- Bulgaria Congratulates Germany on the Presidency of the Council of the EU with Bulgarian Letters Installation
16 June 2020 News
As of today and for the whole summer, the Bulgarian Letters will welcome residents and visitors of Berlin at one of the liveliest places along the bank of the River Spree, close to the Berlin Cathedral and the Museum Island.
This art installation is a Bulgarian greeting to the German Presidency of the Council of the EU which starts on 1 July. It was organized on the initiative of the Bulgarian Embassy and the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in the German capital. On the German side, this project enjoyed the support of Michelle Müntefering, Minister of State for International Cultural Policy at the Federal Foreign Office, and Dr. Klaus Lederer, Senator for Culture and Europe of Berlin.
The Bulgarian Letters presents the 14 letters of the Cyrillic alphabet that have no graphic equivalents in the Latin and Greek alphabets: Б, Д, Ж, З, И, Й, Ц, Ч, Ш, Щ, Ъ, ь, Ю, Я. Crafted as one of a kind benches, they were first displayed in Sofia in the summer of 2018 as Hidden Letters and became places for people to read and enjoy and discuss literature in the Bulgarian capital. The project was featured in Paris in the summer of 2019 and was displayed in Rabat, Morocco in late 2019.
One can find poems by 28 Bulgarian poets translated in German, French, and English at each bench of the installation by the Read Sofia Foundation. A short text tells readers the most important information about the Cyrillic alphabet, the third official alphabet in the EU, which is used by more than 300 million people. Poetry readings by some authors will be held in the James Simon Park and at the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in Berlin in September.