"1300 Years of the Bulgarian State"

Marin Varbanov (1932-1989)

Technique, material: mixed media – copper cassettes, tapestry, stone

Dimensions: 260/1052 cm.

Marin Ivanov Varbanov graduated from the Department of Decorative Textiles at the Academy of Applied Arts in Beijing. He works in the field of monumental textiles. Professor at the National Academy of Arts, founder of the Department of Textiles and Fashion (1959), and later the Tapestry Section at the University of New South, Sydney - Australia. In 1986, he founded the Institute of Contemporary Textile Plastics at the China Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou - China. He lived and worked in France from 1976 to 1982.

Called the “magician of textiles”, Professor Marin Varbanov set the beginning of an entire school of Bulgarian textile artists, which revived the foundation of carpet weaving. He brought together Balkan, Rhodope and Strandzha dyes, combined wool, cotton, hemp, achieving perfect forms from a seemingly primitive material. His works - wall carpets, sculptures made of wool and cotton, frescoes made of braids, although with a very Bulgarian spirit, are cosmopolitan and measure up to world examples. He is also the first Bulgarian artist and teacher to focus on the interaction between the architectural environment and tapestry.

In his creative maturity in 1985, the "textile wizard" returned to China to become the first foreigner to teach design and to introduce the system of soft sculpture into art.

".....In 1952, the young Varbanov - the future famous tapestry master who revolutionized this art - learned about the opportunity to go to Beijing. He applied and turned out to be the only enthusiast. The decision to go predetermined his life. Years later, his son, Phoenix, would remember that his father had told him how he believed in reincarnation, because when he found himself in the city of Han Zhou, he had the feeling that he had walked around it. Today there is an academy named after Varbanov. Reincarnation... They even called him Little Chinaman.

Beijing is Beijing, regardless of the communist decorations and slogans - imperial, majestic. The guest must first learn Chinese. He turns out to be talented - until the end of his life, Varbanov spoke magnificent Chinese. But in the corridors of the Beijing Academy of Arts he meets the young Sun - graceful as a statuette, subtle and refined. She, the excellent student, will help him learn the language. He falls in love immediately, but why does she love the skinny Bulgarian with the mustache and the lush curly hair... Charm, magic? Sun never reveals this mystery...... "

The work "1300 Years of the Bulgarian State" is a monumental tapestry, built with copper cassettes and stone.

Key historical moments of the Bulgarian statehood are depicted extremely elegantly.

Vurbanov revives the foundation of carpet weaving, bringing together Balkan, Rhodope and Strandzha dyes, combining wool, cotton, hemp, reaching perfect forms.

The work "1300 Years of the Bulgarian State" shows the cosmopolitan Bulgarian spirit, making the tapestry interact with the architectural environment.

Floor -1, Azaryan Theater