SYNOPSIS
How did a 19-year-old boy from Kyustendil cross Europe at the beginning of the 20th century and become one of the most significant figures of Italian Futurism? And why does he remain almost forgotten in Bulgaria to this day?
This is the first feature-length documentary about Nicolay Diulgheroff (1901-1982), an artist who brought painting, design and architecture together in a distinctive visual language and left a legacy that transcends national borders.
Born in Kyustendil into a family of printers, Diulgheroff grew up surrounded by ink, paper, letters and graphic design. At the age of 19, he left Bulgaria and set out for Europe. Vienna, Dresden, Weimar and Turin trace the young Bulgarian’s path towards the European avant-garde.
In 1926, he settled in Turin, Italy’s industrial “Futuropolis”. There he studied at the Higher School of Architecture attached to the Accademia Albertina, receiving his diploma in 1932. He established ties with Luigi Colombo, known as Fillia, and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, becoming an important figure in the second wave of Futurism. Turin was more than the city of his architectural education: it was the setting for his formative encounters with the European avant-garde and his lasting establishment as an artist.
Diulgheroff developed a distinctive visual language in which geometry and rationality meet movement, machine aesthetics and the “magic of colour”. His work spans painting, collage, graphic design, advertising, architecture, interiors and ceramics. From advertisements for Cinzano, Campari and Amaro Cora to Casa Mazzotti in Albisola and the Futurist restaurant Santopalato in Turin, his works reveal an artist for whom art was inseparable from life.
The film offers a new research perspective on this visual world. For the first time, a film explores how Bulgarian folklore and traditional art (carpets, folk costumes, architecture, church murals of the Bulgarian National Revival and ceramics) influenced his visual language and artistic world. Through the dialogue between Kyustendil and Turin, it reveals the Bulgarian roots of a body of work previously viewed primarily through the lens of Italian Futurism.
Recognition came quickly. Diulgheroff participated in dozens of Futurist exhibitions in Italy and across Europe and held solo exhibitions in Milan, Turin, Venice and Rome. His name appears eight times in the history of the Venice Biennale: in 1928, 1930, 1932, 1934, 1936, 1976, 1978 and, posthumously, in 1995. His works are held in important Italian museum and private collections.
Here lies the paradox that sets the film’s documentary investigation in motion. During his lifetime, Diulgheroff held only one solo exhibition in Bulgaria, in 1924, before settling permanently in Italy. Today, a number of his works are also preserved in his native Kyustendil, yet the artist remains almost unknown to Bulgarian audiences.
How does a Bulgarian reach the heart of the European avant-garde, only to gradually disappear from the cultural memory of his own country?
The film is being made with the support of Nicolay Diulgheroff’s heirs, his sons Radoslav and Romano. Materials from his personal archives, correspondence, artworks and family memories will enrich the account of his life and creative journey, bringing viewers closer to the person behind the artist.
The film’s consultant is Professor Gabriele Simongini, one of the leading scholars of Futurism. Through his expert perspective and contribution to the narrative, he will shed light on Diulgheroff’s place in the movement and his contribution to the European avant-garde.
Through archival documents, artworks, family testimony and encounters with researchers, the film searches not only for traces of the artist, but also for the processes through which an artist’s memory is created, preserved or lost. The documentary investigation travels through Kyustendil, Sofia, Turin, Albisola, Rome, Vienna and Weimar, connecting the places of his life with different interpretations of his artistic legacy.
This film is an act of cultural restitution. Nicolay Diulgheroff is a Bulgarian artist among the pioneers of Futurism whose work belongs to both Italian and Bulgarian artistic heritage. By restoring the connection between his Bulgarian roots and his place in the European avant-garde, the film aims to make this connection visible, tangible and convincing, and to return Diulgheroff to Bulgaria’s cultural memory.