The exhibition is dedicated to Prof. Valentin Startchev’s 90th anniversary and, albeit retrospective, presents only a portion of his impressive and multilayered output. The carefully selected artworks follow the sequence and progress of his formal and conceptual searches over the years: from small sculptures, through sculptural compositions and monuments at key locations in the urban and cultural topography of Bulgaria and beyond, to the latest works specifically conceived and produced for the Kvadrat 500 galleries.

They not only develop those themes that have preoccupied the sculptor, but prove that artistic energy can be vital and explorative, while independent of the changing spirit of the times. His oeuvre is marked by exceptional plastic might, aesthetic insight and uncompromising inner discipline, assigning him a permanent place in the historical context of Bulgarian sculptural and monumental art.

Through time is a journey—not only in the chronology of the years gone by, but also in the depths of the authorial artistic consciousness, which never ceases to explore the boundaries of matter, spirit and, above all, form. The exhibition is an invitation to meet an art that bears the marks of different eras, but never loses its voice. It documents part of the rich and multifaceted oeuvre of an emblematic artist, focuses on his luminous presence in our Bulgarian artistic life, and poses the question of the significance of Bulgarian art beyond time and transience.