Migration of the Ghosts
12 july 2026
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 “Migration of The Ghosts,” the authors build on last year’s artistic research project “Someone Once Here,” created in Buhovo. Once again, through conversations with residents of the two villages, archival materials, personal stories, literary texts, and film imagery, Maria and Nikola search for lost connections to family heritage and memory – the knowledge that no longer exists as a living tradition but continues to linger like a ghost in stories and in the sense of belonging. Part of the research also explores 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.
The event begins with a journey by organised bus from Sofia to Zheleznitsa, during which the story takes its ghostly path through a shared audio experience. In the village, participants choose between two routes – towards the mineral baths or the nearby forest. Those who wish to fully immerse themselves in the experience take a dip in the mineral pool, while the others head into the forest, where they encounter mysterious traces and stories left behind by the ghosts of history.
Along both routes, participants collect different fragments – voices, images, stories, and traces, which they later bring together at a shared picnic. There, they share what they have discovered, compare the signs from the two paths, and try to piece together a collective story.
In the early evening, Maria and Nikola, together with residents of Zheleznitsa and visitors from Sofia, present their poetic visual research through film fragments, texts, memories, and traces from the journey.
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