The Grand Duke of Luxembourg keeps a canvas by a BulgarianThe artist Marietta Chukleva lived in Luxembourg for eight years arranged her first exhibition after her return home; it happened in the cozy metropolitan gallery at Vasil Levski 11 Boulevard some time ago. We found her there, saw the really great pictures by her. We were particularly impressed by a canvas with a wolf and by another one with a unicorn and a woman.Marietta was born in Sofia. Her mother and father were black-and-white painters, and she herself graduated in Painting from The Art Academy in the class of Prof. Nayden Petkov. The artist shook up our ideas about the attitude to art in Europe. In a fabulously rich dwarf country of Benelux, which is among the EU founders, they even have no art academy.- Marietta, how do the artists live in the rich Luxembourg; aren't they a bit less materialistic at least ? What is the Art Academy of such a rich country like?- They have no such thing as Art Academy, strange as it may sound, neither have they universities. Who wants to study goes to France, Germany or Belgium. I was there in a local circle of artists called La Pallet, and even participated in one of their exhibitions. There, the artists are not professionals, they just decide they want to paint ,and start doing it, because they can afford it. Here, man endeavors to finish the high school, the academy; that does not happen with them. There are a few people who even manage to sell their paintings- You are an offspring of artists, you have been living among canvases and paints since you were a little girl, so was it what made you grab the brush?- Yes, I grew up among pictures, in the fairy world of art, as they say. I have been painting since I was a young girl. It was the only time I stayed peaceful. I mean, I was quite a lively, vigorous child, and it was the only time I would not fidget too much. It might last for hours. I loved to paint dogs and horses the most; I have been doing this since I was really young.- How did you end up in Luxembourg? - I was married there, and lived in the country for eight years. Coincidentally, it was an almost dead period for me in terms of painting . People have a completely different mentality there; they seemed to me quite cold and reserved, i.e. one cannot establish contact that fast, they do not socialize that much with each other, everybody lives a closed life. The first time I went to Luxembourg was in 1995, on the occasion of the Festival of Arts in the town of Marnach; I ran a watercolor course for amateurs. The following year, I was invited for three months, again in the frameworks of that festival. I had been given a task by some of their municipalities to paint local sights, e.g. castles, churches, chapels... Then, I came back home, but in 2003 married a man from Luxembourg, and went to live there.- You have painted a picture especially for the Grand Duke of Luxembourg; how did it happen?- While I was still there in 1996, I was asked to paint a picture that was to be given to the Grand Duke for his birthday. I had to portray his palace in the capital of Luxembourg, and I made quite a large watercolour. They gave it to him after the solemn Mass at a church in Marnach. So I was fortunate to meet the Grand Duke Jean, who abdicated in favor of his eldest son Henry in 2000; the latter is the ruler now. There, I tried to work a few times, I had translated my diplomas (as they said, it was incredible to have your diplomas recognized), but nothing happened. I would give painting lessons to a child, but the kid was Bulgarian too... Unfortunately, I did not have the support of my partner that I needed in order to self-fulfill somehow. He did not help me in this respect. I do not say it with a bad feeling, but I stayed at home all the time, and was just a housewife, in fact. In Luxembourg, people are quite cold and materialistic, they are close-minded in some aspects, and do not know a lot of things, even where Bulgaria is. They are only interested in money, houses, cars. My impression is that, unfortunately, they have no respect to the art.- You did not live like a princess as a lot of Bulgarian women would think of about the marriage in Luxembourg, the country rated first in the world by gross domestic product a few years ago, and still keeps on being somewhere in the forehead...- Oh, in no way did I live like a princess. This is a great delusion... I never thought about me like this, but hoped to be able to continue creating, to express myself; because that is what I am. It depends on the values ​​man has in life. But I came to the conclusion that the foreigner will always remain a foreigner for them, no matter how much they work, and can never be happy. They do not like foreigners there. A lot of Serbs and Portuguese do the dirty work for them; they are really a lot, and may soon take over.- And then, it would be the Serbian Duchy, and we would go to eat Serbian grill there; it would be fun. How big is it exactly? And what did you paint there? Do you remember the feeling, while working on the picture with the wolf? A kind of subconscious fear of hostility...- Yes, the things with the Serbs seem to go this direction. The country is 42 km wide and 80 km long. Otherwise, it is a nice, tidy state, very green, with meadows, forests... There are two major cities, Luxembourg is the capital, the other is Esch-sur-Alzette, and the rest are like villages. Several pictures of this exhibition were painted there, Including the one with the wolf. It is indeed possible that it had expressed some subconscious feeling of an alien world where you found yourself, but I did not think like that while I was painting it. You just see the final picture somewhere in your mind, sit down and grab the brush. All the time I was painting it, I was in Bulgaria with my thoughts. I felt really strong nostalgia. I constantly had imagined our wonderful sea and mountains, all the nature, and really missed all those things. I do not know how I would feel if I lived in another country, but I am definitely the type of person who cannot live abroad. Or maybe my place was not at that country... I feel much better here...Interviewer: Svetoslav Pintev

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