MoMA borought to the small Bulgarian village of Staro Zhelezare

For the past four summers Poland-based Katarzyna and Ventsislav Piryankov and some of their students from the Poznan University of Arts (Anna Szymczak, Klaudia Solarek, Gniewomir Solarek, Tadeusz Sławomir Lisiecki) have been working towards turning the small Bulgarian village of Novo Zhelezare into an open-air modern art museum inspired by the artworks on display at New York’s MoMA. Ventsislav was born and raised in the small mountain village and recalls having little to no access to the world of contemporary art before moving to Poland to study and later teach art. Even though a lot of time had past since he left Novo Zhelezare, Ventsislav felt that not a lot had changed in the village. People there still had no access to foreign art or culture and news from beyond the neighbouring village were rarely discussed by locals. The art professor felt unsatisfied with the situation and decided to become a catalyst for positive change. This is when the idea of an open-air art museum was born. By bringing famous artworks from MoMA and important figures from the world stage to the old houses’ facades, the artists could allow the village residents to see a world that, unfortunately, still remains far beyond the reach of many of the locals.