This exhibition revisits the history of Bulgarian everyday life through the lens of the chushkopek (pepper roaster)—an object that has undergone many transformations over the past fifty years. By exploring its design and cultural significance, we seek to understand how this humble appliance became an icon of domestic life.
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Our starting point was a simple question: Is there design in the pepper roaster?
As the project evolved, we realized that while the answer is unambiguous, it may not be the most important one. In 2009, the pepper roaster was even officially voted by the audience of Bulgarian National Television as the greatest household invention of the 20th century. Somewhere along the way, we began calling it—half-jokingly—the Bulgarian Mona Lisa.
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In this case, function undeniably triumphs over form. Yet precisely there lies the space for creative reinterpretation. We invited contributors from diverse disciplines—illustration, graphic, product, and industrial design, as well as ceramics, literature, and sociology—to engage with the pepper roaster and reimagine it through their own mediums for today’s context.
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Participants: Albena Todorova, Alina Papazova, Denitsa Boyadzhieva, Zahari Radev, Ilian Iliev, Mila Mineva, Mila Yaneva-Tabakova, Studio Tash
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Curators: Adriana Andreeva and Boiana Gjaurova (Komplekt)
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Exhibition and graphic design: Anton Staykov and Svoboda Tsekova

Review of Bulgarian Design is a series of exhibitions produced by Komplekt since 2018, forming a central part of the annual Melba Design Festival.

Illustration: Mila Yaneva-Tabakova