THE BULGARIAN LETTERS IN BELGIUM 2021
The BULGARIAN LETTERS project combines typography and poetry in an urban environment to create new places for reading in the open air. The twelve benches are designed in the shape of those Cyrillic letters which have no graphic equivalent in both the Latin and Greek alphabets – Б, Д, Ж, З, И, Й, Ц, Ч, Ш, Щ, Ъ, ь, Ю, and Я – and accompanied by poems written by some of the most significant and interesting contemporary Bulgarian poets. In 2018, the letter benches appeared for the first time in Sofia. The next year they were welcomed in Paris and Rabat, and in 2020 – in Berlin, Plovdiv and Budapest. We hope that the BULGARIAN LETTERS will become a new favorite place for the residents and visitors of Brussels and Ghent. Тhe Cyrillic alphabet is the third official alphabet of the European Union along with the Latin and the Greek ones. Today it is used by over 300 million people in more than 10 countries. It was first introduced in the 9th century, several years after the Glagolitic script, which, in turn, was invented by the brothers Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius. Although named after Saint Cyril, it is believed that the alphabet was developed by disciples of the two brothers who settled in Bulgaria at the end of the 9th century following their banishment from Great Moravia. The Cyrillic alphabet then spread from Bulgaria to other Slavic lands and underwent a number of changes before taking its present form. |
The BULGARIAN LETTERS, a traveling exhibition of Reading Sofia Foundation, Bulgaria
Team: Todora Radeva (curator and producer), Kiril Zlatkov (artist) and Ivan Ivanov (architect). The shape of each bench is based on the Kometa font, designed by Kiril Zlatkov.
Visual identity: Studio FRANK
New letter benches: WOOOD workshop
The “Bulgarian Letters in Brussels 2021” project is implemented by the Bulgarian Cultural Association in Belgium.
With the support of: National Culture Fund, Ministry of Culture of Republic of Bulgaria, e Sofia Municipality - Program Cultur , State Cultural Institute under the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Institutional partner: Embassy of Bulgaria in Belgium.
Team: Todora Radeva (curator and producer), Kiril Zlatkov (artist) and Ivan Ivanov (architect). The shape of each bench is based on the Kometa font, designed by Kiril Zlatkov.
Visual identity: Studio FRANK
New letter benches: WOOOD workshop
The “Bulgarian Letters in Brussels 2021” project is implemented by the Bulgarian Cultural Association in Belgium.
With the support of: National Culture Fund, Ministry of Culture of Republic of Bulgaria, e Sofia Municipality - Program Cultur , State Cultural Institute under the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Institutional partner: Embassy of Bulgaria in Belgium.