Migration of the Ghosts
12 July 2026, 3:00-8:00 PM
Zheleznitsa Village
Migration of The Ghosts is a poetic community-based research project by Maria Makedonska and Nicola Zambelli, dedicated to the connection between Zheleznitsa Village near Sofia and the nearly depopulated Gorna Zheleznitsa Village near Blagoevgrad.
The project traces an almost forgotten migration. Around 1646 part of the inhabitants of Gorna Zheleznitsa settled near Sofia and founded a new settlement, which they also named Zheleznitsa. Today about 1,600 people live in Zheleznitsa near Sofia, while only five remain in Gorna Zheleznitsa.
With Someone Somewhere Here: Migration of The Ghosts, the authors build on last year’s artistic research project Someone Somewhere Here, created in Buhovo. Here once again, through conversations with residents of both villages, archival materials, personal stories, literary texts and cinematic imagery, Maria and Nicola explore lost connections to ancestry and memory – that knowledge that no longer exists as a living tradition, yet continues to linger like a ghost in narratives and in the sense of belonging. Part of the research also includes the stories of Slave Makedonski, born in Gorna Zheleznitsa, whose fantastical and mythologized accounts of his native region raise the question of what remains in a place when its people leave it.
The event begins with a bus journey from Sofia to Zheleznitsa Village, during which the story will embark on its ghostly path through a shared audio experience. In the village, participants will be able to choose between two routes – towards the mineral bath or towards the nearby forest. Those who wish to fully immerse themselves in the experience may bring swimwear and a towel and join us in the warm mineral pool. The others will head into the forest, where they will encounter mysterious traces and stories left behind by the ghosts of history.
Along both routes, participants will collect different fragments – voices, images, stories and traces, which they will later bring to a shared picnic. There, they will share what they have discovered, compare the signs from the two paths and together attempt to assemble a collective narrative. To make the picnic even more communal, you are also welcome to bring something to eat or drink.
In the early evening, Maria and Nicola, together with residents of Zheleznitsa and guests from Sofia, will present their poetic visual research through film fragments, texts, memories and traces from this journey.
You are invited to discover where the migration of ghosts leads us and to preserve together the art of storytelling – something that must not be forgotten.
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Transportation from Sofia is available via organized transport. Departure at 2:00 PM from “Alexander Nevsky” Square, with return to the same location after the event ends. Limited spots, registration required in advance.
Please fill out the registration form 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, verbal history and cultural memory, often creating hybrid forms between documentary and fiction. In 2023 she 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 Lige and the Flea Market. 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.
With the financial support of the National Culture Fund and Sofia Municipality – Summer Programme.
Links
Presentation of an audio guide that can be listened to individually or in a group during a walk through the city