Presentation of the achievements of the Institute of Art Studies – BAS under the “National Scientific Program for the Recognition and Development of Bulgarian Studies Abroad”.

The achievements of the "National Scientific Program for the Recognition and Development of Bulgarian Studies Abroad" were presented at the Institute of Art Studies – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences within the project "Memory Topos: Cultural Heritage, Visual Archives, and Contemporary Representations".
The event was opened by the Director of the Institute of Art Studies – BAS Prof. Joanna Spassova-Dikova, PhD. Assoc. Prof. Arch. Dimitrina Popova, PhD, Head of the project, gave a short presentation on the results achieved in the third year of the programme's launch.
She stressed that one of the key activities of the project is to help foreign scientists visit Bulgaria to work on Bulgarian studies topics. In 2025, three researchers – two from Poland and one from Kazakhstan – conducted their research and consultations at the IAS. Another important area highlighted in the programme is the organisation of scientific and applied scientific forums with Bulgarian themes. The Institute of Art Studies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences was an active partner in various initiatives. Members of the project participated in scientific forums in the country and abroad with topics related to Bulgarian studies. Assoc. Prof. Popova recalled that one of the main work packages in the NSP "Bulgarian Studies" is the creation of digital resources with free access. Over the past year, archival materials and lecture recordings have been collected, and new digital teaching aids in Bulgarian and English have been created.
Special attention was paid to the exhibition "Architectural Heritage in Virtual Reality", held at the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in Berlin from 11 to 18 May, where 15 boards with digital reconstructions of architectural heritage sites, accessible through 360° panoramas and VR glasses, were presented. The exhibition included demonstrations at certain times. Assoc. Prof. Arch. Dimitrina Popova gave a lecture on the Institute's archive as the primary resource for reconstructing the presented buildings. Due to the great interest, the exhibition was arranged again in July and August for the residents and guests of Berlin.