Someone Once Here
Author
A meeting with Maria Makedonska and Nikola Zambelli and residents of the town. Buhovo
When
20 July 2025
Where
City of Buhovo, Central Department of "Rare Metals"
Nine Elephants” will conclude with a poetic finale in Buhovo and a walk led by Maria Makedonska and Nikola Zambelli, inviting us to immerse ourselves in the town and its memory. “Someone Once Here” is a search for meaning in absence—a poetic attempt to listen where buildings have vanished, to gather memory where the official narrative has forgotten, and to create a shared space of belonging between people, place, and the past.
In a continuation of their collaborative work, writer and documentary filmmaker Maria Makedonska and Italian artist and researcher Nicola Zambelli turn their attention for the first time to the periphery of Sofia – specifically the town of Buhovo, a former mining town on the outskirts of the capital. Through field research, recorded conversations and poetic writing, the artists explore how memories of disappearing buildings – once homes, cultural centres, hospitals or factories – are carried, mourned or imagined by local residents. By listening to personal narratives associated with these spaces, they create a collective poetic archive of loss, resistance and transformation.
The two began their collaboration in 2023 as part of the Baba Residence, where they discovered a shared interest in oral history, cultural memory and artistic interventions in peripheral and depopulating spaces. In 2024 they realized the Ruins of Memory project in Northwest Bulgaria, and the current project is its continuation in an urban environment. Their collaboration is based on a shared attention to vulnerable places, a documentary approach, poetic language and a deep respect for local voices.
The event includes conversations with local residents, a walk through the streets of the small town, as well as a screening of Maria and Nikola’s new film.
- Shuttle transport available from the parking lot behind the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral at 19:30 (return at 23:00); registration in advance is required here.
Maria Makedonska is a writer, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker whose practice combines literature, field research and poetic narrative. She works in dialogue with vanishing places, oral history and cultural memory, often creating hybrid forms between documentary and fiction. In 2023 he participated in the Baba Residency, where he began a collaboration with Italian artist Nicola Zambelli. In 2024, the two realized the Ruins of Memory project in Northwest Bulgaria. In the same year Maria participates in the Nine Elephants Festival with the project Bit and Bitack. Among her other projects from 2024 are I Hear You, an audio installation in which two strangers have an anonymous and intimate telephone conversation, and The River of People, a fictional story based on stories told by residents of three neighborhoods in Veliko Tarnovo (Varusha South, Varusha North and the Turkish Quarter), presented as an exhibition and poetry reading in an urban environment.
Nicola Zambelli is a filmmaker and visual researcher whose practice combines philosophy, documentary filmmaking and fieldwork with vulnerable communities. He studied hermeneutic philosophy in Bologna and MA in documentary film at IED Milan. At the heart of his approach is narrative identity – the relationship between personal storytelling and processes of social transformation. He works in dialogue with territories marked by loss, resistance or alienation, from Palestinian villages to prison spaces and post-socialist ruins. In recent years he has realized “Saruura. The Future is an Unknown Place,” a project in Palestine tracing how youth activists use the medium as a tool of resistance; “11 Giorni,” a visual-poetic exploration of the emotional world of prisoners in Brescia; and “Cracks,” a reflection on social erosion in post-industrial Pernik. In 2023 he participated in the Baba Residency in Bulgaria, where together with Maria Makedonska they created the film Damore – about love, rituals and silence in depopulating villages. Their work continues with Ruins of Memory in Northwest Bulgaria and the current project Sofia, which takes this research into an urban context.
In August, the project “Someone Once Here” by Maria Makedonska and Nikola Zambeli is presented again in Vidin and the village of Pavolche, featuring a screening of the short poetic film created from images collected in Buhovo. The events include a screening, sharing experiences from the project, and a discussion with the audience about local memory and stories. The film and project premiered as part of the Nine Elephants festival, where they were presented as a poetic exploration of disappearing buildings and memories in the outskirts of Sofia.
5 August 2025 – event in Pavolche
7 August 2025 – Event in Vidin
With the financial support of the Mobility Programme of Sofia Municipality, Culture Programme.
Links
Presentation of an audio guide that can be listened to alone or in a group during a walk in the city