Participation of scholars from the Institute of Art Studies in the International Congress of Byzantine Studies in Vienna

Three scholars from the Institute of Art Studies took part with papers in the 25th International Congress of Byzantine Studies, held from 24 to 29 August 2026 in Vienna – a significant global scientific event dedicated to contemporary studies of Byzantium, its history and culture. 1,500 scholars from around the world attended.
Prof. Emanuel Mutafov, DSc, Vice President of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, participated in the round table Inscriptions Between Stone and Fresco: Aspects of Materiality in the Byzantine Monumental Script Culture with the paper ‘One Inscription Between Stone and Manuscript’. He also chaired a session dedicated to the history and art of Constantinople. Prof. Mutafov participated in the meeting of the Committee on Byzantine Epigraphy at the International Association for Byzantine Studies, of which he has been a full member since 2022. At the initiative of Dr Maximilien Durand, director of the Byzantine department at the Louvre, he was elected a member of the newly created Heritage Committee.
Assoc. Prof. Stefka Venkova, PhD, participated in the panel of free communications, Research on Music and its Contexts, with the paper ‘The Musicological Studies of Jean-Baptiste Thibaut and His Bulgarian Period (1898–1903)’.
Ch. Assist. Prof. Tereza Bacheva, PhD, presented her paper ‘Images of St. Sebastian from Post-Byzantine Churches in Bulgaria in the Context of Tradition and Innovations’ within the thematic session Oscillating Between Modernity and Traditionality, Diversity and Uniformity. Reflections on the Physiognomy of Late Post-Byzantine Painting (ca. 1670–1900).