site.btaWorking Meeting on Bulgaria's Participation on Venice Biennale Held in Italy

A working meeting on Bulgaria's participation in the Venice Biennale international cultural exhibition was held with the Italian organizers in Venice, the team behind the Bulgarian participation said in a press release. The meeting was attended by Dr Nadezhda Dzhakova, the commissioner in charge of Bulgaria's participation, and the project's authors. 

Remaining to be specified is the positioning of the Bulgarian exhibits, details about the Biennale's opening on April 19, and the programme of the official Bulgarian delegation.

At the Biennale, Bulgaria will present The Neighbours project, which won the Culture Ministry's competition against 16 other projects. Its authors are artists Krasimira Butseva and Julian Shehiryan, historian and documentarian Lilia Topuzova, while the curator is Vasil Vladimirov. 

The Neighbours tells the story of Bulgarians who were victims of political violence and is the product of an in-depth study of the history of repression, exploring the memory of political violence bequeathed to Bulgarians by the communist past. At the heart of this installation are the reconstructed homes of repressed people where visitors can witness their stories, the organizers said.

The installation consists of three rooms. The first one is a living room where pictures and sounds from the camps in Lovech and Belene are projected. The second shows people who are not ready to speak on the issue. There the sounds are more abstract. In the third room, the kitchen, all the furniture is painted white, there is no speech, absolutely everything is brought to abstraction and sound; it is for people who have not had a chance to speak - people who have died or have no memories.

The Neighbours is a direct response to Adriano Pedrosa's call for reviewing the topic of foreigners everywere at the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024, the organizers of the Bulgarian participation said. 

Bulgaria's pavilion this year will be in Sala Tiziano at Centro Culturale Don Orione Artigianelli.