Project „SREDA“ was initiated by the Art Related Foundation as an interdisciplinary collaboration between creative organizations whose goal is the development of art in the public space of the city of Sofia. The project explored how art in public space can provoke engagement of city dwellers with their surroundings. For this purpose, the participating artists entered into a dialogue with the environment in which they created and with its young inhabitants.
In 2022 the project oversaw creative activities for teenagers with the aim of developing their sense of belonging and participation in the construction of the urban environment and at the same time introducing them to contemporary artistic practices. One of the goals of the project was to develop communities or groups that, working together with the artists, will reconfigure their perception regarding the urban space and its functions.
Art Related Foundation invited the artists Jazoo Yang with her project Untamed Architecture, Julien Fargetton with his project FUTURA and Katya Cheng with the site specific installation Resonant Lightbox. They adapted their current projects to the environment of Sofia with the idea of activating its inhabitants and spaces.
The project united the efforts of the Art Related Foundation, whose goal is the discovery, creation and dissemination of new cultural forms by nurturing interdisciplinary collaborations, the Resonator Foundation – a center for shared innovation, Vitus – a center for individual and family psychological counseling and the artistic collective AIDE AIDE.
Curator: Margarita Kudrina
Participants: Jazoo Yang, Julien Fargetton, Katya Cheng, Georgi Tomov Georgiev and the children of the city of Sofia, Bulgaria
The project was implemented with the support of the Oborishte Minicipality and the financial assistance of the National Culture Fund.
For the purpose of Sofia Art Week 2019, professionals in the field of social sciences, law, art and architecture came together to illustrate the state of copyright laws in Europe and in particular in Bulgaria.
The project consists of two parts. The first one took place in Resonator, a hub for shared innovation, which aims to promote the cooperation between different creative spheres. Using 3D printing technology and with the help of our audience, we printed a sculpture, the 3D model of which we created with the help of photogrammetric software. In course of 5 days we discussed the copyrights associated with the use of online images; the role of the 3D printer in digital production; the state of digitization of artworks. We conducted a series of lectures and talks, which helped us tackles the issues surrounding the case. With Blagoy Blagoev, we discussed the paradox of openness and how it manifests itself in different spheres of public life - tendencies towards openness are observed, for example in politics (»open government«), in science (»open science«), organizations (»open innovation«), and in the arts and media (»open content«). Dimi Dimitrov focused on issues related to the digitization of cultural heritage, focusing on examples that have led to changes in copyright law. Lidia Atanasova presented different practices in digital production and how it unites digital technologies.
The second part of the project took place in the public space of Sofia. Contemporary artists Ivan Moudov (Bulgaria) and Julien Fargetton (France) developed of public artworks in the urban environment.
Within the framework of All Rights Reversed, the audience was be able to get free consultations from Wikimedia, Digital Republic representatives and up-to-date information on the Creative Europe Program - MEDIA sub-program and Culture sub-program.
Curator: Margarita Kudrina
Participants: Lidia Atanasova, Blagoy Blagoev, Dimitar Dimitrov, Ivan Moudov, Julien Fargetton, Gavrail Poterov, Maria Vassileva
Partners: Wikimedia, Art Related Foundation, Creative Europe Desk - Bulgaria, B2N, Resonator, Digital Republic
Photo Credit: Kai Mueller
The project was an ongoing digital journal and olfactive study by Folie à Plusieurs that archived the thoughts, reflections and madness of many individuals across a wide range of creative disciplines. At the end of the month, the visual entries of our contributors were to be translated into an exclusive artwork that is revealed through the medium of scent and added to Folie À Plusieurs Olfactive Library. These sensory artifacts were a be a part of an exhibition I developed in a collaboration with Aether gallery in Sofia.
The Folie À Plusieurs website functioned as digital journal and workshop providing an online gallery experience (visuals) that results in an offline olfactive experience (fragrance). For the digital journal, each month I would select an artist and invite him/her to submit personal images, writings, photos, music or video’s that represent their feelings, ideas or thoughts that they experience over the course of a month. At the end of the month the contributing artists’ journal was read by a renowned perfumer and then translated into the form of a fragrance. Eleven fragrances were created exclusively for Folie À Plusieurs Olfactive Library during my curatorial practice in the house. These included:
This is the Hunt by artist Nissa Nishikawa & perfumer Antoine Lie
Random Thoughts by Olaf Breuning & perfumer Antoine Lie
New Born by artist Voin de Voin & perfumer Jerome Di Marino
Microcosm by artist Yeka Haski & perfumer Jean Jacque
True Colors by designers Craig and Karl & perfumer Jean Jacque
Pattern Hours musical duo 1000 Names & perfumer Antoine Lie
Cheveux Roux artist Methew Murphy & perfumer Antoine Lie
Pulling Down from the Ephemeral by dancer Brooke Stamp & perfumer Jerome Di Marino
Under the Silent Ground designer by Philipp Webber & perfumer by Sylvie Fisher
What if? by artist Lee Eliot Hazel & perfumer by Jean Jacque
Nostalgia by artist Maripol & perfumer Jerome Di Marino
The film project Le Cinema Olfactif was launched in 2014. I stated curating the cinema program shortly after it was developed by the creative director of the house, Kaya Sorhaindo and ended my practice there in 2016. It represented an ongoing creative collaboration between Soho House and FOLIE À PLUSIEURS that brought together the mediums of film and perfumery to create a new form of sensory engagement. For selected films in the Soho House cinema program, a scent was created by a visionary perfumer out of a personal response to moments in a film. This scent was then incorporated into the viewer experience during the film screening and became a part of an archive of scents under the FOLIE À PLUSIEURS olfactive collection.
The project encourages viewers to extract more from a cinematic experience, and explores a gamut of emotional responses that can be evoked in an environment where visual, audio and scent come together to tell a story. Apart from curating the project, my specific responsibilities included managing the communication with artists and vendors for production of artworks and scents, logistics, managing film screenings in different locations in Europe, support with managing the production of marketing / promotional events / product related events.
You can check out more about it here - https://www.folie.space/
Folie À Plusieurs Parfums Gallery Collection was developed as an idea by the creative director Kaya Sorhaindo. The collection was curated by both of us and represented a series of stand alone scents by the important international figures in Fashion, Film, Literature, Dance, Architecture, Design, Photography and Contemporary Art. These scents would arise out of an unrestricted collaboration between the contributing artist and an internationally renowned perfumer. Each Folie À Plusieurs Parfum under the «Gallery Collection» would begin with the contributor proposing a concept for the creation of an exclusive artwork. This artwork would drive the inspiration for the scent, and shape the creative conversations between the artist and the perfumer in the development process. Both the artwork and scent would be inseparable, together they would bring to life the complete experience of the project. The scent becomes a drifting aura of the object, and the object a permanent memory of the scent. We only managed to develop the scents, but due to lack of further investment in the project, the artworks and scents were never released.
Artists: David LaChapelle, Alfreado Jaar, Marco Brambilla