Plamen IVANOV, Director of Orfika Academy Association
All of us, the creators of Orfika Academy Association, wish to state to the public our position regarding another manipulative and deliberate paid campaign against the activities of the Association and THRACIAN MYSTERIES FESTIVAL.
The insinuations presented by Todor Yotov and Boryana Yotova regarding the activities of our Association and all the cultural events and activities we hold are an outright lie. Moreover, the statements of the persons in question constitute a call to discrimination on religious grounds.
They themselves state in their press conference that the reason for holding it is the unfolding of the Thracian Mysteries Festival and all the successes of our organization in the field of culture and art. Let us remind the public that Orfika Academy Association is registered with the Ministry of Culture under the Law on Patronage, and the organization and cultural products we create are internationally recognized by well-known performing arts universities and cultural institutes in a number of European countries, including Great Britain , Slovakia and Germany.
In 2024 we achieved success with this year's edition of the Festival of Thracian Mysteries, starting with the “crown of the European Night of Museums“ – the performance Mystery of the Thracian Heros in front of the National Gallery – The Royal Palace, in Sofia. Anyone who has witnessed our unique production can understand that the insinuation that through the activities of the Association we involve people in some kind of cult is an outright lie.
The subsequent successes with the implementation of three new shows in partnership with Municipalities and Museums around the country have clearly irritated the persons in question. All the performances were sold out and the seats for the audience – overbooked, so we had to stop ticket sales due to selling out days in advance.
The statement of Todor and Boryana Yotovi that the reason they held the conference was because of the Festival's successes, convinces us that the deliberate slander campaign against the Festival's activities is aimed at compromising its creators and participants, and thus to fail the culmination at the Festival of Thracian Mysteries, which will take place on September 29, 2024. in the Ancient Theater in Plovdiv.
It is an open lie that only “members of the Thracian Church community“ participate in our festival forms. A number of performances, including Mystery of the Thracian Heros, Resurrection of Eurydice, as well as the latest - Mystery of the Kabirs, held this August in Pomorie, are proof that this statement is false. Over the years, we have held a number of castings, with which we have searched for participants in our performances. It is the slanders and false manipulations directed at us that limit the opportunity to fully participate in public life, and this is direct discrimination against established artists and art critics, from which our association suffers direct negative consequences. The very definition of the Association as “sectarian“, “cult“, “sect“ etc. creates a sufficiently negative image of our organization and directly affects our ability to work with state, municipal and civic organizations, as well as directly with citizens, all of whom would have reservations because of the negative public image.
Participants in the Festival who have nothing to do with the religious community named by the Yotovi family – The Thracian Church would also be discriminated against on religious grounds, due to the fact that a label is attached to the entire organization.
Such malicious actions create a false image of all creatives in our organization and stigmatize them, separating them from full participation in public life. This is unacceptable!
Every believing or non-believing Bulgarian citizen has the right to create, express himself and participate in public and cultural life, regardless of religious beliefs! This is a guaranteed right under the Constitution and the laws of the Republic of Bulgaria, as it is enshrined in European legislation. Calls to limit creativity under the pretext of accusations of “forgery” (which are completely baseless) is direct discrimination and is prohibited by law!
We refuse to accept that it is normal in a democratic country, part of the European Union, based on “scientific criticism” (if defamatory statements can even be called that), to denounce scientists as “forgers” and “fraudsters“. It is even more inadmissible and shameless based on “scientific criticism” to denounce an entire cultural organization and the work of dozens, if not hundreds of artists!
Anyone who wants to get acquainted closely with the work, performances and activities of the Orfika Academy, to order on 29.09.2024. on Festival Thracian Mysteries – tickets can be purchased at Eventim and at events.academiaorphica.org!