East and West of Sofia
4/2019, Sofia Underground Performance Art Festival, Sofia, BG

On 18 April 2019 I walked some 20km across the city of Sofia, from its western administrative borders (Lyulin district) to its eastern end (Mladost district). This artwork was commissioned for the festival Sofia Underground 2019 themed “The Eastern Question”. I invited the audience to walk with me physically on site or virtually through snapshots, short notes, and videos I was posting online during the walk.

Both large residential complexes Lyulin and Mladost are significant for eras in which they were built and later developed. Lyulin is carrying the stigma and dystopian „eastern“ beauty. Mladost inherited the same post-USSR setting of residential blocks yet nowadays it speaks not only of its socialist past but also of its capitalist („west“) present due to its rapid development.

I reflected on my experience from Sofia in a form of a short essay that was published in 2021 in a festival zine in English and Bulgarian (my text starts on page 46).