SWIMMING POOL
/ THE BLUE CUBE FOUNDATION
10 Tsar Osvoboditel Blvd. 5th floor
Sofia 1000
Bulgaria
contact@swimmingpoolprojects.org
+359 887 895 251
Swimming Pool is a space for contemporary art and research with a focus on intersectional and collaborative practices, art education, art politics and institution-making. Founded in 2015 in Sofia, it houses an all-year programme in its spaces which are located on a central rooftop with an empty outdoor pool built in the 1930s.
Swimming Pool presents exhibitions, performances, publications and other projects in order to nourish awareness and invention, both locally and as part of an international community. Our program involves collaborations with independent organizations, as well as with public institutions, such as Art in General – New York, David Dale Gallery – Glasgow, Jindřich Chalupecký Society - Prague, Е.М.М.А – Madrid, Alma Mater Gallery at the Sofia University and National Library in Sofia.
Exchanges with art academies have been another important aspect of our practice, such as the National Art Academy, Kunsthochschule Mainz, Piet Zwart Institute Rotterdam, “Master of Voice” at Sandberg Institute Amsterdam and the Pure Fiction Class at the Staedelschule Frankfurt / Main, Slought към University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
Throughout the years, Swimming Pool has also started to experiment with structural approaches within the field of non-institutionalized learning: In 2018 and 2019 we ran a curatorial program about the aims, politics and future of micro organizations. We also organize long-term projects that include discussions, research and exhibitions, as “The Library of Our Encounters" (2020–), “The Possible Institution” (2021), “New Ecologies” (2023). We've been continuously hosting artistic residencies. in 2020 we were partners of the Eastern europe artist-in-residency exchange program of the Akademie Schloss Solitude.
Swimming Pool is founded by Viktoria Draganova and led by the Blue Cube Foundation that also runs Center for Social Vision, the Journal for Social Vision, and Sofia Art Map.
The Blue Cube Foundation is a founding member of the Association of the Private Cultural Organizations for Visual and Interdiciplinary Arts, a informal organization founded in 2023.