We're launching a series of lectures, discussions and talks to inspire new ways of working in the city over the upcoming weeks. This past summer saw the beginning of the Nine Elephants Art in the City programme, which has been a host of projects in Sofia's neighbourhoods - exhibitions, performances, momentary interventions, documentary-visual studies and more. FORUM is a continuation of the summer programme where we will dig deeper into the themes, build on partnerships and explore the possibilities for better and meaningful interaction between different actors in the cultural sphere seeking to contribute to the development of the city's potentials and urban communities through art.
For FORUM, Swimming Pool becomes an open space for these encounters, as well as the site of Slavena Petkova's text installation "Making People Comfortable", which is "powered" by conversations with people and communities and will continue to grow during FORUM. The first text, which has also become the title of the installation, is in direct relation to the project "First Love, Then Everything Else", which the artist created in collaboration with small businesses in the open Commercial House opposite Sofia’s Court of Justice. It was presented in the summer as part of Nine Elephants and reflects the multiple uses of the place and their social, economic and cultural realities.
Within FORUM we will open a new chapter in the research of three participants from the summer programme - Viktor Damov, as well as Martin Tomov and Maria Ilieva - who are building on their visual research in a theoretically-critical aspect and preparing in-depth publications on the themes of ecology as infrastructural poetics (Martin Tomov), as well as in the development of an understanding of spaces for informal communication as a "social-urban value" (Victor Damov). We are also thrilled to announce that the project “The Green Place Without a Name” by Ralitsa Belcheva and Remina Alexieva will move from Chitalishte Vasil Levski 1928 to the Poduyane Municipality building for the next few months. In January, we invite Ina Valkanova (architect and creator of Gradoscope) to share more about her research around industrial parks. In the framework of FORUM we will also present our new open call in collaboration with the Berlin-based organisation C*Space on the topic of urban storytelling.
In early December, expect a roundtable discussion gathering cultural organizations, experts, municipal representatives, public institutions, and community centers to foster better collaboration and a shared vision for how art can contribute to active change in the urban environment.
FORUM will run through February 2025 — contact us if you are working on a project you would like to share with our audience as part of this series.
Throughout the programme, Swimming Pool will be open on Mondays and Thursdays from 4 PM to 7 PM, as well as by appointment. In the space, alongside Slavena Petkova’s installation, you will also find Viktor Damov’s visual research “The Red Book of Sofia” (27 min.), as well as the film “Beyond the Slavic-Bulgarian History” by Martin Tomov and Maria Ilieva (24 min.). Our library, featuring books on topics such as art and the city, art and communities, urbanism, socially engaged art, ecology, and more, will also be available. Publications by us and our colleagues can be purchased at the venue.
