From the other side of the “Bulgarian umbrella”

outdoor interactive art

Could we turn upside down the preconception the world has about Bulgaria and our own preconception about ourselves and smile at the fact that the holes in Sofia streets provide the most beautiful puddles from any other European capital and that if you pour some water inside a “Bulgarian umbrella” you will see the shiny piece of sky reflected in it. The reference is to that sinister episode of the Bulgarian socialist history, when the dissident writer Georgui Markov was killed with an umbrella at a bus station in a London bus station.

Performance

On June 28, 2010, Monday and on July 1, Thursday, from 4 to 7p.m., Artists and students from the Academy of Art and art lovers experimented in captivating the best reflections in the water contained in an open umbrella. During the first cession they took photos of the reflections and then they met again on July 1 to create an artistic optical illusion of water reflecting the sky, the clouds and the trees. Any passer had the occasion to try his talent, or simply to contemplate the beauty of Sofia sky reflected in an umbrella.

The Purpose was to experience through art a positive and unusual vision of the city, to smile from the idea, interact with other people and to turn upside down the sticky ”dark Balkan” reputation.

The idea of the performance is based on Mariangela Anastassova’s exhibition “Sofia Puddles” at the Union of Bulgarian Painters (Sept.-Oct.2009) and proposed by the gallery Rakursi.

An exhibition opens on September14, 2010 at the gallery Rakursi with the umbrellas and with the photos of Gregor Schatz from the performance.

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With the gracious support of the National Library and Billboardprint

Contacts:
Gallery “Rakursi“ – www.rakursi.com; gallery@rakursi.com
Mariangela Anastassova – www.mariange.com; amariange@yahoo.fr
Gregor Schatz – photography and documentary –www.gregorschatz.com; gschatz@gmail.com019preferred