“Negotiation” presented by the Center for Social Vision

In September 2021, we set up the Center for Social Vision, a research and action platform in the sphere of art and related areas, a spin-off of Swimming Pool, Sofia, whose long-term goal is to create a field for the exchange of experience and independent policies about how art participates in the creation of relationships and social infrastructure. With “Negotiation,” its first public program, we want to open up the conversation to a wide range of colleagues, and to look together for new approaches to the issues of the public realm, institutionality, cultural heritage, and the environment.

Negotiation is a key process in generating the world we live in. It is rooted in the concept of the antagonistic nature of democracy and the existence of multiple perspectives and subjectivities, both related to individuals, communities and views, and shaped by science, technology, ecological processes and politics. The balance that could be achieved is sensitive and short-lived, an expression of a specific constellation for which care and responsibility can only be achieved through negotiation. The role of art and its institutions in this process is crucial: it does not only decipher and make visible intertwined materials, organisms, human and non-human beings, without naming them definitively. Art has the potential to integrate different worlds and views, but also to allow them to exist in freedom.

“Negotiation” is a collective action of the participants in the first year of the Center and a reaction to a tense and changing social, political and environmental situation in Bulgaria and abroad.

The Center for Social Vision was initiated by Viktoria Draganova (director of Swimming Pool), with coordinators Galena Sardamova, Rosena Ivanova and Jenny Decheva, and graphic design by Viktoriya Staykova. 

For а full program and materials follow the Journal for Social Vision.

April 16–19
Module 1: How То Think and Do The Social
We launch the public program on 16 April with an introduction by Viktoria Draganova (initiator of the Center), and a panel discussion on what is a social vision in the arts and related fields, with Geo Kalev (Mini Art Fest & Social Circus), Vladiya Mihaylova (curator, Toplocentrala), Dima Stefanova (founder, Know-How Show-How), Tsveta Doycheva (choreographer, HOD Move Lab), Yanina Taneva (founder, Ideas Factory), Rada Ezekieva (Documentary Theatre Studio Vox Populi), and others.

The public program at the space of Swimming Pool takes place within the textual environment For you, created by writer and playwright Stefan Ivanov* and designer Rosie Eisor. 

On April 19, join us for a presentation on the social functions of design by the educational platform for design and art practice Know-How Show-How (Dima Stefanova, Filip Boyadjiev, Ivelina Gadjeva).

May 14–15
Module 2: A Common Vision for the City
On May 14, join us for lectures by architect and researcher Ivan Bonev on de-institutionalized spaces and common values, and by artist Curdin Tones on situational and social projects. 

These will be followed by a panel discussion on commons and communities, with Katia Anguelova (curator, independent municipality consultant in Milan on public art), Luchezar Boyadjiev (artist), Filip Boyadjiev (designer, independent municipality consultant in Sofia), Dessislava Dimova (Sofia Art Projects), Boyana Djikova and Vikenti Komitski (POSTA Space), Mihaela Dobreva and Boris Dalchev (Sapromat), Polona Dolzan (artist), Rumena Kalcheva (critic), Risaki Labrini (artist), and others. 

Also, designer Andrea Popyordanova* will introduce us to her long-term research The Orchards of Mladost, while artist Dessislava Terzieva* will develop Prima Materia World as an interdisciplinary laboratory in various locations in Sofia.

May 26–28
Module 3: New Approaches to Cultural Heritage
We explore the current state of cultural heritage research through the visual commentary Measured Drawings by architect and researcher Slava Savova*, and a workshop by curator Vasil Vladimirov who interrogates perceptions of Communist-era cultural sites through live action role-playing.

June 4
Module 4: Future Perspectives
The program will conclude with lectures by Emanuele Guidi (curator, ar/ge kunsthaus, Bolzano) on the role of mediators in environmental and institutional thinking, and by Valentinas Klimašauskas (an independent curator and writer) on new artists’ roles in the a/social age of automation, disinformation and data abundance.

*The projects by Stefan Ivanov, Dessislava Terzieva, Andrea Popyordanova and Slava Savova evolve during the whole run of “Negotiation.”

With the financial support of the One-Year Grant Program of the National Culture Fund.