Village of Personalities - Staro Zhelezare StreetArt Festival

Staro Zhelezare is the StreetArt village in central Bulgaria. Walls, fences and buildings are covered with paintings - figures and portraits of local peopled companied by famous figures from the world of politics and culture.

The idea is created and the project is realised by Art Collective - Katarzyna and Ventsislav Piryankov and their art students from Poland. From 2015 they organize in summer the Mural Festival "Village of Personalities/Art for social change" . They spend whole july and august at Piriankov Art Center at Staro Zhelezare - their summer house for artists.

Staro Zhelezare is a small village in central part of Bulgaria, today it is already the most known STREET ART VILLAGE in Eastern Europe.

It is the unique open-air art gallery, where houses and fences are painted with visages of local people together with world known icons like politicians, different kinds of celebrities, chosen by the householders. It is also called THE VILLAGE OF PERSONALITIES.

From a dying village at the end of the world, Staro Zhelezare has become the center of the world where all people come to meet, even if only on the houses' walls – all people regardless of their position, status, nationality, worldview or other cultural criteria. Queen Elizabeth II, Winston Churchill and Angela Merkel have no problem with visiting the 'peasants' in Staro Zhelezare on a whim. There are plenty of personages painted – coming to Staro Zhelezare one gets the impression that it's full of people and full of life.

The project is realized in Bulgaria, but with crucial Polish impact. It is created by young artists from Poznan - students of the Ventzi School of Art and, at the same time, students of the Poznań University of Arts under the leadership of Katarzyna and Ventzislav Piriankov.

It is the utopian project, each year with its new beautiful visions , with its Manifestos.

2017 was the year of the MANIFESTO OF VILLAGE AVANT-GARDE, In 2018, the first rural branch of the New York MoMA was created in Staro Zhelezare, the greatest works of modernism masters as Mondrian, Matisse, Picasso, Rothko, Schielle and others, hung here at the village collection, of course as murals. In 2019 Staro Zhelezare was called the Village of the Sun, and the Manifesto of a Beautiful Future was crucial here.

In 2020 edition we will follow the utopian ideas and find the new wonderful visions for our local heroes, to make it worth visit for people from all parts of the world, as it is authentic, full of emotions, real engagement, what gives the unique atmosphere and incredible artistic effect.