DEVET SLONA (Nine Elephants) is a summer art-in-the-city program that will take place for the first time between 11 and 21 July 2024 in Sofia. Together with artists, authors, researchers, experts and residents, we will tell and share the city in a new and extraordinary way, using the calm of the summer weeks and transporting ourselves to different neighbourhoods in the city.
The name "Nine Elephants" comes from our desire to start the conversation about art in the city in a surprising way, because we assume that the art on the streets of different neighborhoods in Sofia will be just as extraordinary, which is what our first summer program set out to do. Sofia is constantly growing, the inhabitants are changing, new centres are forming, our movement trajectories are changing. At the same time, according to opinion polls, distrust among people in the city is high, we know little about our neighbourhoods and rarely feel we belong to them. This is important if we want to take care of where we live.
In the first edition of 'Devet slona', we invite you to participate in performance and momentary interventions in the space, theatre in the streets, literature between the blocks, to hear the stories of those who live and work in the city, to encourage above all sharing and conversation about the things that concern us. The themes addressed in the projects are environment, urban planning, cultural heritage and cultural history, architecture and nature, social inclusion and equal opportunities, human relations and urban communities. 'Devet slona' furthermore seeks to offer an alternative to the monuments that dominate urban space by relying on the art of conversation, participation and interventions that make us both dream and think, but most of all be active.
'Devet slona' will open on July 11 at the Swimming Pool, where in addition to presenting participants and a program, we will also launch the "Nine Elephants" collection with works by artists who share their imagination for interventions in urban environments. For the first edition of our summer program, we are furthermore joined by poet Stefan Ikoga with Nine Poems for Nine Elephants, which will be posted around the city and presented during the opening.
Between 11 and 21 July, we invite you to join us at a different venue in the city each day, and during the first few days, we'd love to welcome you to Konstantin Georgiev's audio-walk with theatrical interventions "Interblock Wanderings" and Sapromat in Kv. Kyulutsite, the culinary tour with Diana Nedeva and Meeting Points in the area of the Women's Market, a conversation about the green spaces in the Vasil Levski Chitaliste with residents of the neighborhood in the Vasil Levski Community Center, stand-up comedy with jokes about the eternal rivalry between Druzhba and Lulin. In the second week, we continue with Slavena Petkova, Maria Makedonska Veronika Desova and others, as well as our partner organizations Literary Encounters, Vox Populi and Gallery Gallery, and we look forward to seeing you in the walls, offices, train tracks, streets, shops, parks, containers, and more.
The new web site www.devetslona.art will serve as an information and archive of all interventions in the city, and they will be available for online browsing after the end of the first edition.
Initiator and curator: Viktoria Draganova
Team: Jenny Decheva, Anna Ivanova, Kristiyana Barzinska, Ilina Peneva
Visual identity: Crunchy Oyster
Organized by Blue Cube Foundation in partnership with Swimming Pool and Center for Social Vision.
With the financial support of the National Culture Fund.
Part of the Cultural Calendar of Sofia Municipality for 2024.
Partners:
Chitalishte "Vasil Levski", Chitalishte "Aleko Konstantinov", District "Oborishte", District "Ilinden".
Participants
Artists and researchers: Viktor Tomov, Maria Ilieva and Martin Tomov, Ralitsa Belcheva and Remina Aleksieva, Valya Marinova and Kat Todorova, Maria Makedonska, Svetoslav Aleksandrov and Stella Vasileva, Konstantin Georgiev, Slavena Petkova, Ira Stoyanova, Elena Chergilanova and Iv-Kristian Angelov, Kalina Zhecheva, Veronika Desova, and Stefan Ikoga
Organizations: Vox Populi Association, Green Line Sofia, Meeting Points, Literary Meetings, Inside Joke Stand-Up Comedy, gallery gallery, Supramat, Re-Bonkers
Neighborhoods
Kyulutsite, Zhenski Market, Sukhata Reka, Mladost, Malashevtsi, Geo Milev, Gevgeliiski, Oborishte, Center, etc.
Keep an eye out for information:
Website: https://devetslona.art/
Instagram @devetslona
