The Fabric of Place

Druzhba district, Sofia,5-7.07.2025
Curated by Victoria Draganova

The Fabric of Place
Devet Slona
A festival for art interventions in urban space in Sofia
2nd edition 10-20 July
Opening Jul 10 @swimmingpoolprojects
Imagining Cities Jul 18/19
Lake Druzhba

Within the frame of an old greenhouse, a new life emerges—not of plants, but of light, memory, and participation. Together with residents of the nearby Roma neighborhood, a three-dimensional map of the surroundings is woven from colorful plexiglass ribbons, refracting light with every change of view.

The installation unfolds different images: the calm lake, the vivid houses, the playground, the bridge. It is light in material yet heavy with meaning—an act of gathering, trust, and shared memory.

A new kind of garden: not of plants, but of connections.

video and editing by Mikhail Lozanov

The Process of: “Weaving Druzhba”

“The connective tissue

that binds together events and routes, stories and people, places and buildings—turning them into that intangible thing called the ‘spirit of the neighborhood.’ This tissue is formed from the personal threads of everyone who lives in, passes through, or even gets lost there. Seemingly fragile and elusive, yet anyone who has ever lived, felt, and called a place their ‘hood’ or ‘quarter’ understands it instinctively.

It’s a map, a recipe, or a tip on how not to burn your cake—or how to fix that rattle in the car, ‘something at the front left, bro.’ Our threads are entangled around the places we love to return to. The metal structure that might once have been a flower stand or a cage for not-so-dangerous animals is the skeleton of our story. Around its bones, the thread-stories of all kinds, materials, and colors will spiral. The variety—and even the excess—of materials will reflect and connect the lake, the bridge, the cafés, and the iconic visual identity of the Roma neighborhood across the way. This is complex weaving—a five-dimensional weaving of place, time, people, events, and stories.

Connective Tissue is an installation for watching, tripping, tangling and untangling—but above all, for recognizing. It’s not exactly an artistic interpretation, but an act of collective memory.

The connective tissue between us and our cities.”

by GHOST DOG

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Many thanks to Viktoria Draganova
and the Nine Elephants Festival!
@devetslona
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Thank you to everyone who participated!!!

Video: Maria Minkova

Minkova & Mondrian

STICK PLACE / AROSITA GALARY / SOFIA

The history of Vrabcha Street is truly glorious.
Starting from its name, passing through the beautiful buildings,
in whose courtyards and vestibules the most distinguished people of their time gathered, and arriving at its unadulterated and artistic charm today.

And if you stand on Vrabcha Street and look from Dunav Street towards Georgi S. Rakovski Street, you can see how the yellow and red facades of the houses against the blue sky form a geometry like Mondrian's. Stop, look around and maybe you'll see more than meets the eye.

"Goodbye Summer", Ray Bradbury

STICK PLACE / AROSITA GALARY / SOFIA

More and more I began to appreciate my time.

Each passing minute is behind me in exactly 60 seconds, and while I exist in the present, the next is already running before my eyes. And so a lifetime.

"Farewell Summer is a heartfelt installation that pays homage to time, capturing it in momentary imprints in the form of a series of drawings on small square pieces of mirrored tape. The reflection in the mirror allows me to see the past - what is behind me, and my gaze, fixed forward, in turn suggests what is to come. My sense of the moment, of what I am feeling and experiencing at this very second, finds its triangular interpretation in the form of a drawing on a piece of material using a marker.

"Goodbye Summer" attempts, if not to beat time, at least to make it clear that, although it is only tirelessly moving forward, how long I will keep what has already passed in my mind, how often I will serve it in my present, depends solely on me.

In memory of Maria DavIdova Minkova

"Goodbye Summer", Ray Bradbury / STICK PLACE /2024

"Goodbye Summer", Ray Bradbury / STICK PLACE /2024

"Goodbye Summer", Ray Bradbury / STICK PLACE /2024

SAVE THE BULGARIAN WOOL

Part of SOFIA ART WEEK /2024
Curated by Voin Voinov

On August 7, 2024, repressive amendments to the “Law on School and Pre-School Education” were passed, proposed by the pro-Kremlin nationalist party “Vazrazhdane,” known as the “law against gay propaganda in schools.”

According to various scientific studies*, between 8% and 10% of rams are homosexual, and about 20% have a clearly expressed bisexuality. Will we allow gay propaganda in the sheep herd to threaten Bulgaria’s wool economy?

WHO’S THE DUMB SHEEP NOW?

*Poiani, Aldo; Dixson, A. F. (2010). Animal Homosexuality: A Biosocial Perspective. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. 179. ISBN 9781139490382. “This makes O. aries (ram) only the second mammal known, apart from humans, capable of displaying exclusive homosexuality.”

Levay, Simon (2017). Gay, Straight, and The Reason Why: The Science of Sexual Orientation (2nd ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Oxford University Press. pp. 38, 119. ISBN 978-0-19-029737-4 – via Google Books.

Roselli CE; Reddy RC; Kaufman KR (2011). “The development of male-oriented behavior in rams”. Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology. 32 (2). Amsterdam: Elsevier: 164–9. doi:10.1016/j.yfrne.2010.12.007. PMC 3085551. PMID 21215767.

THE AIR WE BREATHE / SAVE THE BULGARIAN WOOL / SOFIA ART WEEK / 2024 /

THE AIR WE BREATHE / SAVE THE BULGARIAN WOOL / SOFIA ART WEEK / 2024 /

THE AIR WE BREATHE / SAVE THE BULGARIAN WOOL / SOFIA ART WEEK / 2024 /

THE AIR WE BREATHE / SAVE THE BULGARIAN WOOL / SOFIA ART WEEK / 2024 /

one pixel of THE AIR WE BREATHE

part of SOFIA ART WEEK / 2024
Curated by Voin Voinov

Priceless ingredient that makes life possible. Still, we are so injudicious towards it. I made an urban experiment and placed a white cloud-shaped piece of wool in the centre of Sofia for few days. The result: the once white wool quickly darkened and changed its smell. My message – WILL WE BREATHE IT IF WE CAN SEE IT?

Stop self-destruction; reduce pollution, before it reduces you.

DRAMA / NO DRAMA

DRAMA / NO DRAMA
Arosita Galary

Stick Place / Arosita Gallery

"In the end, the choice is quite simple, 'Whether it's worth bearing the arrows of cruel fate,' or bursting out."

Without drama, Zen sounds and birds chirp around the neatly arranged garden. Without drama, on the other hand, art loses its sharpness. Art is a trigger that can turn any inaction into drama. To ignite the calm mind and open new horizons for it, to break the usual. But too much drama usually attracts too much chaos.

When it comes to art, what is most important? When everything goes according to plan, with no drama and unexpected results, or when things go wild, with outbursts and high drama? This is an unexpectedly serious question that this work cannot answer. He can only place it. It depends on where you look at it.

Drama/No drama - this carousel will not stop, balance is important."

text / ghostdog

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/O5YQNiueOsw