“SIN” Exhibition Returns to the Museum of Humour and Satire“SIN” Exhibition Returns to the Museum of Humour and Satire
The mobile exhibition, dedicated to an extraordinary collection of satirical murals, can now be viewed at the museum where its story originally began, from October 13, 2026, to January 31, 2027.
In the 1970s, the team at what was then the House of Humour and Satire embarked on an ambitious project: to collect and exhibit copies of murals depicting satirical and moralising scenes from Bulgarian churches and monasteries. This is how a collection of 50 panels took shape, in which the heavenly and the earthly meet to reveal human weaknesses through the lens of religion, morality and humour.
Half a century later, the collection became the starting point for the research and exhibition project called “Sin”. In 2025, the museum team, in collaboration with independent experts, researched the churches and monasteries from which the original images come. Some of the original murals are now severely damaged or no longer exist, giving the surviving reproductions additional historical significance.
Designed as a mobile exhibition, it has already been presented at the Historical Museum in Dryanovo, the Faculty of Theology at St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo, the New Bulgarian University and Sled Muzeya Gallery in Kalofer. It can now be seen at the Museum of Humour and Satire, where visitors can explore the collection up close and discover new interpretations of its content.
What will you discover in the exhibition?
● Archival materials and reproductions from the museum’s collection;
● Photographs from the field research conducted at the churches and monasteries;
● Analytical texts by specialists in art, theology and psychology;
● Contemporary interpretations of the theme of sin and its place in our cultural memory.
As part of the project, a monograph has also been published, presenting the research, analysis and interpretation of the collection, while exploring possibilities for its future re-exhibition. The collection of articles and essays SIN: A Research and Exhibition Project is available online on the project’s website: https://grehat.humorhouse.bg/za-proekta#!/tab/1698681361-6
The printed edition is available at the museum’s library.
SIN gives us the opportunity to explore and discuss the meeting points between past and present, between moral lessons and laughter, and between age-old ideas about human weaknesses and our modern understanding of them.
The project “SIN: A Research and Exhibition Project” is funded by the Ministry of Culture, in partnership with St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo and the Historical Museum in Dryanovo, with media support from the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) and the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA).
