Who Curates History? The Pompidou Files

Authors:

Pages: 77-86
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/CWTI2839

Abstract:

The paper presents the process and research accompanying the donation of works of contemporary Bulgarian art to the collection of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The initiative involved an art-historical study carried out in collaboration with the Centre, led by art historian Desislava Dimova and Nicolas Liucci-Goutnikov, Chief Curator at the museum. Through a series of visits, meetings, and discussions held in Sofia and Paris, the project examined the practices of over sixty Bulgarian artists. The resulting archive of materials, analyses, and documentation contributed to a more in-depth understanding of the development of Bulgarian contemporary art from the 1960s to the present. The research gained broad public visibility through lectures, publications, and exhibitions in Sofia, while also outlining a model of collaboration between private donors and international institutions. This model demonstrates how private initiative can align its engagement with the institutional criteria of a prestigious museum, establishing a sustainable mechanism for the international recognition of Bulgarian artists. As a result of this complex process, in 2023 the Centre Pompidou received a proposal of forty works by thirty contemporary Bulgarian artists, accompanied by extensive documentation. In 2025, three large-scale installations officially entered the museum’s collection. Such joint research initiatives between Bulgarian scholars and major international museums remain extremely rare, while donation as a mode of institutional inclusion raises important questions: how do we historicize the recent past; who makes the selections; and how does the reading of contemporary Bulgarian art evolve within the broader European context?

Keywords:

contemporary Bulgarian art, Centre Pompidou, institutional collaboration, curatorial practices, museum collections, history of contemporary art, museum donations.

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