of the socialist regime: "The magazine relies on the fact that in every conjuncture there are artists who manage to achieve creative autonomy and create achievements unaffected by the defeats of power and ideology," he noted.

"Fourth, the magazine can provide an alternative to a view of culture as national pride. A look at culture itself, and not at culture turned into something else, into some national souvenir," said the LIK Editor-in-Chief.

According to him, the magazine can also become an alternative "to the Nobel complex of the Bulgarian, to the constant complaining that we are never appreciated, by comparing it with own assessment of our own achievements." "I think it [the assessment] is authoritative enough that we do not need the consolation of someone patting us on the head, even if it is the Pope," said Assoc. Prof. Lozanov.

Former BTA director general Panayor Denev said that LIK helped him shed his BTA-nite obscurity and "become a name". "Before LIK, I was only two letters, PD [the initials used by the BTA journalists to undersign their work]. LIK helped me become a full name, Panayot Denev," he said.

He recalled former LIK deputy editor-in-chief Russi Bozhanov saying once that LIK was "a detonator" and that it "spread much explosive material across the country, legally or not".

LIK, in addition to being culture news and art digest, also provided opportunities to authors to reach their audience, Denev also said.

The Rector of the National Art Academy in Sofia, Prof. Georgi Yankov, said that BTA's LIK magazine is "a window to culture and education". "You provide a window to Bulgarian and world culture. You educate," he told the LIK team.

Valchev said that the Art Academy students created a BTA custom typeface which will be named "LIK". He added that institutions have shown interest in using it as well as soon as it becomes available after being registered with the Patent Office.

Editor-in-Chief of the Svet newspaper in Taraclia Aleksandra Voinskaya said there is currently no Bulgarian-language print publication in the Taraclia region and across Moldova, which is a significant loss for the Bulgarian community. She added that that a magazine like LIK, which provides news, articles, and analyses on various contemporary issues concerning Bulgarians in Moldova, is something lots of people aspire to have. such a publication could serve as an important connection between Bulgarians in Moldova and their homeland, Bulgaria, while also helping to preserve their cultural identity, she concluded.

Commander Nikolai Danailov, the commanding officer of the first two polar expeditions of the Bulgarian naval research ship Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421), sent a video message on the occasion of the 60th anniversary. He said the members of the Bulgarian expedition on Livingston Island are looking forward to the January issue of LIK. "It is a great honour and pleasure to be able to share with you this event - 60 years of LIK - from aboard our Bulgarian naval research ship in the icy waters of the Southern Ocean," he said.

"I wish you every success in the future and that you at BTA and LIK continue to report the real news as it is. I am very grateful on the occasion of your 60th anniversary that you have been so helpful and kind to cover in two LIK issues the voyage of our ship and also to cover all the research projects that have been carried out on board the ship. Bulgaria continues to do research in the Antarctic. [...] This would have been hard without your help, without your objective reporting and without your wonderful articles that we read almost every day on the ship," he said.

For 60 years, LIK has been a symbol of Bulgarian science, history, and culture, inspiring generations with its contribution to the spiritual wealth of the nation, said engineer Tsvetan Parov from the national press club of BTA on Livingston Island. He is part of the 33rd Bulgarian Antarctic expedition. Parov recalled the issue of LIK dedicated to the historic first voyage of RSV 421 to Antarctica and emphasized that Bulgarian expeditions play a key role in international Antarctic research.

With 33 successfully completed missions, the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute, led by Prof. Christo Pimpirev, have strengthened Bulgaria's presence in Antarctica through scientific activities and the development of the Bulgarian base on Livingston Island, Parov added. "May the magazine continue to be an inspiring voice of Bulgarian culture, history, and science, sparking curiosity and enriching the minds of future generations," he said.

In June 2023, BTA published a special issue of LIK, titled "To Antarctica and Back Under the Bulgarian Flag," in English. In May 2024, BTA released an issue of LIK dedicated to Bulgarian science in Antarctica, which is freely available in electronic format. The issue has also been translated in Spanish.

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary, BTA has given free access on its website also to the inaugural issue of LIK, published on January 8, 1965.

Also on Thursday, BTA Director General Kiril Valchev received congratulations on the 60th anniversary from the Rector of the University of National and World Economy in Sofia, Prof. Dimitar Dimitrov, and from Dean of the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication at the St Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia, Prof. Veselina Valkanova.

/DS/