The “Banner of Peace” Assembly as a National Brand of Bulgaria during Socialism
Keywords:
Banner of Peace Assembly, soft power, cultural diplomacyAbstract
On December 21st 1976, the UN General Assembly proclaimed 1979 as the Inter national Year of the Child on the occasion of the 20th Anniversary of the adoption of the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child. In June 1978, Lyudmila Zhivkova, Chair of the Committee for Art and Culture, proposed to organize an exhibition of talented children in Bulgaria to mark the occasion. This was how the idea for the “Banner of Peace” Assembly came about, which evolved into an international festival of children’s art, held under the auspices of UNESCO. In the period of late socialism the “Banner of Peace” movement became a national cultural brand of supranational significance. The communist regime in Bulgaria “advertised” itself and utilized the resources of the “soft power” in an attempt to mitigate the ide ological opposition during the Cold War. Unlike “hard power”, which uses mili tary and economic means of coercion, “soft power” works through images and symbols – carriers of positive suggestions: art, creativity, beauty, spiritual devel opment, childhood, peace and cooperation. In this paper the “Banner of Peace” Assembly is juxtaposed to another intercultural project with a political and ide ological orientation – “Plovdiv – European Capital of Culture 2019”.
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