А Project Weekend by the Curatorial School 2018 (Boyana Djikova, Sophia Grancharova, Zac Kresl, Gisela Massara, Neda Milanova, Viktoriya Staykova, Raya Stefanova, Asya Popova & Tomek Pawlowski, Ina Valentinova)
Various Locations & Swimming Pool / Karaoke Night / Talks Program / Care by UnitSPA
We are delighted to invite you to UNITED SPACES, a weekend-long programme of projects curated by the participants of the this year’s Curatorial Program at Swimming Pool. The main research interest of the Curatorial Program has been to focus on the potential of independent curatorial activity in creating spaces. For the program’s final projects, each participant was asked to propose a space, in which to build a frame of investigation about the potentialities as well as responsibilities of curating within a certain societal, cultural, physical and imaginary context.
Projects will layer across spaces, varying from a hotel room to the vast atrium of an old educational building; an empty shop to the attic at Swimming Pool; in a plant, in a bar, on a loom, between chairs. A distant echo of sparkling water, a bass guitar, a late-night karaoke song. You can exercise, get a shower, walk to GM Dimitrov, share your thoughts. Be welcome, stay for a while.
And why united? Because although different, we are informed by one another. Because all question the needs of society today and are concerned with how art can address these needs. Because at the end of the day it should be a question of ethics. Because peace is non-news and we all hope that art will stop existing solely as a feed for the media. Because culture has always been politics. Because the current Bulgarian context produces white-cube situations where only the spectacular, the pseudo-political, the anti-democratic, the elite-flattering, and the brand-driven thrives. However, spaces of freedom—power-remote and vulnerable, time-slow and research-driven, moved by imagining, emptied for awareness, fed on love—need to stand tall. In times of conservative cultural politics, promoted as the long awaited normalization, care shall sing. United in hope.
PROJECTS
INNER, by Boyana Djikova
INNER is an experimental performative project, revolving around the idea of body as the first, last and most important space that we inhabit. Cognitive behavioral exploration, observation of touch and empathy are provoked trough perhaps subversive but intimate situations with complete strangers. The audience is invited to perform 3 exercises (between 20 and 30 minutes in total) in solitary and in couples in a safe, semi-private ambient. They are dedicated to the exploration of the other and the self (just like what we usually do in bars) but in a both more profound and surprising way than we are used to, as if we have heightened and upgraded the circumstances. Guidance in creating intimacy by Boyana Djikova and the experimental practice of Denitza Zafirova and Joana Dralcheva (video). Outside the white cube, in a bar.
Where: Bar Republica, Ivan Vazov St. 18
When: 8 December (Saturday), 16:00-20:00
SPACE FOR SPARKLING WATER, by Sophia Grancharova with works by Jordan Derrien
A room in a hotel. Balanced and familiar. Private and nice. Come in. Move through the corridor, follow the warm light coming out of the bathroom. You can stay the whole night in this exhibition. Take a shower, get a coffee, order a room service, lay on the bed, longer. Layers of normality coming together, over each other like bed sheets that keep you warm. You have received a package by the post. It is wrapped in plastic bags and lace. A surprise underneath is waiting. A distant echo of sparkling water.
Where: Diter Hotel, Han Asparuh St. 65
When: 8 December (Saturday), after 19:00
BABA VANGA’S COWBOY AND THE QUASI HISTORICAL MUSEUM, by Zac Kresl in collaboration with Esther Poppe
This is the Quasi Historical Museum built for an item that does not (not) exist; the sampo. When asked about the sampo’s
whereabouts, the response is always the same. And it depends on whether you are a Russian Hacker, Startup Cowboy, Ancient Drug-Induced Babelor or just plain Confusion. The exhibition walks backwards through the future. It comprises a “grandma’s attic” space, assemblaged videos, blue light, plexiglass layerings of regurgitated internet information, found objects at Битака as well as the alchemic processes of art.
Where: Swimming Pool
When: 7-9 December (Friday-Sunday), 16:00-20:00
WEAVE THE SPACE (MESH – FLESH – SKIN), by Gisela Massara with works by Juan Miceli
Bodies emerge as territory, open, expanded. The poetic action is the circular time between the leaves. The images slide between the leaves. The Japanese define it as KOmOreBI, the sunlight that filters through the trees. I weave the space with Juan Miceli’s works. Juan opens his body, his flesh extends, building a relational mesh. His seam, his scar allow me to weave the trama over the loom – THE SPACE AS AN ORGANIC TISSUE. I build the space like a fabric. How do I approach the fabric? Sewing is my personal brand as a curator. Sewing lives in me.
Where: G. M. Dimitrov Blvd. 100
When: 8 December (Saturday), 11:00-14:00
A HIDDEN SPOT IN YOUR MIND, by Neda Milanova with art directon by Irina Magdalincheva
A small space. A hidden place. A closet hiding the ingredients of what moves us forward or destroy us. How does it look? Is it messy or perfectly in order? Еmpty or full? Which image/object stands among the many? Can such space be created in reality or is it merely a projection? What we present is a space for discovery, observation, contemplation of the intricate human nature. The exhibition invites the viewer to reflects on what each of us projects and what remains hidden.
Where: Tsar Simeon St. 2 (on the corner with Vasil Levski Blvd.)
When: 8 December (Saturday), 16:00-20:00 & 9 December (Sunday), 11:00-14:00
AN ESTACADE IS A ROOF, by Viktoriya Stakova
AN ESTACADE IS A ROOF investigates the notion of the repair of architectural structures and its possible meanings. The project opens space through establishing its own dictionary and constraints. It finds and follows predefined structures in street advertisements intertwined through Sofia – where to repair can also mean to rearrange, to construct, to lift and to demolish.
Where: Under the Brussels Blvd Bridge
When: 7 – 9 December (Friday-Sunday), till its eventual destruction
SPACE ARRANGEMENTS, by Raya Stefanova
Approaching the notion of space as an invisible structure that shapes relationships, this project fluxes around different ways of arrangement of elements to design conditions that are more likely to produce and mediate new knowledge. SPACE ARRANGEMENT 01 is using the space and the props found at Swimming Pool to work with the concept of “support structures” as artist Celine Condorelli had framed it, through the performative and the theatrical, as staging and display. In contrast, SPACE ARRANGEMENT 02 is only virtual and it explores ways to frame the online space of the Curatorial School as an archive, a reader, a network or even a platform for future actions and collaborations.
Where: Swimming Pool and online (will be launched in February 2019)
When: 7-9 December (Friday – Sunday), 16:00-19:00
“OH, EASY ON YOU!” by Ina Valentinova, reading and playing texts by Eric de Jesus, Gil Riley, John Vance and others, published by The Easy Subcult / The American Typewriter Press
Nature has become the last subculture which we care for … On Friday you will find me with my bass guitar in the middle of a vast inner yard, getting Eric and Gil and John on track. Reading some poetry, drinking warm tea and explaining things.
Where: The faculty of applied arts, G. M. Dimitrov Blvd. 100
When: 8 December (Saturday), 12:00-14:00
UNIT SPA, by Asya Popova & Tomek Pawlowski
A space in between spaces. A space of comfort, care, support and attention, awareness and enjoyment. UNIT SPA will be taking care of you by curating your experience within the three days of our curatorial school project weekend. During the weekend Unit SPA team will provide services and activities such as guided tours, live TV Instagram Show, talks, gatherings, interventions and improvisations will happen in relation to the program. We are your Unit SPA, but we can also be whatever you like us to be – If it’s cold, we’ll warm you by tea. If you’re uptight, we’ll massage you.
Where: anywhere
When: anytime
