Weaving Druzhba
Author
intervention by Maria Minkova
When
Weaving 5 & 6 July 2025 + Brunch 20 July 2025
Where
Druzhba district, the florists by the lake
In preparation for the opening of Nine Elephants, we warmly invite you, together with Maria Minkova and local residents, to transform the flower beds by the lake in the Druzhba residential complex, weaving into them stories, events, people, and places that we love and return to.
“Weaving Druzhba” draws inspiration from the idea of the neighborhood as a fabric, where the people are the threads that create its uniqueness and essence. In this context, Maria Minkova works with former flower beds – metal structures located by the lake in the Druzhba neighborhood. Originally intended to enhance the public space, over time they lost their function. The intervention will involve weaving threads and ribbons of various materials, sizes, and colors through the metal rods of these structures.
It is the connective tissue that assembles incidents and routes, stories and people, places and buildings, and makes them be this intangible thing they call “the spirit of the neighborhood.” This fabric is formed by the personal threads of everyone who lives, passes through or even got lost there. On the surface it is quite fragile and elusive, but anyone who has lived in, felt and called their place “the neighborhood” or “the neighborhood” understands intuitively. The threads of all of us woven around the places we love to return to. The metal structure, a time-worn flowerpot, is the skeleton of our history, around its bones will swirl story-threads of every kind, material and color. The variety and even excess of materials will reflect and relate to the lake, the bridge, the cafes, and the proverbial visual identity of the Roma neighborhood across the street. This is the more complex weaving – a five-dimensional weaving of place, time, people, events and stories. The installation that will emerge at the end is about looking, tripping, tangling and untangling, but most of all about recognition. It is not exactly an artistic interpretation, but also an act of collaborative memory. The connective tissue between us and our neighborhood.
Text: Ghostdog
On 5 and 6 July – a week before the festival opens – we cordially invite you to join the residents of the neighbourhood to weave the installation together, and on 20 July and in the context of Imagining Cities we invite you to a brunch at the same venue, where we will meet the artist and talk about both her practice and the role of art in the city.
On 20 July, the closing day of the festival,we invite you to brunch around the installation with ghostdog
Maria Minkova is a visual artist living and working in Sofia. She was educated in art high school with a specialty in textiles and in the National Academy of Fine Arts with a specialty in mural painting. She has significant experience in advertising, where she worked as an art director in some of the largest international agencies for more than 10 years. Maria Minkova is mainly active in the field of installations taking place in urban environments. It is their interaction with people and the impact they have on their sensations that excites and explores her curiosity. The main techniques she applies are assemblage and weaving. Taking advantage of their plasticity, beauty and genuine warmth built and sustained over the centuries, she manages to express herself in a unique way.
In partnership with Iskar Municipality.
Maria Minkova’s intervention is also the first realized artwork from the Nine Elephants collection, dedicated to possible but not yet materialized art in public space. It was presented during the first edition of the festival.
With thanks to TUPLEX for providing the materials.
Links
Presentation of an audio guide that can be listened to alone or in a group during a walk in the city