"January. A Month of Radichkov" is the project that the city of Plovdiv will use to mark the 90th anniversary of one of Bulgaria's most original word masters. The monthlong initiative starts with a photo exhibition, "The Unconsecrated Yards" (13 – 27 January 2019), at the Mexican Art section of the City Art Gallery. The show, which is a highlight of the opening weekend of Plovdiv – European Capital of Culture 2019 (ECC), is an account of Radichkov's thrilling adventure across Siberia in 1964, when the source material was gathered for a collection of travel writing published two years later.

Photographs from Radichkov's journey to one of earth's most unwelcoming territories have appeared before an audience only once before, in Sofia. As part of the official ECC programme, the current exhibition comes in an extended form, featuring new exhibits annotated in Bulgarian and English. The series of black-and-white images tells about the author's meetings with deer breeders, Yakuts, silver foxes, snowy wilderness and the taiga. With dedication and care, the photographer Alexander Sertev has restored the original photos from heavily damaged rolls, and the resurrected images are now on their way to a wider audience.

The exhibition will open with a presentation of "Siberian Notebooks," Radichkov's volume of notes from the Siberian journey and the sole extant testimony of the writer's creative process. The book is also the first edition of the notes in their entirety. "Siberian Notebooks" is an exciting, unedited text that anticipates, in synthesised form, "The Unconsecrated Yards" and offers Radichkov's raw impressions of Siberia's complex and harsh life. 

The works of Yordan Radichkov -- an incomparable virtuoso of the short story and the play with imagination, as well as a proven dramatist and scriptwriter -- are still treasured by many, and have come out in more than 40 languages in over 50 countries.

"The Unconsecrated Yards" is Radichkov's first set of travel pieces. The book, first published in 1966, tells of the writer's journey across Siberia two years earlier, when he spent more than four months exploring various locales – from the most economically developed industrial regions to unpopulated places – ending up meeting a Siberian shaman. The encounter left a permanent trace in Radichkov's oeuvre, and in his later works he would often return to the holy man's words:
"God is only one," the shaman said, with arms crossed on his chest. "God is only one; what is different are the religions; He may exist, or not exist – we must not talk. We must live as if He exists. And if we do not believe in Him, we must be honest – well, that's what God is after all. Faith is like a well: Different people drink from it, but the water is always the same." – From "The Unconsecrated Yards"