Participating Artists:
Dan Acostioaei, Yesim Agaoglu, Ilgen Arzik, Michael Aschauer, Mher Azatyan, Catrin Bolt, Gabriele Edlbauer, Markus Hahn, Michael Hieslmair / Michael Zinganel, Karl Karner / Linda Samaraweerov?, Konstantine Kitiashvili / Group Bouillon, Katharina Lackner, Paran Pour, Alexandru Raevschi, Christoph Schwarz,
Vasili Subbotin, Veronika Tzekova, Gamlet Zinkovsky

BLACK SEA CALLING is an artist-in-residence exchange programme between
Austria and 9 countries of the Black Sea region. All in all 19 artists were hosted in
2012/2013 in Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Moldova,
Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine.
The exhibition presents these artists with works reflecting
the different cultural contexts of the countries involved.


Location: HilgerBROTKunsthalle
Absberggasse 27, 1100 Vienna, Austria
http://www.brotkunsthalle.com

Duration: November 21, 2013 - February 15, 2014
Opening Hours: Wed–Sat 12 noon–6 pm

BLACK SEA CALLING is a project by
< rotor > center for contemporary art Graz

In cooperation with:
International Cultural Policy department at the Federal Ministry
for European and International Affairs

AIR Krems, Art Today Association Plovdiv, Atelierhaus Salzamt Linz,
Centre for Contemporary Art Chisinau, Centre for Visual Introspection Bucharest,
Cultural City Network Graz, CSM/ Foundation Centre for Contemporary Art Kyiv,
GeoAIR Tbilisi, Krasnodar Institute of Contemporary Art, Kunsthalle Exnergasse
Vienna, K?nstlerhaus B?chsenhausen Innsbruck, NOMAD & CAMP Istanbul,
Suburb Cultural Center Yerevan, United Artists Club (BRK) Baku

BLACK SEA CALLING was awarded with Bank Austria Art Prize 2011
in the category International.
http://www.blackseacalling.eu

Art Today Association
Center for Contemporary Art - Plovdiv
The Ancient Bath

Week of Contemporary Art 2013

"Disturbances in the Structure"

4 September – 6 October 2013
Center for Contemporary Art – Plovdiv, The Ancient Bath

Kerstin Flake, Replaces 14, 2012, C-print


Artists:
Nicolai Angelov (BG/DE), Yohannes Artinyan (BG), Vasilena Gankovska (BG/A), Stefan Fischer (DE), Kerstin Flake (DE), Oliver Kossack (DE), Ahmet ???t (TR), Isa Rosenberger (A), Tilo Schulz (DE), Jun Yang (CN/A)


Curated by Ilina Koralova


The exhibition presents artists whose works are concerned with structures. In concrete terms, "structures" are understood as the configuration and interrelation of different elements which, taken together, form a whole, in one of the following ways:
– the composition of form, material, composition, light, in a work of art
– the basic and component parts of an architectonic ensemble (in an exhibition room or urban space) or
– on a larger scale, the relationships between the individual and the institutions of a society.

The artists who have been invited to participate question the stability of this union and examine its internal relationships, either by pulling them apart or by suggesting unexpected ways of regarding them.
The participants approach the various aspects of the proposed concept using various artistic media – photography, installation, painting and video. Some of the basic questions raised in their artistic analysis are: the restructuring of contemporary societies and the breakdown of traditional relationships this entails, but also the simultaneous emergence of new social constellations involving formerly unrelated groups of individuals; the opening up of political, economic and cultural systems and the development of resistance and disassociation from outside influence that goes hand in hand with this.
A further characteristic of the selected works is the way in which they closely observe phenomena that are often described as "peripheral" and as such remain widely ignored, although they are important for the functioning or better understanding of a context. In the works of art, "insignificant" elements like this take on a central role, enabling the viewer to adopt a new perspective towards well-known phenomena. The main element forging a link between the artists and influencing their artistic approach is the fact that they are themselves conscious of being part of a (artistic, social, economic) system. The works of art develop "from within" - that is to say, the artists examine the individual components and aspects of the objects they have created, experimenting with them and using them in new ways, thus making a comment on phenomena that go far beyond the actual work of art and the boundaries of the exhibition space. In this way, they express their own social and artistic position within the environment and the society in which they live and work.
During the development of the project, an important role is played by the surroundings in which the exhibition takes place. The old Turkish Hamam (steam bath), a building from the 16th century, is in itself an element originating from a historical social system that has disappeared and become reintegrated within a new context. It successfully fulfils its new function as an exhibition space; at the same time, the specific architecture represents a challenge for today's "user". In this way, the exhibition space may be seen as a further structure – open to intervention, but at the same time restrictive. In keeping with the project idea, the artists are invited to analyse and interpret the exhibition space, incorporating it into their artistic contribution should the situation arise.

“Week of Contemporary Art” is a project by Art Today Association in partnership with Minicipality of Plovdiv and Goethe-Institut Bulgaria.

The exhibition has been supported by: ifa Institut f?r Auslandsbeziehungen e. V., Gaudenz B. Ruf Award For New Bulgarian Art, Austrian Embassy Sofia.

Media partners: BNT, BNT2, Radio Katra FM, Darik Radio, Darik News.

PLOVDIV – CANDIDATE CITY FOR EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE 2019

WORKING HOURS
Tue - Sun
10.30 – 18.00
Entrance fee: 1 lv. / 0.50 lv. for students and pensioners/
Thursday -Entrance free

Art Today Association
Center for Contemporary Art - Plovdiv
The Ancient Bath

“The Library” is searching for а new home

The architectural installation |CON|Temporary Library is searching for its new home after the creators decided to part ways with one of their favorite pieces of art. Presently, the installation is located in “Banya Starinna” – the first and the only Center for contemporary art in Plovdiv, Bulgaria - http://http://www.arttoday.org/site/index.html#46 . The price of the unique piece of art is set at 50 000 euro and anyone who is interested in getting more information should contact Mr. Emil Mirazchiev, the chairman of Art Today Association.

Just a few months ago, the art object got the prestigious A+ award of one of the most highly esteemed and influential worldwide internet networks “Architizer”, in the category “Pop-ups”. The project developed at the architectural studio 8 ?, headed by the young architect Vladislav Kostadinov, competed with four other famous nominations to become the Architizer’s Pop Winner of the A+ Awards 2013. These were an eco-pavilion of а Festival in Singapore, the Pavilion of Bulgari in Abu Dhabi, a temporary store of Louis Vuitton in London and an art space in Australia:
http://www.architizer.com/en_us/projects/view/contemporary-library/49995/#.Ud1MQDtQaFl.

Recently, the “Library” received another valued award - the readers of the WhatA blog selected it for Building of 2012. The rewarded installation from Plovdiv also became worldwide popular after numerous architecture magazines published articles about it.

For more detailed information:
Mr. Emil Mirazchiev
Chairman of Art Today Association
Mobile : ++ 359 888529224
e-mail : mirazchiev60@yahoo.com

Art Today Association
Center for Contemporary Art - Plovdiv
The Ancient Bath


Art Today Association is searching Approaches to Happiness

The festival Days of Happiness, which was launched in 2012 in Sofia by the Credo Bonum Foundation, is the first project of this kind, which combines series of lectures, film screenings, exhibitions and workshops devoted to the topic of happiness. This year, with their partnership, the festival is for the first time in Plovdiv too, organized by the Art Today Association.

The edition will start on June 10 with the exhibition "Approaches to Happiness" and the degustation of Pavlina Chakarova’s "culinary” work at the Center for Contemporary Art - Plovdiv in the Ancient Bath, from 18.30 pm. The exhibition includes photographs, videos and installations of 22 authors from Spain, Austria, Lithuania, Serbia, Israel and other countries and will continue until 3 July. "Approaches to Happiness" aims to inspire us to recognize our own happiness, or to create new, perhaps more authentic and realistic ideas about it. Curator and manager of the project in Plovdiv is Evelyna Kokoranova from the Art Today Association.

Happiness is the main theme of reflection for millennia now. For some, happiness is a pleasure rather than a search for meaning and self-knowledge, for others it is a commercial product of globalization. These and other impressions will share the artists who are represented in the international exhibition "Approaches to Happiness". Their views are caused by the search of meaning, which begets creativity and leads them in different directions. Often provocative, some of them flaunt with the use of "artificial" happiness in the advertising blocks, with the aim of breaking the conventional thinking. Others seek how happiness can be realized within the borders of the urban context or just share part of their happiness with others.

Events in the framework of the Days of Happiness in Plovdiv will be workshops of the Art of Living Foundation (the seminar the Secret of Breathing with the Indian teacher Dymple Gad?vani оn 12 of June – in introduction for the following workshop the Art of Living from 28 to 30 June), a demonstration of Contact Improvisation (14 June) and workshop of this dance (16 June), Laughter Yoga (16 June) and the screening of the documentary film "Happy" (20 June).

The project Days of Happiness in Plovdiv is supported by the Credo Bonum Foundation (Sofia), Robert Bosch (Germany-Stuttgart), Association MitOst (Berlin), the Art of Living Foundation (Sofia), Shanti Yoga Art Studio (Plovdiv) and our media partners: Programata Plovdiv, Darik Radio and Darik News.


For more information and the full program:

www.credobonum.bg.
www.daysofhappiness.credobonum.bg.