The halls of the Gallery of the Union of Bulgarian Artists at 6 Shipka St. look like a scene from a fairytale. The walls of the first three floors of the gallery have been filled with multifarious posters since the opening of the Third International Triennial of the Stage Poster on Monday.

The exhibit presents 389 of the best international works composed over the past three years in the sphere of stage posters. About 200 artists from 30 countries have provided their works in order to create the variegated and impressive collection of this year's triennial.

Artists have let their imagination fly to surprising destinations. One has presented the performance of Friedrich Schiller's Wilhelm Tell as a pack of apples the way one buys them at the supermarket. The artist has not forgotten to put even the price label on the image of the poster.

Original and created to attract the eyes of passers-by, the posters promote cultural events with intriguing images as well as with simple basic words. "Music makes you happy" said one of the works in the section of Polish artists.

Initiated seven years ago by artists Bozhidar Ikonomov, Bozhidar Yonov and Albena Spasova, the event has been offering an overview of the international development of the art of creating posters for all forms of stage performances - theatre, opera, ballet, pantomime, puppet theatre, musical, performance, variety, concerts and festivals.

"Over the years the event has become one of the top five international exhibitions of posters," said Albena Spasova. "It is also the only event specialized in stage posters."

Spasova explained that the selection of the posters was made by a national jury chaired by the famous Bulgarian poster artist Stefan Despodov. "The jury gathered in June and looked at about 2,000 posters which arrived from all over the world," she said.

Awards will be given in three categories - one will go to a young artist aged below 35, the second category is posters for all kinds of arts and the third category is posters especially dedicated to the theme of music, which is the special theme of this year's edition of the triennial.

"The theme of music was defined and chosen as central in order to stimulate young artists to create posters," Spasova explained. She said that the organizers have made every effort to promote the triennial among young Bulgaria artists and to encourage them to take part along with popular names. "We are glad that part of our Bulgarian participants are still students and this is their debut," Spasova added.

According to her, one of the goals of the triennial is to keep alive the spirit of the stage poster and constantly provoke artists to create more work in this genre. "Stage or cultural posters are very attractive," she pointed out. "Internationally, however, there is a trend of faster development of advertising posters at the expense of artistic posters."

The artist expressed her regret that in Bulgaria as a result of the crisis in theatres, the first people to be fired were the theatrical poster makers. "At the moment, the only Bulgarian theatre with a fulltime poster maker is the Ivan Vazov National Theatre and this is Stefan Despodov," Spasova said.

Among the participants of this year's triennial are artists from countries popular for their poster schools, such as Japan, Poland and Switzerland. Many young artists from Italy and many artists from China also take part in the poster celebration.

One of the special guests and member of the jury is Polish artist Vladislav Pluta who was the winner of the first prize at the previous edition of the triennial. Pluta, who graduated from the Krakow Academy of Art and is a specialist in calligraphy and typography, is also showing his own posters at the Polish Institute (12 Veslets St.).

Another prominent Polish guest of the triennial is Krzysztof Dydo, one of the most famous international poster collectors. Dydo possesses more than 40,000 posters in his Dydo Poster Collection and has his own museum of posters. "He is an art institution," Spasova said. "He himself confessed that posters are his mania and his ambition is to stimulate the development of artistic posters."

The works from the Third International Triennial of the Stage Poster are on display until November 17.