For a Better World

The Art Today Association is announcing its thirtieth edition of the Week of Contemporary Art, Plovdiv, which will take place in September 2024 inside the Ottoman Bath exhibition space and at key public spaces across the city of Plovdiv. The Association will use this opportunity to reflect on the thirty-year history of the annual event, which has established its presence on the national and regional scene of contemporary art, and to open space for current social, political, and cultural issues through the contemporary arts.

"For a Better World" explores the transformative potentials of the arts with visual power and creative imagination. Themes include environmental justice, migration and diaspora, war and political violence, neoliberalism, decolonization, race, religion and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and more. The week will take place at multiple locations. The majority of the artworks will inhabit the unique historical building of the former Ottoman Hammam "Chifte Banya," which will open doors temporarily only for the exhibition, and at Cu29 Gallery. Installations, activities, and interventions will take place at key public spaces throughout the city. The program of the Week is joined by the project "Art for a Green Future", and by Sarieva Gallery with its own organized and produced exhibition.

Curators Zhivka Valiavicharska (United States/Bulgaria) and Emil Mirazchiev (Bulgaria)

Participants:
Albena Mihaylova-Bendji / Banya Starinna
Adela Ju_i_ / Banya Starinna
Asen Krastenov / Banya Starinna
Caitlin Manning / Banya Starinna, Cu29 Gallery
Christian Nyampeta / Banya Starinna
Dan Tenev / Kamenitsa stairs and neighborhoods
Duvar Kolektiv (Hannah Rose, Nikola Venkov, Yanka Simova) / Banya Starinna
Emil Mirazchiev / Garnizonna furna Park; Vegetarianska St., Proslav neighborhood
Ivan Ivanov / Bratska Mogila
Itsko Maznev 1964-2016 / Banya Starinna
Nadya Genova / Banya Starinna
ninavale (Nina Kovacheva and Valentin Stefanov) / Banya Starinna
Tanja Ostoji/ performance in front of Kapana Gallery / Banya Starinna
Tatiana Fiodorova-Lefter / Banya Starinna
Osman Yuseinov / Tsar Simeonova Gradina Park
Shirin Neshat / Banya Starinna
Sevdalina Kochevska / in front of Cosmos Cinema
Sa_o Stanojkovi_ / public space
Stanimir Panayotov / Banya Starinna (roundtable)
Suzana Milevska / Banya Starinna (roundtable)
Velizar Dimchev / Banya Starinna
Vesselin Aleksiev and Milena Kancheva / Banya Starinna
Yana Kostova and Dimitar Kostov / in front of Banya Starinna
Zhivka Valiavicharska / Vegetarianska St., Proslav neighborhood

September 3
5:00-7:00 pm: Warm-up action by Dan Tenev, stairs at Kamenitsa and neighborhoods
8:30 pm: Installation by Ivan Ivanov, Bratska mogila ("Art for a Green Future" project)
9:30 pm: Video mapping "Worlds" by Emil Mirazchiev, Garnizonna furna Park ("Art for a Green Future" project)

September 4
6:00 pm: Performance by Tanja Ostoji_ in front of the Kapana City Gallery, 29 Rayko Daskalov St.
7:30 pm: Exhibition opening, Banya Starinna
8:30 pm: Treat action by Yana Kostova

September 5
5:00-6:30 pm: Roundtable and discussion "Art and Social Transformation" with Suzana Milevska, curator and visual culture theorist, and Stanimir Panayotov, philosopher and writer, Banya Starinna
6:30 pm: Performance by Albena Mihaylova-Bendji, Banya Starinna
8:00 pm: Opening of video exhibition by Caitlin Manning, Gallery Cu29

September 6
6:00 pm. Opening of solo exhibition "Town of Shadows" by Kamen Stoyanov, Sarieva Gallery (organized and produced by the gallery)

The Week of Contemporary Art is a project of the Art Today Association, a member of the international network of German cultural societies abroad of the Goethe-Institut.
Thе project is realized with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture, National Cultural Fund and in partnership with the Municipality of Plovdiv and Goethe-Institut. It is part of the cultural calendar of the Municipality of Plovdiv.

Media partners: BNT2, Въпреки.com, Katra FM, Под Тепето, Капана.

“Art for а Green Future“ is a project that conveys stories through visual art in the context of ecology.
– The first location is the monument Bratska Mogila, where Ivan Ivanov will present his installation Lightbug. The artist’s work aims to illuminate, highlight, and bring attention to public spaces in the city with historical, social and cultural significance. The opening will take place on September 3, 2024, at 8:30 PM.
– The second location is the newly opened park on Peshtersko Shose St. (formerly Garnzonna furna), featuring a large installation and video mapping by Emil Mirazchiev. The installation presents a video titled Worlds on ecological themes, projected onto an igloo-like structure built especially for the purpose. The video mapping can be viewed both from the inside and the outside, immersing visitors in various natural environments and their relaxing atmosphere. The opening is scheduled for September 3, 2024, at 9:30 pm. Projections will take place from September 3-7, from 9:00-11:00 pm. On September 7, from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm, a children’s workshop will be held by artist Nadya Genova. Drawing materials will be provided for the children.

The project is part of the “Green Culture - Green City“ program of Plovdiv 2019 - European Capital of Culture.

Media partners: BNT2, Katra FM, Под Тепето, Капана.

Art Today Association

ART POSITIVE 2024

PINK

This March 2024 Art Positive project brings the theme of "PINK". It is a kind of closure of a series of 17 editions, as the first one in 2004, presenting artists working in Plovdiv, which began as "ART POSITIVE", which is both - the theme and the title of the project - positivism, without naivety against the background of a “not - pink" reality. "PINK" is posed as a conceptual and plastic problem for the artists to create their works initiated with one initial step, namely the presence of or the idea of PINK. This gives the artists the opportunity to predictably make unexpected combinations and connections between PINK and respective objects and materials. Here are some of the shades of pink in one sentence - pink rose, deep pink rose, deep cherry, hot pink scarlet, salmon pink, pink coral, pale mauve pink, crimson pink, dark mauve pink, fuchsia pink /or magenta/, antique pink , light pink, pearl pink…. Any other color in the place of PINK would make the theme simply a color assignment, but this color is so loaded with symbolism, evoking countless associations and famous phrases. Even where PINK is simply part of a color contrast and interpretation of light, namely in painting, even there its background is felt. And this is the "pink tax", which that color pays to psychology. On the one hand, PINK gives a feeling of softness and calmness. On the other hand, it is a symbol of seduction or ambiguity. Perhaps an unbiased look at PINK is not needed, the color that cannot avoid its own emotional charge. From the rosy fingers of the dawn mentioned by Homer when describing a sunrise in the Odyssey, to the pink dots of Yayoi Kusama, PINK - this controversial color, gains the most from its predestined symbolism.

Participants: Angel Stoychev, Antonia Kostova, Velina Hristova, Veneta Marinova, Georgi Stanchev, Du Xiaokun, Evelina Petkova, Evelina Nova, Emil Mirazchiev, Zdravka Rubin, Ivan Ivanov, Kaloyan Nikolov, Krasimir Dobrev, Mitch Brezounek, Nadya Genova, Natallia Zaloznaya, Natasha Kyupova, Osman Yuseinov, Petar Kochevski, Raya Dimitrova, Sarkis Nersesian, Sevdalina Kochevska, Sonya Mitova /cAlma/, Tsvetanka Bornosuzova, Tsvetelina Angelova, Yavor Kostadinov.

Kapana Gallery, 29 Rayko Daskalov St
Opening on 15.03. 2024 from 18:00 to 20:00.
The exhibition continues until 13.04.2024.

The project is implemented with the support of: Municipality of Plovdiv and Goethe-Institut.

Media partners: BNT2, Въпреки.com, Katra FM, Pod tepeto, Kapana.

"Art positive" is a project of the Art Today Association, a member of Goethe-Institut.
international network of German cultural societies abroad.