Antoaneta Galabova, Ivaylo Dinev, Iliyana Kancheva, Kosta Tonev, Krassimir Terziev, Luchezar Boyadjiev, Lyubomir Ignatov, Maria Tsaneva, Martin Penev, Miná Minov, Miryana Todorova, Pavel Naydenov, Peter Mintchev, Vasilena Gankovska, Valko Chobanov

The Multipolis initiative originates from the city, which, among other things, is broad enough to offer space and allow creative freedom and opportunities for interaction between various disciplines. Art, music and theory are the fields the organizers from The Fridge are willing to get into direct dialogue with one another.

Multipolis started as an open invitation to young artists, musicians and theorists specializing in the humanities. A small group of young people from various fields, namely visual artists, art theorists, sociologists, musicians, got together. They have been working with artists Luchezar Boyadjiev and Krassimir Terziev, sociologist Lea Vajsova and philosopher Dimitar Bozhkov, as well as with music theorist Iliya Gramatikov. They are not supposed to stay within a specified framework, i. e. each participant may focus on the aspect of the city that offers and speaks to him/her the most. Major themes/issues/locations take shape and are marked on the city map – the Hristo Botev quarter, Student Town, parks and recreation venues, the subcultural sexual practice called cruising, etc. Some participants picked out a specific venue, others focused on a specific phenomenon, still others chose to look at the environment surrounding them, at people and their lifestyle, as well as the dynamic between the latter and the city.

The exhibition features works by project participants, by external artists whose works present pleasure venues in the city, as well as works from the permanent collection of the Sofia City Art Gallery.

The artists included in the exhibition differ drastically in terms of the means of artistic expression, highlights and approaches they employ in exploring urban themes. It is pleasure that their works have in common, as regardless of its problems, ugliness, dirtiness, ghettos, or gentrified areas, the city is also a venue of pleasures. Some of them are small, almost insignificant pleasures like games played by children in the street, while others are secretive like cruising, voyeurism or gambling. Still other works reveal the visual pleasures of architecture, streets and urban landscapes, be they in the old part of town, or in Sofia’s residential areas riddled with buildings made of concrete panels. Yet pleasure is always short-lived, imaginary or deceptive. That is why the exhibition seeks to find out what lies behind the picture-perfect venues of pleasure.

The Multipolis project was initiated and organized by The Fridge with kind support from the Culture program of the capital city municipality, the St. Clement of Ohrid University of Sofia, and Goethe-Institut Bulgaria.

The Pleasure Venues Exhibition was organized under the Multipolis project. Curated by Stefka Tsaneva, it was realized in partnership with the Sofia City Art Gallery and Goethe-Institut Bulgaria.
With the special participation of Marleen Andreev, Julia Pommer, Frank Zitzmann, Elisabeth Rosenthal and Thomas Judisch – participation in the artist-in-residence program in the frame of the Multipolis project in June 2017.