The project has been inspired by the profound nostalgia for the near past as a highly relevant issue. For some people this phenomenon seems absurd and void of any logic while for others it is unfortunately a certain “Belle époque”.

The authors invited to take part in the project belong to a generation which happened to be quite mature at the time of the political changes and has preserved a relatively positive memory of this period. According to the curators this is the generation which can give the most adequate interpretation and commentary from the present day point of view.

Memory has the leading part in this project, yet not to re-establish or restore but to interpret the inexplicable and life-saving nostalgia in the light of the contemporary concepts.

The infinite jealousy of the past and its constant evocation has come to the point of being able to spoil the value of the present. Nostalgia is a close relative of the longing for various utopias regardless of whether they refer to the past or the future. As a rule of thumb the past always seems more attractive than the non-promising unknown of the future and human memory is quite selective.

The curators now provoke the participants’ creative thought as well as that of the viewers by asking questions such as:
How is it possible to build a common past on the basis of a fragmented personal memory?
Has something in the past been lost that we cannot in any way make up for at present?
Doesn’t the formal termination of a utopia give birth to the idea and the strong craving for a next one?
Where do denial and oblivion lead us to – relief or anxiety?

The possible visual answers to these questions have been gathered into the works of: Alexander Petkov, Vesselina Sarieva / Georgi Lazarov, Georgi Bogdanov / Boris Missirkov, Iva Vacheva, Ivan Kostolov, Ivan Moudov, Kamen Stoyanov, Kosta Tonev, Orlin Nedelchev, Samouil Stoyanov and Svetozara Aleksandrova.

The exhibition includes paintings, video and photo installations, drawings and objects created exclusively for the project.

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In Search Of Lost Time has been sponsored by the Fund for Support of Debut Projects in co-operation with the National Culture Fund, the Bulgarian branch of Pro Helvetia Arts Council of Switzerland, Goethe Institute – Sofia, the Culture Bg Fund and with the support of Sofia Art Gallery, the Bulgarian Photographic Association and SIBANK.