19 April (Thursday), 6.00p.m. opening and 20 April (Friday), 7.00p.m. 24 April (Tuesday), 7.00p.m.
24 April (Tuesday), 7.00p.m.
presentation of the project
Pesha Nikolova hall
2026 April (ThursdayFriday), 3.007.00p.m.
Foyer of The Red House
P l u m s fo r Tra s h
a collaboration project by Christina Freeman (USA) and
Elana Resnick (USA)
In July 2011 Christina Freeman filled a suitcase with things
she no longer wanted from her apartment in New York and
carried them to Sofia, where she was visiting her friend
Elana Resnick. With the help of Resnick, a researcher on
waste management in Sofia, they traded her unwanted
objects in various markets throughout the city. Freeman
returned to New York with the same suitcase full of these
objects and traded them for other objects deemed trash
by their owners. Freeman will be exhibiting the objects
at The Red House, inviting the public of Sofia to bring
their own unwanted objects for trading. The goods she
receives return to New York for a final exhibition at the
Times Square Gallery at Hunter College 16 May 16 June,
2012. At the opening reception on Friday you are invited
to bring your own trash object to trade with Freeman.
On Thursday, 26 April a closing reception is going to be
held to invite the public to bring their unwanted objects
for trading with one another. The project is going to
be officially closed on 26 April (Thursday) at
8.00p.m. in Pesha Nikolova hall.
Free entrance for all events
19 April (Thursday), 6.30p.m.
Red hall
Seminar_BGs team and The Red House Centre for
Culture and Debate present:
W h o I s Af ra i d o f Tro l l s ?
Cyberfolklore: an Outburst
of Creativity by the Digital
Masses
debate
The first rule of the debate on folklore: we wont talk about
traditional costumes, folk songs and authentic rituals that
is, sterile stylizations taken straight from the museum. On
the contrary, we talk about conspiracy theories, chakra
cleansing, sms-magic, large-scale trolling, and about all the
fears that await us on the Web. We are going to discuss
the new digital folklore as a dynamic practice that allows
us to cope with the globalizing world that is becoming
ever more complex. We poach in the field of history; we
create techno-parodies, cultural mixes, petitions, we take
control over knowledge. Do we really believe in digital
folklore or everything is just for fun? And how come the
most hypermodern phenomenon the Internet, intensifies
the most ancient one folklore? A debate with the
participation of trolls, reptiles, Hitler, suneaters, magicians
and the authors of the last issue of Seminar_BG, focused
on the digital folklore. More information about Seminar_
BG can be seen at www.seminar-bg.eu.
In Bulgarian.
Free entrance
25 April (Wednesday) and 2 May (Wednesday)
Red hall
For a Third Time: tri3avisim
tri3avisim is an initiative of The Contemporary Performing University and RiskMonitor Foundation present:
Arts Guild to The Union of Bulgarian Artists which unites
professionals working in the field of contemporary dance,
performance and installation. A jury comprised of: Mira
Marianova (dance and theatre critic), Petya Popova and
Zhana Pencheva (2011 winners) selects the three dance
pieces that form tri3avisim 2012 and we present two of
them:
If You Dont Have a Masterpiece, Please Start out
Something Else, a performance-lecture of the Garage
Collective dancers (Irena Tzvetanova, Denica Dikova,
Nikolina Todorova) with an artistic mentor and dramaturge
Galina Borissova, which creates an original without an
aim of being a masterpiece. Squeezed in by information,
demonstrating knowledge, commenting on whats been
created before them, the participants have fun presenting
originals and their copies. Historical examples are
substituted and spoiled in order to offer a new context in
which the contemporary performer appropriates originals
by quoting them.
Cadaver
Cadaver is an interactive dance performance of Matin
Penev (idea, concept, hardware, software) and Stanislav
Genadiev (choreography and performance) that
investigates the interaction between biological body and
software. Having realized its potential the body-protagonist
attacks directly reason and its projection human speech.
It is squeezed, torn and lacerated, till the flesh creates out
of it its own rhythm and melody.
The third edition of tri3avisim is coordinated by A25
Cultural Foundation and supported by the Ministry of
Culture and Etud Foundation.
Duration: 120min.
Tickets: 12/10 BGN
23 April (Monday), 7.00p.m.
Red hall
Concert
of Detelina Georgieva and Soundpainting Studio
Soundpainting is the multidisciplinary live composing
sign language, created by New-York composer Walter
Thompson since 1974. It allows a composer-conductor
(the soundpainter), to instantly and precisely communicate
with an ensemble of performers. In reaction to a
sign, a performer is about to propose material for the
composition, that the soundpainter is going to capture,
enrich, and compose with by sending new indications.
Soundpainting is a powerful tool for artistic education
and performance. Its practice is opened to artists of all
disciplines, all styles and levels, but also to anyone looking
for a new approach of art expression.
Tickets: 5/3 BGN
25 April (Wednesday), 5.30p.m.
Pesha Nikolova hall
The Association of Sociology Students at the Sofia
5.00p.m.
Perspectives after the Crisis
of the European Union
debate
The current crisis of the European Union is the first one
which carries risks for its disintegration. The financial crisis
has destabilized the EU to the extent that its founding
principles should at least be reformulated. The Lisbon
strategy seems ineffective in this situation. What are
the prospects for the future union? Is there a future for
institutions such as the European Parliament and the
European Council? Does the Euro going to survive in the
context of bankrupt Greece and pre-default Italy? The
discussion is about to examine some popular scenarios
and attempt to assess their implications. Two-speed Europe,
the Executive Federation of Habermas, or a semi-federation
on a fiscal level; the political union of Angela Merkel or
the free trade zone of David Cameron? We are going to
pay particular attention to new theoretical issues raised
by Habermas about a postdemocratic exercise of power,
consisting of supranational governance. How to overcome
the classic dichotomy between Center and Periphery? Is
there a progress towards addressing the economic, social
and cultural barriers to European policies? In this context
what is the way to the re-legitimisation of EU?
In Bulgarian.
Free entrance
25 April11 May
Red hall, Nameless hall, Gulliver hall
Etud Foundation presents:
Days of Etud Foundation
25 April (Wednesday), 3.00p.m. opening,
26 April11 May, every day between 3.00p.m.
and 7.00 p.m., except Saturday and Sunday
Gulliver hall
Dance and Image
joint photo exhibit by Liliana Dvoryanova (Bulgaria),
Svetoslav Nikolov (Bulgaria) and Ani Collier (USA/Bulgaria).
The underlying theme is the Dancing Body happy, sad,
longing, dreaming, wanting, expressing, a body-language,
an image.
Nameless hall
R e f l e c t i o n s o f N e w Yo r k
photo collages by Ani Collier (USA/Bulgaria)
Etud Foundation, founded by Ani Collier, supports
independent artists, participation in workshops and festivals,
dance and theatre performances, exhibitions, visual art,
music, literature and other activities. Ani Collier employs
various means of expression. Starting with classical ballet,
through modern dance and choreography, her interest has
shifted to video art and photography.
Free entrance for both events
Open every day between 3.00 and 7.00p.m., year 2012, programme 158159, week 1418
Red hall Pesha Nikolova hall except Saturdays and Sundays
Vi d e o p ro g ra m m e Centre for Liberal Strategies (www.cls-sofia.org): The Andrey Nikolov hall
Future through the Culture of the Past: Bulgarian The Spirit Finds the Body
Economic and Social History Seminar presents: Permanent exhibition of Andrey Nikolovs sculptures.
History of Modern Dance Aspects of the Ottoman
(documentary, USA, 2008, 52min.) Free entrance
In this program, dance historians, instructors, and M i g ra t i o n Po l i c y i n t h e
choreographers trace the evolution of modern and Bulgarian Lands During the Open every day between 10.00a.m. and
postmodern dance. They explore the influences of such 10.00p.m., no break
X I X C e n t u r y ( u n t i l 1 878 )
dance pioneers as A. Duncan, L. Fuller, R.St. Denis, T.
lecture by Ventzislav Muchinov (Institute for Population and Red Caf
Shawn, G. Balanchine, M. Graham, R. Laban, M. Wigman, H. Food and drinks at the caf of The Red House
Tamaris, D. Humphrey, C. Weidman, J. Limn, A.Sokolow, A. Human Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences)
The seminar is led by Roumen Avramov (Centre for Liberal The Red Caf is the only logical extension of the
Ailey, K. Dunham, M. Cunningham, P. Taylor, E. Hawkins, E. performances, concerts, debates and everything else that
Nikolais and P. Bausch. Strategies) and Martin Ivanov (Institute of History, Bulgarian
6.15p.m.
Mats Ek (documentary, USA, 2000, 59min.)
Academy of Sciences, www.ihist.bas.bg).
In Bulgarian.
Free entrance
you can enjoy at The Red House. A truly red space for the
most spontaneous debates the informal ones. A space
that harmonizes the spiritual and the physical energy.
01.04
In this program, Mats Ek discusses his diverse career,
approach to choreography, and ideas about the expressive
Entrance from the courtyard.
30.04
power of movement. The program includes scenes from
his ballet perfomances and interviews with Eks family
members.
7.30p.m.
P i l o b o l u s (documentary, USA, 1997, 60min.)
This program profiles Pilobolus. It features interviews with
artistic directors Alison Chase and Michael Tracy and
includes complete multi-camera versions of Walklyndon
(1971), Aeros (1996), Solo From the Empty Suitor (1980), and
Olympic Dances (1997).
8.30p.m.
D a n ce fo r C a m e ra (documentary, USA, The Red House Centre for
2003, 95min.) Culture and Debate Andrey
This program presents six dance films selected from Nikolov
15, Lyuben Karavelov str.
festivals in Europe and North America. It features Reines
dun Jour choreographed by Marie Nespolo and Christine 1142 Sofia 27 April (MondaySaturday)
Kung; Measure choreographed by Dayna Hanson; Rest www.redhouse-sofia.org The Red House and Theatre Laboratory Sfumato
brain store project, InformBuro Association and
in Peace choreographed by the Hans Hof Ensemble; A
Village Trilogy choreographed and directed by Laura Taler;
Cornered by choreographed and directed by Michael
Reservations call at least
two hours before the event
at (02) 988 81 88, (+ 359)
158 The Red House Centre for Culture and Debate present:
Antistatic Festival for
Downing and Contrecoup choreographed by Guilherme
Botelho.
The films are in original language.
885 82 85 32 for mobiles,
office@redhouse-sofia.org
and at www.redhouse-
159 C o n te m p o ra r y D a n ce a n d
Performance
2 April (Monday), The Red House
Tickets for a single screening: 2 BGN sofia.org
Subscription for all four screenings: 6 BGN Tickets the box office is 7.00p.m., Red hall
26 and 27 April (Thursday and Friday), 7.30p.m. open every working day
Scores for Laughter
between 3.00 and 9.00p.m.
Red hall Reservations are valid Concept: Antonia Baehr (Germany), Christian Kesten
D a n c e C o n c e r t 6th Edition until 15 minutes before the (Germany), Nicole Dembl, William Wheeler, Henry Wilt;
Performance; Antonia Baehr
Etud Foundations 6th Edition of the Dance Concert event.
provides a stage for established and young Bulgarian You can pay for your ticket Antonia Baehr is the one who laughs. She laughed and
via ePay. For details please while she was doing so I wondered about what was exactly
choreographers to showcase their work in the field of
contemporary dance. The dancers will be looking for Comments, feedback, suggestions and questions on The Red House programme can be addressed to info@redhouse-sofia.org. visit www.redhouse-sofia.org happening in her body at this time? Laugh became the
/announcements topic of a research project taking form through workshops,
identity, trying to keep their sense of humour, experimenting
The Red House Centre for Culture and Debate Andrey Nikolov is a project of Gulliver Clearing House Foundation. It was founded with the scores, interpretations of scores, and then a show and also
with themselves and playing with historical inheritances. support of MATRA programme of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds and Open Society Institute Sofia. Today The Red House Centre
Analysing the present, the choreographers will consider the book Rire/Laugh/Lachen (2008). The artist was not only
the main partner of the Red House is Communitas Foundation. The Red House is supported by a grant from the America for Bulgaria Founda- for Culture and Debate interested in the mechanic of laugh and in its physiological
art as a matter of time and signature. Can they present tion and Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe CEE Trust. Andrey Nikolov reserves
something original? A question to ponder. the right to make changes
components, but also in the sound and shape, the music,
Duration: 90min. Programme team: Antoniy Donchev, Dessislava Gavrilova, Irina Nedeva, Nikolay Neykov, Stefan Krastev, Tzvetelina Iossifova to the programme. The Red choreography and drama, the rhythm and the gesture of
Tickets: 6 BGN House programme and the laughter. As an expression in separation from its causal
Technical and organizational support: Alexandr Borissov, Eli Filipova, Georgi Kambourov, Katia Isporska, Preslava Ilieva, Reneta Ivanova, current changes to events baggage; jokes, tickles, narrative, humor, joy, looking at the
Simeon Ivanov, Yuliana Nascova, Zdravka Primova can be found at www. thing itself.
redhouse-sofia.org. Duration: 35min.
The Red House 2012 Tickets: 8/6 BGN
9.00p.m., Red hall
I f Yo u D o n t H a v e a
Masterpiece , Please Start
out Something Else
Idea, dramaturgy and directing: Galina Borissova (Bulgaria);
Choreography by Ivonne Rainer (USA), Trisha Brown (USA),
Deborah Hay (USA), Anna Sokolow (USA), Mary Wigman
(Germany) and Isadora Duncan (USA); Interpetation and
dance: Garage collective Irena Cvetanova (Bulgaria),
Nikolina Todorova (Bulgaria), Jana Pencheva (Bulgaria),
Denica Dikova (Bulgaria), Denica Georgieva (Bulgaria),
Krasimira Bakurdzhieva (Bulgaria)
A starting point for the lecture-performance If You Dont
Have a Masterpiece, Please Start out Something Else
is the question of the original and the copy. Historical
model examples of modern and postmodern dance will
be subjected to perversion and subversion to propose
that way a new context in which the contemporary artist
appropriates originals by citing them. Commenting on what
is already created and analyzing the present, this artistic
project regards art as a question of time and signature. Can
we be really original? The performance started as a part
of tri3avisim an initiative of the Guild for Contemporary Performance: Rose Beermann (Germany), Iva Sveshtarova
Performing Arts at the Union of Bulgarian Artists which is
supported by the Ministry of Culture and Etude Foundation.
Duration: 90min.
In Bulgarian.
Tickets: 8/6 BGN
3 April (Tuesday), The Red House
7.00p.m., Red hall
O.
Concept: Elisabete Finger (Brazil/Germany); Performance:
Elisabete Finger (Brazil/ Germany); Light: Yair Vardi (Israel);
Assistance and coach: Sandro Amaral (Brasil); Tearing and
motion: Joana von Mayer Trindade (Portugal), accompanied
by Vera Mantero (Portugal); Collaborations: Johanna
Hegenscheidt, Lit Walkey, Ric Allsopp, Rhys Martin, Dinis
Machado, Susana Gaspar, Rita Natlio, Miguel Pereira, Neto
Machado, Michelle Moura, Gustavo Bitencourt
More than a year Elisabete Finger has been working in a
series of situations which she calls studies for Monstro.
The studies for Monstro are possible compositions for
the same group of elements. O. is the 6th and the last
experience in this series. O. is something hairy, something
black, something red, something dropping, something
flying, something turning, something living, something
dying. O. is a circle, a hole. O. is an action or an operation.
O. is precarious possibilities of being and belonging, of
functioning and exceeding, of traversing, piercing, leaking,
dissolving, fusing, and continuing. O. is for me (headless)
an abyss, a fascinating and almost unbearable vertigo. O.
may be for you an unstable image-movement, an image that
is made and unmade, that is devoured by, or condensed
into monster. With the support of Inter-University Centre for
Dance Berlin (HZT, Germany), Forum Dana and
O Rumo do Fumo / Residncias no Edifcio (Lisbon,
Portugal), Petrobras Cultural: Couve-Flor Manuteno
Coletiva (Curitiba, Brazil)
Duration: 45min.
Tickets: 6 BGN
4 April (Wednesday), The Red House
8.00p.m., Gulliver hall
Never Live Twice
performative installation
Performance: Emmanuelle Santos (Spain); Camera: Zeina
Hanna (Lebanon); Assisting camera and piano: Cline
Larrre (France); Installation performance: Zeina Hanna
(Lebanon)
Desire to shoot = necessity to frame movement through
movement.
Practice = be a shakybiosteadicam
1 Make the movie
2 Make the storyboard
3 Sell the storyboard
4 Make a performance
5 Buy a video camera
or 6 Sell the video camera and pay a professional editor
Duration: 20-60min.
Tickets: 8 BGN (valid for both Never Live Twice and
Velocity Pumps)
8.30p.m., Red hall
Ve l o c i t y P u m p s
(Bulgaria) and Tessa Theisen (Germany); Dramaturgy:
Verena Billinger (Germany) and Caroline Spellenberg
(Germany); Sound design: Mark Schrppel (Germany)
A velocity pump uses a spinning impeller which has
backward-swept arms. It is a type of pump in which kinetic
energy is added to the fluid by increasing the flow velocity.
This increase in energy is converted to a gain in potential
energy (pressure) when the velocity is reduced as the
flow exits the pump into the discharge pipe. We gain
strength. We lose power. Feel invited to our muscle play.
Something sneaks through and gets spoiled obviously. The
young performers reproduce with their bodies constantly
bodybuilding poses. The associations which they let free,
with all the amusing, comic and ironic consequences,
have a refreshing effect. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Duration: 35min.
Tickets: 8 BGN (valid for both Never Live Twice and
Velocity Pumps)
5 April (Thursday), The Red House
7.00p.m., Red hall
Museum of Hygiene
Performance: Iva Sveshtarova (Bulgaria) and Willy Prager
(Bulgaria); Dramaturgical consultants: Angelina Georgieva
(Bulgaria) and Mira Marianova (Bulgaria); Wrestling
consultant: Asen Madzharov (Bulgaria); Photography:
Denitsa Ruseva (Bulgaria)
Simulating the role of curators in a fictitious museum, Iva
Sveshtarova and Willy Prager choose to turn into exhibits
works from the field of performance and visual arts, as
well as wrestling techniques, by reformulating them. Thus
the performers exercise a position of their own towards
the notion of hygiene inevitably associated with the
idea of control, discipline and order. However, Museum
of Hygiene opts to reverse the optics and look at the
concept of hygiene by sabotaging it. A tense interaction
between two bodies whose acts go beyond the regulation
of sanitation: they produce and oppose their forces until
utter exhaustion.
The performance is realized in partnership with the National
Theatre Ivan Vazov and supported by Goethe-Institut
Bulgarien and the Ministry of Culture.
Duration: 40min.
In Bulgarian.
Tickets: 6 BGN
8.00p.m., Red hall
Positions What Is
C h o r e o g r a p h y To d a y ?
discussion
Choreographers, performers, theatre makers and
theoreticians are invited to express within 15 min their
position towards choreography today by provoking a
discussion on a question posed by them in relation to
the subject or in other way. The discussion is open to
participants and visitors.
In Bulgarian.
Free entrance
6 April (Friday), The Red House
7.00p.m., Red hall
Soulsqueezing
Choreography: Tian Rotteveel (Germany); Performance:
Tian Rotteveel (Germany); Music: Tian Rotteveel (Germany);
Lights: Yair Vardi (Israel); Dramaturgy: Jeanine Durning
(USA); consultants: Felix Marchand, Ayara Hernandez
Soulsqueezing is an ontologic bumbing machine,
where the body is at stake in the middle of singing a
soulsong and everything what keeps on existing outside
of it. Soulsqueezing explores voice, sound, movement
and ontology as each others equals. Speech, facts and
actuality squeezes out the internality of a body allowing it to
multiply.To reach, not the point where one no longer says I,
but the point where it is no longer of any importance whether
one says I Deleuze & Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus. With
the support of Inter-University Centre for Dance Berlin (HZT,
Germany).
Duration: 40min.
In English.
Tickets: 6 BGN
9.0010.00 p.m., Sfumato Theatr Laboratory
(the access is at regular intervals of 15 min.)
Zoom In
performative installation by Violeta Vitanova (Bulgaria) and
Venelin Shurelov (Bulgaria)
Zoom In minimizes the expressive means of the body to
their utmost minimum. In focus is its most anonymous
part the human back and its potential for creating peculiar
images. The spinal column is like a bearing medial structure,
its potential for performing/accomplishing flexion, extension
and rotation. One sole part of the body the back, finds a
concrete choreographic language that travels and explores
the deformations of its own, creating by that an unusual
visual experience.
Duration: 60min.
Tickets: 4 BGN
7 April (Saturday), Sfumato Theatre Laboratory
7.00p.m., Main hall
I-On
Concept, music and choreography: Ivo Dimchev (Bulgaria/
Belgium); Sculptures and artistic advice: Franz West (Austria);
Sound assistance: Emilian Gatsov (Bulgaria); Production:
Humarts Foundation, Volksroom Brussels
The solo I-On is a performance including dance, music and
song by which Ivo Dimchev examines the sculptures of Franz
West the Viennese artist who was awarded with Golden
Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale in
2011. In the 1970s West created a set of objects of everyday
use without any function which he called Pass-stcke
adaptives or pieces that fit. According to West, these
portable, everyday objects do not become complete works
of art until somebody actually does something with them.
And that is exactly what Ivo Dimchev does. In a wild and
exuberant stylistic mixture he reveals how his performative
self adapts itself to the works of Franz West.
Duration: 60min.
In English.
Tickets: 10 BGN
7 April (Saturday), The Red House
9.00p.m., Red hall
Pass It On
Author: Dragana Bulut (Serbia/Germany), in collaboration
with: Maria Baroncea (Romania), Sheena McGrandles
(Ireland), Alex Baczynski-Jenkins (Poland), Ligia Soares
(Portugal), Drinka Bulut (Serbia), Nina Kurtela (Croatia), Will
Ralws; Dramaturgy: Ana Vujanovic (Serbia)
Pass It On is a performance realized as an auction, which
deals with the question of authorship, relation between the
material and the immaterial, and the value of artistic object.
It offers a broad spectrum of the items, research objects
produced within the course of creating the piece.
The rules of the auction and the registration form will be
available before the beginning. By registering you get
your bidding number and become potential owners of the
items that will be presented at the live Auction. Note that
by registering you dont oblige yourself to buy any item;
however, you could find art at bargain prices and have fun,
too. Bring your cash, cause its all for grabs!
Duration: 50min.
In English.
Tickets: 6 BGN
Pre-festival Programme
1 April (Saturday), The Red House
6.30p.m., Gulliver hall
The Last Performance
(Jerome Bel, France; 1998)
Introduction in the lection-performance by Angelina
Georgieva (Bulgaria), followed by a screening
With the friendly support of Unfriendly Takeove.
The lecture is in English.
Tickets: 2 BGN
The fifth edition of Antistatic Festival for
Contemporary Dance and Performance
(www.antistaticfestival.org) is realized in partnership with
New Dramaturgy Platform and with the support of Goethe-
Institut Bulgarien, Embassy of Austria in Bulgaria, Ministry
of Culture, MagicColours, @lma @lter Theatre Laboratory,
Tourist Service Municipal Enterprise, Tourist Information
Centre Sofia
Media partners: New Dramaturgy Platform
and Programata.bg
Purchase and reservation of tickets for the performances
at The Red House and subscriptions at The Red Houses
box office (02) 988 81 88, (+ 359) 885 82 85 32 (for mobile
phones), via Epay on www.redhouse-sofia.org or at office@
redhouse-sofia.org. For the event in Sfumato Theatre
Laboratory tickets can be bought at the box office of
Sfumato (02) 943 38 90
Subscription for the entire festival: 50/45 BGN (limited
number!)
Useful addresses: The Red House Centre for Culture and
Debate (15, Ljuben Karavelov St., Sofia 1142); Sfumato
Theatre Laboratory (2, Dimitar Grekov Str., Sofia 1504,
www.sfumato.info)
2 April (Monday), 6.30p.m. opening
323 April, between 3.00p.m. and 7.00p.m.,
except Saturday and Sunday
Nameless hall, Gulliver hall
In Debut Salon programme we present:
Equilibrium
first solo photo exhibition of Vladimir Pekov
Rock climbing is an old and popular game, but still unknown
for the mass audience. The playgrounds, where climbers
bodies fight to keep balance against all outer forces, are
hidden and distant. Without the movies and photos creating
the concept of rock climbing, it would be hard for people out
of the climbing communities to get into it. The climbers are
extraordinary social group with colorful personalities. Largely
they are dual-faced. On one side there is ordinary human
aspect, on another is hidden the inhuman, the abnormal
in pure physical plane risky, extreme and valiantly. To
stay in one part, they have to preserve balance between
the different identities. With the project Equilibrium
photographer Vladimir Pekov introduces to observers the
world of serious climbing. It is a presentation of two constant
variants of the body: on the root, where brutal force is
needed and down on the ground in piece of mind. These
are the climber and the man behind him.
Free entrance
4 and 18 April (Wednesday), 6.00p.m.
Red hall
Human and Social Studies Foundation Sofia (HSSF,
www.hssfoundation.org) presents the fifth and the sixth
discussions of the cycle:
People and Civil Society
a s Re s o u r ce s o f D e m o c ra c y
(How Could Civil Mobilizations Help us Understand
and Reform our Society?)
The Project People and Civil Society as Resources of
Democracy aims at studing through a series of discussions
the social significance of collective mobilizations of citizens
in Bulgaria, but also in a lerger international context. In the
course of the past few years Bulgarian society has been
the arena of various civic protests, which testify to the level
of civic activism of different professional groups. However,
all these protests have barely drawn the attention and the
comprehension they deserved, they have barely changed
if at all Bulgarian society. Organizing discussions including
the participation of activists from different civic organizations
and movements, politicians from the political parties
represented in the Bulgarian Parliament, and researchers
from the social sciences is of a crucial importance to clarify of Yara Boubnova (Institute of Contemporary Art, Sofia),
the motivations, the potential, the modes of legitimizing and
the possible effects of collective mobilizations of citizens.
Civic protests have an important reformist potential, the
question is how to explicit it and how to realizie it in the
most appropriate way. Moderator of the discussions: Boyan
Znepolski. The cycle of discussions is realized with the
support of the Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern
Europe (Bulgaria) CEE Trust. In Bulgarian.
Free entrance
5 April (Thursday), 6.00p.m.
Pesha Nikolova hall
International Centre for Minority Studies and Intercultural
Relations (IMIR) Sofia presents:
Is There a European Identity
in Bulgaria?
presentation of the international project Identities and Mo-
dernities in Europe: European and National Identity, Politics,
Culture, History and Religion, followed by a discussion
Europe as a political, geographical, cultural and civilization
community has always been an essential reference point
in the effort to shape Bulgarian national identity. At various
times in history, Europe was seen as an example of progress
and modernity, or as a threat to Bulgarian national interests
and identity. Similarly, the development of society towards
modernity was seen as equaling Europeanization, or as an
effort to find a specific Bulgarian trajectory. To what extent
these contradictory conceptualizations of modernity are
relevant for contemporary Bulgarian society? The project
has been funded under the Seventh Framework Program
of the European Commission. Details of the project can be
found at www.imir-bg.org and at www.fass.kingston.ac.uk/
research/european/ime. With the participation of Marko Haj-
diniak (IMIR), Maia Koseva (IMIR), Evgenia Krusteva Bla-
goeva (New Bulgarian University), Aleksey Kalionsky (Sofia
University). Moderator: Mihail Gruev (Sofia University)
In Bulgarian.
Free entrance
9 April (Monday), 7.00p.m.
Red hall
What Is Happening in
Russia?
debate
Mass protests between the parliamentary (December
2011) and the presidential (March 2012) elections in
Russia brought to the light some processes in Russian
society, whose existence until recently was not suspected.
But the very same person, whose regime provoked the
One of the major flows of the 1991 Constitution was the
protests, later won the presidential elections. And while
most analysts agree that Putins victory is not the end,
but the beginning of major changes in the structure of
power and political representation in Russia, it is difficult
to say how these will happen exactly. Which are the new
social forces that are not content with Putins stability?
What is the alternative to Putins regime and who can
impose it? Whether the iron hand of Putin and the general
undesirable consequences, recognized by the experts,
fatigue after his election victory would make civil unrests
subside, or once awakened the protesting citizen are
going to sooner or later bring about a change? And how
would a changed Russia look like? With the participation
Dessislava Gavrilova (The Red House Centre for Culture
and Debate), Ivan Krastev (Centre for Liberal Strategies).
In Bulgarian.
Tickets: 2/1 BGN
10 April (Tuesday), 8.00p.m.
Red hall
Nothing Better
by Oliver Bukowski
performance by Kasiel Noah Asher
A woman like an animal in love. A woman with a biography
worthy of Almodovars films. A woman reveals her most
shameful secrets in the form of a dirty joke. Lord, throw
away your butt and help your lamb to get the cool truffle.
Oliver Bukowski made his debut with Nothing Better
when he was just 27, and received the German annual
Playwright Award. The play was also recognised at
Muelheim Theatre Festival in 2002. It was staged in several
German cities and in Spain, starring Victoria Abril. Oliver
Bukowski received also a number of prestigious awards
among which are the Theater Heute magazine Annaul
Gerhart Hauptmann Award. Kasiel Noah Asher received
the Actor of Europe prize at the International Chamber
Theatre Festival in Macedonia, 2009.
In Bulgarian.
Duration: 70min.
Tickets: 8/6 BGN
11 April (Wednesday), 7.00p.m.
Red hall
The Association of Sociology Students at the Sofia
University and RiskMonitor Foundation present:
The Supreme Judicial
Council: Inefficiency of the
Legislative Structure and
Options for a Reform
debate
unification of Court, Prosecution and Investigation into
a single power the Judiciary. Thus the Prosecutor is
party to the process as well as is Defense. According
to classical theories such as these of Montesquieu,
on the contrary, the Court should not be a party, but
an independent and authentic power. Despite the fact
that mixing Court and Prosecution has some extremely
constitutional reform seems impossible after the
Constitutional Courts decision of 2003, stating that
changes in the way authorities interact require a Great
National Assembly. By 2012 however there are discussions
about the possibility the Supreme Judicial Council, the
body which manages the judiciary, to be divided in two
chambers one for the prosecutors and one for the
judges. This decision could partially alleviate the judicial
systems problems, but it too has many opponents.
Moderator: Ivan Bedrov
In Bulgarian.
Free entrance
18 April (Wednesday), 7.00p.m.
Pesha Nikolova hall
The Critique Quartet
Speaks About: Physics of
the Sadness
(by Georgi Gospodinov, Janet 45 Print and Publishing,
2011)
discussion
Second season of the Critique Quartet. The Critique
Quartet is a public conversation about a work of
contemporary Bulgarian literature published in the last
year. We try to create a space for an encounter and a
community in which those speaking, together with those
listening, interpret a particular literary work from the
literature in Bulgaria taking place here and now. A place
where the living critical word resounds; a place where
we connect through books and articulate our accords
and discords, our opinions and doubts, etc. With the
participation of Albena Hranova, Maya Gorcheva, Nikolay
Aretov.
Moderator: Nikolay Boykov
In Bulgarian.
Free entrance