“Forget Your Past” by Nikola Mihov
Nikola Mihov is a photographer and video maker living in Bulgaria. In his series “Forget Your Past“, he looks at old and abandoned soviet era moments and statures in Bulgaria. The series features 38 photographs with detailed information about the people who designed the structures and the history behind them.
Many of the iconic communist era monuments in Bulgaria were dismantled after the fall of the totalitarian regime in 1989. Nevertheless, more than one hundred important monuments built between 1945 and 1989 remain standing. The majority of these sites are not recognized by the state and they remain ownerless. Their exact number is unknown and it is difficult to find information about their authors and their history. The graffiti “Forget Your Past” above the entrance of the Bulgarian Communist Party memorial demonstrates their faith. Situated in towns across the country, and once a symbol of pride, today most of communist era monuments are neglected and ransacked. Regardless of whether they were built to commemorate the Soviet Army or the struggle against Ottoman rule, they all share one and the same fate: to be a silent symbol of the forgotten past. Nikola Mihov’s photographic series “Forget Your Past” reveals 14 of the most significant communist era monuments in Bulgaria. This project is realized within the support of Trace, a platform that brings together artists and architects to consider the integration of the communist monuments into the present day urban environment.
