Tiny Bulgarian village brings MoMA to the people

With fewer than 500 inhabitants, Staro Zhelezare in southern Bulgaria is a world away from the mean streets of Manhattan, but its houses and barns have been painted with some of the most famous images from New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

Pictured on the village walls are reproductions of (from left)

Amedeo Modigliani’s Reclining Nude, John D. Graham’s Two sisters and Andy Warhol’s banana.

Salvador Dali’s clocks and Edvard Munch’s The Scream are also among the murals that have turned the village into an openair gallery for the annual event.

It is the fourth year that students from Poland have painted the walls of Staro Zhelezare, a project launched by Polish woman Katarzyna Piriankov and her Bulgarianborn husband Ventzislav who decided the theme this time should be the New York gallery.

‘‘We always want to make our projects on the basis of contrast and absurdity, connecting them with special places,’’ said Piriankov, from the Polish city of Poznan.

‘‘So, we decided to invite New York to Staro Zhelezare and its people. They also deserve to see the beauty of MoMA’s art works.’’

Foreign visitors have come to see the street art.

‘‘It is just amazing,’’ Englishman Nigel Thompson said. ‘‘I’ve never imagined something like that, you can even see Marcel Duchamp’s bicycle wheel.’’ — Reuters