National Autumn Exhibitions – Plovdiv 2026 opens on September 1
One of the most significant events in Plovdiv’s Cultural Calendar – the National Autumn Exhibitions – Plovdiv 2026 will open on September 1 at 6pm at Atanas Krastev Square in the Old Town.
This year, the curatorial project “Mirrors of the City”, curated by Gennady Gatev, brings together artists from different generations and artistic practices to look at Plovdiv not only as a historical city, but as a living space of memory, personal stories and human experiences.
The exhibitions include works by Elisaveta Konsulova-Vazova (1881–1965), Bistra Vinarova (1890–1977) and Maria Dospevska (1889–1972). Their work and presence outline the early voices in Bulgarian artistic culture, related to the changing place of women in the country’s artistic life.
They are joined by contemporary artists working in various media – painting, photography, graphics, video and installation.
Visitors will be able to see works by Angelika Radeva, Anna Stoeva, Boryana Pandova, Dragana Pavlovska, Elena Velkova, Zdravka Vasileva, Desislava Hristova, Dolores Dilova, Iva Yaranova, Iglika Hristova, Ina “INA” Vasileva, Johanna Trayanova, Leda Starcheva, Mariana Vasileva, Marta Djurina, Petra Dimitrova, Rositsa Getsova, Svetlana Mircheva, Simona Halacheva, Stella Vasileva, Trendafila Trendafilova, Harita Assumani, Juliana Tekova and Yulia Lilova.
In their works, the city is not just a landscape or an architectural image, but a space of memory, traces, objects, absences and personal stories. These different views will be located in emblematic spaces of the Old Town – Veren Stambolian House, Balabanova House, Hindliyan House, the Mexican Art permanent exhibition of the State Art Gallery – Plovdiv, the Encho Pirokov permanent exhibition and the Red Pony Gallery.
“Mirrors of the City” examines Plovdiv as a place that is constantly changing through the people who inhabit it, experience it and speak of it. The historical layers of the city meet the quieter history of everyday life – with human encounters, personal gestures and invisible connections between man and place.
“Here the city ceases to be a place and becomes a state – a way in which a person inhabits the world. The city begins where architecture becomes human memory,” Gatev said.
The title “Mirrors of the City” indicates the main idea of the project – the mirror does not simply reflect, but changes the point of view.
The exhibition does not offer a definitive image of Plovdiv, but many possible reflections of it, emerging between history and personal experience, between place and imagination, between what is inherited and what is created today.
Plovdiv is the starting point, but not the limit of this narrative. Through the works of the participants, it enters into a dialogue with different personal stories, spaces and cultural experiences. It is seen from the outside in order to be understood from the inside.
“Mirrors of the City” is an invitation to see Plovdiv not as a finished image, but as a living space of possibilities – a city that continues to be created through the people who experience it.
The national autumn exhibitions are financed by the Municipality of Plovdiv and are part of the city’s Calendar of Cultural Events for 2026.
