The poster of the exhibition reads: 11.11.88., but it is hardly accidental that 30 years later Sasho Stoitsov is the curator of a show, containing two retrospective elements simultaneously – the memory of the beginning of the so-called political transition and the presentations of a collection of contemporary art from the last years.

The historical data inevitably takes us back to the second half of the 1980s in Blagoevgrad, where Sasho Stoitsov, Georgi Kovachev, Hristo Shapkarov, and Vasko Ivanov’s presence was visible. So, those artists, in two consecutive years (together with the participation of authors like Dimitar Grozdanov, Sava Stoimenov, Elena Parusheva, Dimitrina and Aleksandar Doychinov, Vladimir Ovcharov, Svilen Blazhev etc.) organize the exhibitions 11.11.88 and 11.11.89, entitled to specify the dates of their openings (November 11, 1988 and November 11, 1989). What was happening in Blagoevgrad at that time was a significant part of the panorama of a society waiting for changes in the field of art as well.

The curator himself is undoubtedly one of the most important authors in contemporary Bulgarian art. He started his career with photorealism at the end of the 1970s, in the period 1988 – 1989 some of his most significant works appeared from a period, marking Bulgarian alternative art, opposing the official system – A Whole in the Parquet, Home Ecology etc. One of his most prominent pieces from 30 years ago is Energy Boom – an old shelf, in which there is coal left in only one of the drawers. That work was one of the strongest symbols of the economic and moral collapse of the authoritarian country.

Sasho Stoitsov has written in his curatorial statement: “The exhibition 30 Years Later shows the real changes in art in Bulgaria then, in 1988, and now. From the distance of time we see the uniqueness of the show 11.11.88, opened in 1988, in Blagoevgrad. In a town without big traditions in art, in the 1970s and in the 1980s was created a strong energy by a group of young artists, which culminated in the exhibition 11.11.88, that was similar to today’s contemporary art shows. It was an exhibition of the so-called then “untraditional forms” and the key factor was the way of thinking, the context. The new in this kind of art events was the conceptual combing of objects and classical media.”

One of the most interesting accents in the current exhibition is the big screen projection of the original catalogue of the 11.11.88 show, which was presented at the opening, in 1988. In the contemporary part of the exhibit are shown pieces and events, concerning the founding the Center for Contemporary Art, in Blagoevgrad (with the stressed support of Blagoevgrad municipality). Photographs and video films from the events are also shown – The River, the plaint air Little Rooms, ECO Festival, VIDEO Festival etc.