Фотографията като документ. Временна скулптура и празнична украса за 1 май 1945 г. в София
PHOTOGRAPHY AS A DOCUMENT. TEMPORARY STATUARIES AND FESTIVE DECORATIONS FOR MAY DAY 1945 IN SOFIA

Summary/Abstract: This article is based on photographic images as the sole evidence of the visage of temporary artworks. An object of interest is the monumental decoration put up on the occasion of May Day, International Workers’ Day in 1945, in Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital. A parallel is drawn between the images of sculptures, captured in nine photos from the photographic archive of Todor Slavchev (1900–1992), and information in records from the archives of the Union of Bulgarian Artists and major publication on the subject. This paper focuses on problems of art commissioning (mainly public) and art-commission relation, as well as on the structures and the organisation of art practices in the decade preceding 9 September 1944. The article seeks to trace the ‘evolutionary’ line in the development of the processes, rather than the ‘revolutionary’ one, proclaimed under socialism. The facts of the report by the evaluating commission on the artwork performed on the occasion of Labour Day are provided in detail, citing the teams and their artworks. The subject of labour was visualised by presenting the main sectors of the then Bulgarian economy: farming (figures of a “Sower” and a “Female harvester”), crafts (“Smith”), mining (“Miner”), industry (“Industrial worker” and “Female tobacco worker”) and construction (“Builder”). War, an undesired, yet existing reality, was also included in the statuaries (“Warrior”) and the still discernible role of intellectuals (“Mental Work”). A figure of a “Partisan” pointed towards the hero of the new era.

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