The Green Place Without a Name
2024
Suhata Reka Neighbourhood, Vasil Levski 1928 Cultural Center
Remina Aleksieva and Ralitsa Belcheva create an exhibition at Vasil Levski 1928 Community Centre that encourages conversations about green spaces in the neighbourhood – what they look like in the past, what they look like now, and what potential uses they hold for the future. In Poduyane district, many such spaces remain neglected and often take on informal functions. These places are important to local residents, who discover in them spaces for rest, activities, and adventure. Through six portraits of people living in the neighbourhood, the exhibition weaves together personal stories, documenting not only local spaces but also the memories, experiences, and dreams attached to specific places. For the artists, the project serves as a starting point for civic discussions that expand the collective imagination around the neighbourhood’s possible futures, while also drawing attention to the small and pleasant things that make people choose to live here. The initiative forms part of ‘Vasil Levski 1928’ Community Centre’s strategy to develop future “civic gatherings.”
The opening also includes a discussion with the artists; Borislav Samarinov (Vasil Levski 1928 Community Centre); Sofia Team experts Hester Gartrell (cultural mediator) and Volen Gerchev (urbanist); Andrea Pandulis (Deputy Mayor of Poduyane District); and Sofia residents. The discussion focuses on the challenges facing green spaces in the area, residents’ visions for how these spaces can be improved, and the ways civic approaches can help shape them collectively – into the kinds of spaces we want them to be.
In December 2024, the exhibition continues in the building of the Poduyane District Municipality.
Ralitsa Belcheva is a photographer with an affinity for documentary photography. She is passionate about topics related to everyday life and our surroundings, human interaction with the environment and its conservation, cultural phenomena and minorities. During an Erasmus program in photojournalism in 2022 in Aarhus, Denmark, she created several documentary projects on these topics. One of them deals with the topic of overconstruction along the Bulgarian Black Sea coast.
Remina Alexieva is a researcher and active citizen whose work focuses on adaptation to and mitigation of environmental issues and their social consequences, as well as the use of democratic methods for civic participation. Part of her work includes the photographic series Strandzha – The Vastness of Our Unconscious, as well as the short films The Voices of Sinemorets and Concrete by the Sea by the Save Strandzha association.
Part of the first edition of Nine Elephants in 2024. In partnership with Center for Social Vision, Vasil Levski 1928 Cultural Centre, Poduyane Municipality.
Links
Presentation of an audio guide that can be listened to individually or in a group during a walk through the city