Старо Железаре (Staro Zhelezare)

Mural project

A sleepy village in central Bulgaria is harnessing the power of celebrities, hoping for an economic revival through art. This project has been created by Bulgarian artist Ventsislav Piryankov. He has an ancestral home in the village, which has become a small art centre. The artist has been living in Poland with his wife, but he spends the summer months in Staro Zhelezare. In the last three years Ventsislav Piryankov organizes a festival of wall painting called Village of specifics in which Polish artists paint portraits of local people with chosen by them celebrities. In the village there are 38 murals with Dalai Lama, Pope Francis, Margaret Thatcher, Barack Obama, Steve Jobs, Mr. Bean, Leonid Brezhnev, Queen Elizabeth II, Mikhail Gorbachov and others. Among Bulgarian celebrities are Todor Zhivkov, Volen Siderov, Maya Manolova, Rashidov and others. read more... LINK Daily Mail LINK BNR