Art Gallery Serdica presents “Embroidery from the history of the Zhenski Pazar Market”
Period: July 23 – August 29, 2020
From July 23 to August 29, 2020 Art Gallery Serdica will open its doors to lovers of the Bulgarian traditions and folklore with a non-traditional exhibition that will display the history of the Zhenski Pazar Market through Bulgarian embroidery. The guests of Art Gallery Serdica will see for the first time 27 embroidered sleeves, typical for the female clothing of the Sofia region, all of them – part of the private collection of Margarita Georgieva, created by her grandmother Sevda and sold here on Zhenski Pazar Market in the period between 1924 – 1948 The curator of the exhibition is the young Stefania Ilieva, great-great-granddaughter of grandmother Sevda.
Zhenski Pazar Market has always been more than just a market. It has preserved the Bulgarian history and culture, and now in Art Gallery Serdica, which is located in the heart of the trade space, we can show the modern interpretation of the Bulgarian trade and tradition. The embroidered sleeves were an important and much sought after commodity in the Zhenski Pazar Market, and were often used in exchange for various agricultural goods. During the market days, Zhenski Pazar Market was filled with women from the surrounding villages who sold and bought here, and it was the embroidered sleeves that were one of the most sought-after goods, because the sleeve was labor-intensive and took a long time to embroider. I am happy that in the next month visitors of Art Gallery Serdica will be able to see Bulgarian history and feel the true spirit of Zhenski Pazar Market, “said Dragomir Dimitrov, executive director of Pazari Vazrazhdane, the municipal company that administers Zhenki Pazar Market.
The exhibition “Embroidery from the history of the Zhenski Pazar Market” will tell us about the importance of the sleeve in the Bulgarian folklore attire. In the past, the Sofia sleeve was called svilenitsa and it is one of the most detailed with embroidery, ornament and color in our folklore embroidery tradition. The 27 embroidered sleeves that will be displayed in Art Gallery Serdica are authentic samples from the beginning of the 20th century with dimensions about 30×52 cm and are exposed in a frame.
The guests of the exhibition will be as well able to enjoy a reproduction of Anton Mitov’s painting “Market in Sofia” from 1899, provided by the Sofia City Art Gallery, as well as documents, and archived facts about the trade on the Zhenski Pazar Market. Artistic cards, which are part of Zdravko Petrov’s personal collection of the “Historical Routes” of Sofia, will also be shown.
We are expecting you, from July 23 to August 29, 2020 in Art Gallery Serdica, to enjoy with us the “Embroidery from the history of the Zhenski Pazar Market” – the exhibition that will show you the Bulgarian tradition and spirit. Welcome!
Additional Information:
Stefania Ilieva was born in 2002 in Sofia. This year she graduated from Xaverian College in Manchester, England and has continued her education at Central Saint Martents, UAL, London, majoring in Exhibition Curation. “Embroidery from the history of Zhenski Pazar Market” is her first exhibition as a curator.
Margarita Georgieva – an author. Born in 1948 in Sofia. She has been a member of the Masters Association since 2004. Margarita has been engaged in embroidery since she was a child. She has got encyclopedic knowledge of the Bulgarian national embroidery, and its ornaments. In her long practice as a craftswoman and master she has been the author of costumes and embroidery for exhibitions, films, theater, music and dance performances in the country and abroad. She is one of the founders of “Vezba Workshop” – a school for embroidery and a demonstration center of embroidery techniques and ornaments.
Art Gallery Serdica can be found at the Zhenski Pazar Market, at the corner of Stefan Stambolov Boulevard and Lozengrad Street. Pazari Vazrazhdane is the municipal association, which administers the Zhenski Pazar Market.
