On October, 12th and 13th 2012 in Veliko Tarnovo the last working meeting of the teams from the universities participants in the Bulgarian-Romanian project Cross-Border University Network for Intercultural Communication of the Romania-Bulgaria Cross-Border Cooperation Program 2007-2013 took place.
Parallel to the working meeting the International Elias Canetti Society organized in Veliko Tarnovo a series of cultural events dedicated to the contemporary Bulgarian and Romanian culture with the participation of artists from both neighboring countries. The cultural events were held under the motto Communication from Orpheus to Schengen, implying the long-standing cooperation between the populations in these lands.
On October, 12th at the Hadzhi Nikoli Inn in the Old Town a literary reading with the famous Romanian author Marius Oprea took place. He read excerpts of his novel Six Ways to Die, which has been translated as part of the project Cross-Border University Network for Intercultural Communication and is to be published in Bulgaria by the Elias Canetti publishing house. The novel is documentary and depicts the fate of the victims of Securitate. Parallel to the reading a documentary on the same topic was screened. Later the same evening, we presented a short film by the Romanian director Marian Tutui, who also read a report on contemporary Bulgarian and Romanian cinema. At the gallery of the Hadzhi Nikoli Inn we presented the exhibition Peoples Laughter in Images – a joint exhibition of Bulgarian and Romanian cartoonists, which illustrates the stereotypes people from both neighboring countries hold for each other. The exhibition was opened by Prof. Gabriel Bratu, Craiova. Later Prof. Penka Angelova opened with a lecture on Secession art a special exhibition dedicated to the 150th birth anniversary of the founder of Viennese Modernism – Gustav Klimt, with anniversary canvas with reproductions, provided by the Austrian Embassy.
On the following day – October, 13th, again at the Hadzhi Nikoli Inn, Angelo Mitchievici presented a lecture on topic Communication from Orpheus to Schengen, in which he examined the exchange of culture and ideas in the territories of the two neighboring countries over the centuries from Thracian times to the present. The program continued with a literary reading with Kalin Terziiski – the Bulgarian winner of the annual prize for literature of the European Union for 2011. In Veliko Tarnovo the author read excerpts from his second novel Ludost (Insanity). The performance Communication from Orpheus to Schengen with the participation of Adelina Popnedeleva under the musical accompaniment of Ventsislav Blagoev and Nicolas Simion merged in the opening of two more exhibitions – one of sculptures by Rumen Rachkov and one of paintings by Mirela Dimcea. The evening ended with the musical improvisation of Ventsislav Blagoev, who turned into a musical instrument one of Rumen Rachkov’s sculptures and in front of the astonished visitors performed some jazz pieces, including Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World.