Institute for Studies of the Recent Past has the pleasure to invite you to the opening of the exhibition
HOLES IN THE WALL
PORTRAITS OF BELLENE INMATES (1948 – 1953)
by PETAR BAICHEV
as well as on the book launch of Petar Baichev’s
“MEMORIES FROM THE LABOUR CAMPS
PORTRAITS OF BELLENE INMATES
(1948 – 1953)”
10 November 2014, 18:00 at the National Art Gallery
P. Baychev left us a rare genre of testimony, and it is particularly valuable. It is a testimony of images rather than of words: and these images transport through time parts of the very texture of the human beings living inside the barbed wire.
… Baychev’s portraits offer another kind of testimony as well, beyond the identities and the plight of the camp’s inmates. Apart from the link between his models and his drawings, the link between the artist and the surrounding reality is no less intriguing. In a situation of ruthless duress, where every step one made was a matter of strict discipline, and the tiniest departures were severely punished, his prohibited graphic art was an expression of free will.
Ivaylo Znepolski