To engage the broader public with our research findings on urban–rural migration, our team member Dr. Petya Dimitrova presented the photo exhibition “Moving to the Countryside” at the Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts in Plovdiv in early October. The eight posters turn towards internal and international migration from cities to Bulgarian villages. It captures transformations in the material environment, processes of cultural and social adaptation among newcomers, interactions between them and the local residents, and the emergence of communities with distinctive lifestyles.
The visual material was gathered in a series of field research conducted between 2023 and 2025 across villages in the regions of Blagoevgrad, Burgas, Vratsa, Gabrovo, Dobrich, and Smolyan. The project “The Neighbour from Sofia, the New Villager from Germany: Counterurbanisation, Socio-Cultural Interactions and Local Transformations” is implemented by the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IEFSEM–BAS) and is funded by the Bulgarian National Science Fund under Contract No.KP-06-N 70/10.
The presentation took place within the 6th edition of “THE UNKNOWN” Cultural Seminar, held in Plovdiv from October 2 to 4, 2026, where IEFSEM–BAS served as an official partner. Organised biennially, this forum brings together science, art, and the general public to celebrate cultural diversity in Bulgaria and around the world. The rich program featured an international academic conference, two more exhibitions, concerts, book presentations, film screenings, demonstrations, a traditional costume show, and a virtual tour, marking the 10th anniversary since the seminar’s inception in 2016.
