Three floors of the Gallery have been reconstructed since you took up the post of Director, one of them being dedicated to sculpture. Such attention to the art of the chisel was quite necessary, indeed, but could you please tell us how you managed to do all of this. And what is the Gallery's total floorage now?
Last year was very successful for the Gallery, as we managed to realize two very important things: we reopened the Gallery's permanent exhibition of paintings on May 24, 2005 and several months later, on October 1, we opened a permanent exhibition of sculptures on the third floor. It was a huge reconstruction project, both time and money-consuming, but its success was doubtless.

This has been the first time in the Gallery's history that we have a fully-refurbished third floor, dedicated to the art of the chisel – 157 works by 119 Bulgarian authors. The floorage of the Gallery was expanded by one-third, or five hundred square meters. The electric lighting in the two halls of the permanent exhibitions is perfect; the quality of the technical parameters is very high.

Could you please tell us something more about your sources of financing?
As you may know, the Gallery is a Budgetary organization under the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture. Some of our main sources of funding are: contracts for export of pieces of art, organization of various artistic events, and the implementation of some projects, for which we have to compete.

The Gallery provides most of its finances on its own; over the past few years, the Ministry of Culture also allotted to us particular sums, with which we carried out the aforementioned repair works. We do hope that this cooperation will continue in the future. If an institution of such an importance as the National Art Gallery has once been set into function, it keeps on working, put its maintenance is a very difficult and complicated matter, requiring constant care. As regards the budgetary share of financing, we have managed to reach a level, corresponding to the one in the similar institutions in the Western Europe. In France's Louvre Museum, for example, the proportion between state subsidies and self-financing is fifty-six to forty-six percent. As regards the non-government sources of financing, I can assume I have achieved the maximum of it, but an institution like the Gallery can never attain a full financial independence from the state.

What is the Gallery's attendance rate? Do you plan to reach a moment when there will be no entrance fee?
In New York's Metropolitan Museum, for example, there is a recommended admission fee of US $15 and you are kindly asked to pay the full suggested amount. When one wants to visit such world-class museums, he should be ready to pay and, sometimes, to pay a lot; of course each museum, in Europe at least, has a day for special viewing, when there is free museum admission, and some of them offer multiple price reductions. I have a slightly different goal. We also have a free-entrance day, but it is fixed on a lottery principle. In the beginning, this day was fixed on a particular date, but this gave a chance to many tour operators to bring their tourists to the gallery on that day, without sparing them the admission fee. This is why we chose to fix the special viewing day on a random date, otherwise it's just not fair. We will continue to keep the admission fees low, because the people still have not formed the habit of coming here and I am trying to change this. You can enter the Gallery against a very small sum; the highest admission fee is four levs, fixed both for Bulgarian and foreign visitors. We also have a two-lev-admission day and one-lev-admission day as well as a special viewing day, when the admission is free. I think this is enough for now and I will continue to follow this tendency. If, one day, the Gallery's reputation grows very high, we may change some things but, for now, I think enough has been done.

You restored the Gallery's Mirror Room, where you combined modern and classical elements. Could you please tell our readers something more about this room?
The nice Mirror Room underwent some repair works, because a weak earthquake, which struck at the end of last year, cracked its walls and crumbled part of the ceiling. In the course of repair we had to remove some of the ornaments which, as I had always suspected, turned out to be just plated with gold. Anyway, I restored the piece and now it looks brilliant, but it noticeably stands out from the rest of the room. I will search for some way to restore everything to its original look; the crack is high up and the repair works will not disturb the visitors. So far we have managed to repair one-twentieth of the damages, but it costs a lot of money. If I manage to find some financing, I will finish it. This combination of modern with classical elements, which you mentioned, was a big dilemma, because the room has a unique interior, quite strange one I would say – huge mirrors, which leave no room for paintings. Over the years, this problem has been solved through covering the mirrors with plywood and applying a layer of paint on it, but this damages the whole room; the second option is not much more mirror-friendly – massive pedestals have been installed and the paintings have been fixed on them.

So, we proceeded to a more radical solution – we built a modern semi-transparent structure, hanging in the room's center, supporting both the lights and the paintings. Thus, the mirrors were preserved and the effect of the paintings' reflections on the visitors is just great; it could be further enhanced by a specially-controlled play of light. Should need be, the whole structure may be dismantled and removed easily; I think it is a successful solution.

What projects do you want to implement in 2006 and in a longer perspective? What are the priorities you will pursue?
We already have a planned schedule for 2006, all we have to do now is put it into realization. Of course, unexpected obstacles pop up sometimes, but this is something normal when you make such a long-term plan. This year, we have to do a lot of work on the building's western facade; heating, or rather air-conditioning, is also a major problem to be solved. This problem grew more serious with the opening of the third floor. We need a system which to maintain regular temperature and humidity of the air. But the Palace is a cultural monument, and we cannot afford marring its front facade with some air-conditioners hanging on the wall. Hiding the air-condition units turned out to be a major problem, because the roof is two-sloped and rather steep.

A few organizational problems should also be solved. There are three museum-houses with the National Art Gallery – of artists Vera Nedkova, Ivan Lazarov and Nikola Tanev. I have organized and carried out the full restoration and refurbishment of two of them. The first house-museum, the one of Vera Nedkova, is functioning, but at this stage its functioning is not paying back; on some days, we have only two visitors… Nikola Tanev's house-museum is closed, although it is in perfect condition, because the interest of the public is thin. The maintenance of such structures is very unprofitable. I have tried to solve this problem with combined-admission tickets, but so far my efforts have been in vain. The third house-museum – the one of Ivan Lazarov – is functioning, but its exposition is rather old. I have received some funds for its refurbishment, I see it as a cultural center.

And in a more personal perspective? In addition to your work, what other interests do you have?
The scope of my interests has narrowed, as well as my impressions. This job of mine is very demanding and it requires efforts in many different directions. I couldn't say I have much of a hobby. I like cooking, but that's another matter. I have a country-house; some time ago I used to go there and relax, but now I don't have time for this.

Your dream is to found a museum of modern art. Could you please give our readers some more information about it?
I have been thinking of this idea for some time now. There is a house, which at some time used to be a museum of crafts, located just between the Earth and People National Museum and the Hilton and Hemus Hotels. It's a wonderful house with its own plot and garden and I think it's very suitable for the purpose. Unfortunately, we again had to fight for this idea with ill-wishers, this time in the face of the Sofia Municipality, which at some point decided to take possession of it. We initiated a lawsuit against the Municipality and we won. Now, the house is a property of the Ministry of Culture and this idea of mine could be realized, but it will cost a lot of money; there are other priorities at this stage.

What is your view of the contemporary art as an art critic? According to you, what are the current trends?
I must admit I am not very impressed by what I see. And it is not only because of the miscellany of new tendencies, but also because of that deep provincialism, which unfortunately reigns in the contemporary art. What I mean is that most of today's artists think they are self-sufficient and few of them dare work on a broader scale and break loose from the local things. I think we are still searching for a place in the major trends of world art.

You also make presentations of Bulgarian artists abroad, what is the general response to Bulgarian art? Have you managed to make it popular enough and to show the best of it?
We work very little in this line and we could hardly hope to obtain a niche of our own in contemporary art, because these processes have been very much delayed. On the other hand, we do not pay enough attention to what could establish the link between the Bulgarian and world art. Let me give you a simple example. If we open an encyclopedia of contemporary art on the page about twentieth century art, we will read the names of George Papazov, Jul Pasken and Christo and the book will only tell us that they are of Bulgarian origin. This is the sad reality; we lack modern artists. The presence of some other contemporary artists is more noticeable, but this happens rather spontaneously and is not a direct result from the state's cultural policy. Rather, it is an _expression of their desires. Nedko Solakov is one such artist, but he works mainly abroad. These artists have chosen fulfillment in the West European context and some of them are more integrated into the West European system, than into the Bulgarian one. This is the situation.

Would you tell our readers a bit more about the traveling exhibitions and about your cooperation with other galleries in Bulgaria and abroad?
I am working with many different galleries – private ones, state-run galleries, galleries with foreign museums… Presently, I am having talks with the National Gallery of Prague about future perspectives for cooperation. I am also trying to establish a long-term cooperation with the Strasbourg Academy of Art, with which we have organized a joint exhibition. The exhibition is now on tour in France and Belgium. We are also trying to establish contacts with other galleries. It is noteworthy that we invited two French artists to live and work in Bulgaria for a month and we provided them with material basis; at the end of the month we organized an exhibition of their works in the National Art Gallery, and now we expect two Bulgarian artists to go to France for a month. I think this is the easiest and most effective way of starting an artistic exchange with France, which at the same time will boost the Gallery's reputation as an institution. I would say this project opens a lot of prospects, new people come here, there is an exchange of ideas and it is quite interesting as a whole. Maybe, this is the most interesting of our projects.