(World Humour Art Museum)
The House of Humour and Satire is the first and only contemporary humour art museum in Bulgaria. It was set up on April 1st, 1972, and ingrained in its foundations are the strong roots of the local folklore humour, better known as “Gabrovo Anecdotes and Jokes”, as well as the masquerade and carnival traditions in Gabrovo. The mission of the MHHS is to encourage the creation of humorous art works by holding international and national competitions, exhibitions and scientific fora on the problems of humour and satire; to preserve, promote and popularize the world humour heritage recognizing the identity and the humour traditions of each nation; to mediate through the power of universal humour and to throw bridges between opposing sides in the name of tolerance, understanding and mutual respect amid the peoples in the world. Since its inception the MHHS has been pursuing its major goals: to collect and exhibit humour and satire in works of the fine arts, literature, photography, poster art, etc.; to explore, further and disseminate manifestations of humour and satire that make up the world culture heritage; to develop as a meeting-ground and an international exchange centre for artists and institutions that have committed their work and function to the unifying role of humour and the comic.
The museum covers an area of 8 000 m² comprising 10 exhibition rooms. It is built up on the foundations of an old leather factory, and is flanked by a Park of Laughter where the sculpted figures of Bulgarian folklore character Hitar Petar, of the emblematic world comedian Charlie Chaplin and of the literary characters Don Quixote and Sancho Panza rise. All figures were sculpted by Bulgarian artist Prof. Georgi Chapkanov. The Museum has a sound-recording studio and a conference hall as well.
Brought into the world in the age of the Iron Curtain and the ideological confrontation, as well as in the absence of present-day state-of-the-art means of communications, the House of Humour and Satire made great efforts to establish contacts with individual artists, organizations and institutes that had chosen humour and satire as their field of activity. Owing to 40 years of intensive international relations, today the museum database stores addresses of 15 800 artists and 9 300 institutes covering 87% of the countries in the world.
The Museum achieves the broadest dissemination and furthering of contemporary humorous and satirical art by holding international, national and thematic competitions and exhibitions. Among them stands out the most large-scale event organized by the MHHS – the International Biennial of Humour and Satire in the Arts (IBHSA) held traditionally in May, every odd-numbered year. The Biennial started in 1973, and initially it had two categories: Cartoons and Small Satirical Sculpture. Nowadays the Biennial offers humour artists from the world over six categories to enter: Cartoons (still being a leading category), Graphics, Paintings, Sculpture, Posters and Photographs. For the successfully held 20 editions of the International Biennial (1973 – 2011) the chief organizer – the House of Humour and Satire – has received a total of 61 494 works in all categories out of which 15 758 have been selected to be shown in the Biennial exhibitions. The GOLDEN AESOP Grand Prix has been awarded 8 times to prominent world cartoonists, and as a whole, the International Biennial of Humour and Satire in the Arts in Gabrovo has given 457 prizes, 74 honorable mentions and 68 distinctions altogether.
However, the Biennial is but a small part of the annual exhibition programme the Museum carries out which encompass temporary, solo and group exhibitions, as well as exhibitions featuring works housed in the museum art collection Humour of the Peoples. These exhibitions aim to give adequate exposure to the wealth of cartoons, satirical graphic works, sculpture, paintings, posters and works of the applied arts which are to comprise part of the world humour heritage tomorrow.
All events held by the MHHS take place under the motto The World Lasts Because It Laughs. In addition to the IBHSA, the Museum furthers the development of cartoon art by holding also thematic national cartoon competitions. Exceptionally successful have been the competitions Eurosapiens (2009), What, Switzerland? (2004), Fun-loving Balkans (1999) and Europe Dreams of Bulgaria (1998). The selected works in each competition came out in a separate catalogue-album. The Museum maintains active contacts with 121 Bulgarian cartoonists; with section CARTOON to the Union of Bulgarian Artists, and with FECO-Bulgaria. Since 2003 the MHHS has been awarding a special prize at the National Cartoon Exhibition staged yearly in the capital Sofia. It is important to underscore that the town of Gabrovo has hosted similar national cartoon shows since 1965.
A new approach to bringing European cultures together and providing a meeting-ground for humour artists was taken while staging the two editions of the East-West European Humour Art Encounters (2006, 2008), at which representatives of the European cartoon art not only had the opportunity to show their latest work, but to discuss the state and the current issues of European cartooning as well.
Owing to its international events and the generous donations (68 552 pieces by 16 965 donors) made by Bulgarian and foreign humour artists and writers, today the MHHS enjoys a sizable art collection under the heading Humour of the Peoples – 32 100 art works by 6 000 humour and satire artists from 173 countries. The cartoons housed in the collection number 22 376 pieces. Part of the art collection is the holdings of a specialized library where valuable catalogues, albums, humour newspapers and satirical magazines, international humour reference books, as well as all books published by the Museum since 1972 are treasured.
The Museum implements all-year-round educational programmes; holds thematic competitions for children’s drawings and children’s festivals relating to humour and fun; takes part in and holds scientific fora on issues of ethnography and fine arts.
The publishing policy of the MHHS is aimed at printing catalogue-albums of humour in the fines arts along with literature collections of jokes and anecdotes from the world over, collections of scientific papers and reports presented at conferences on humour problems, tourist guide-books, publicity material, etc.
Currently the museum staff numbers 25 people who welcome about 25 000 Bulgarian and foreign visitors a year.
To accomplish its mission, the MHHS enjoys the solid support and cooperation of the thousands of artists and institutes the Museum maintains contacts with; the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria, Gabrovo Municipality, the general public of Gabrovo and the artists’ circles in Bulgaria.
http://www.humorhouse.bg