On June 17, Friday, we are presenting a work by Daria Pugachova – current artist-in-residence at CONTEXT AiR 2022.
Come and meet the artist in conversation and then view together her work Microcosm, projected in front of the former Cosmos Cinema building on Gladstone Street. in the city of Plovdiv.

Program of the event:

17:30 – Meeting and conversation with the artist at the Fargo Club

19:00 - Screening of the film "Microcosm" in front of the entrance of the former cinema "Cosmos"

Entrance free

Working language – English

On July 14, 2022 (Thursday) at 19:00 in the space of "Cat and Mouse" (ul. Hristo Dyukmedzhiev №15) in Kapana, the artists Simon Van Paris (Belgium) and the artistic duo Anne Feres (Netherlands) and Luke Conroy will speak (Australia/Netherlands). They are in Plovdiv in July and August as part of the residency program of Plovdiv Municipality ContextAiR.

The three artists will share their impressions of Plovdiv so far, talk about their creative experience and what they plan to show here.

For the authors, this meeting will also be useful as an opportunity to get feedback from Plovdiv residents and to get to know their colleagues from the city. At the end of their residency, each of the visiting artists will realize their idea in different public spaces in Plovdiv. During the search, you share images, ideas, texts, sounds and videos on social networks that have caught the attention and that present a more unusual and curious look at the context that we know and take for granted.

The meeting will be held in English.

From July 28 to October in the courtyard of the Permanent Exhibition of the City Art Gallery-Plovdiv (Saborna St. #14A), the sculpture "City Portrait of Plovdiv" will be available to visitors. Its author is the Belgian artist Simon Van Paris, a participant in the residency program of the Plovdiv Municipality CONTEXT AiR in 2022.
The visual artist creates his work on location, transforming his observations of the city into geometric shapes through objects and materials he finds in the urban space. The author offers his own interpretation of the city through the eyes of the newcomer.
In addition to it, there is a soundtrack of sounds recorded in the city, which can be heard at: http://www.studiovanparys.com/plovdiv

From August 11 to 13, Anne and Luke will be working on site to install their work. The official opening is coming up on August 14 (Sunday) at 7:00 p.m.

"News from home" or Plovdiv in one collage of hundreds of images

Anna Feres (Netherlands) and Luke Conroy (Australia) are participants in the residency program of the Municipality of Plovdiv CONTEXT AiR. For six weeks in Plovdiv, the two conducted field research, met and talked with people, and took hundreds of images of the city. The result of their work here is a large-scale photographic composition with dimensions of 5X4 m, presented on the facade wall of the building of BNT-Regional Television Center - Plovdiv, 8 "Nayden Gerov" Street.

The aim of this work is to explore the subtle yet meaningful stories of Plovdiv past, present and imagined future, drawing inspiration from both the community and the artists' own interpretations. The final composition consists of many individual elements inspired by the city's multi-layered identity. Through this collision of various layers, the work also expresses the authors' admiration for the unique urban essence of Plovdiv as a place of ancient history, socialist heritage, modern reality and future dreams.

"News from Home" is a long-term project under development by the two authors. In Plovdiv, they are carrying out its ninth edition.

By the end of the year - in October and November - within the framework of the program in Plovdiv, the fourth and last for 2022 creative residency of the Armenian choreographer and dance performer Rima Pipoyan will be completed.

Artist Information:

Daria Pugacheva is an artist and activist from Kyiv, Ukraine. In 2013 – 2019, he played drums in the female trio Panivalkova. After the musicians parted, Daria immersed herself in the field of contemporary art with her videos and performances. In her projects, Daria uses a variety of inclusive and participatory practices to engage the communities she works with. Her artistic approach is in the interest of the artist and the direct interaction with the audience in the public space.

Simon Van Paris (1986, Ghent, Belgium) graduated in 2010 from the Art School (KASK) in Ghent. Soon after, he settled into his studio at NUCLEO. Since then he has been working towards expanding his artistic horizon with international collaborations from London (UK, 2015, 2018) to Buenos Aires (AR, 2017, 2019), Hong Kong (HK, 2018), Neuchatel (CH, 2018), Montevideo ( UY , 2019), Shanghai (CN, 2019), Tehran (IR, 2020) and Antofagasta (CL, 2020). His last realized projects are in Trier (Germany, 2022), Knokke (Belgium, 2021) and Brussels (Belgium, 2021). Each new environment influences his works, for which the interaction between the visiting artist and the local communities is important. In 2018, Simon received a development grant from the Flemish government for his interdisciplinary approach. In addition, he uses his interaction experience outside the field of visual arts, doing sound design for the fashion label Barmés.be, scenography for Liza Vereertrbugen's premiere, Watzmann & NT Gent (2018), furniture prototyping for organic bakery Compaan (2018) , graphic design for records Life&Death (2015).

Anne Feres (1988, Netherlands) and Luke Conroy (1990, Australia) are a multidisciplinary artistic duo based in the Netherlands. In art, they deal with socio-cultural themes in a meaningful yet humorous way, using humor and irony as primary tools for critical reflection and expression. The practice includes photography, digital art, video, sound, VR, textiles, text and installation. Their interest in sociocultural topics is based on Anne's background in documentary film and audio-visual design (Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Ghent, Belgium, 2013) and Luke's background in sociology and visual arts (University of Tasmania, Australia, 2013). In their work, they are particularly interested in projects in which wider macro-level sociocultural events, processes and systems can be shaped by micro-level personal experiences.To reach new and unique micro-level experiences, they often work in different cultural and ecological contexts. Working in ten countries to date, they draw inspiration mainly from new and different communities.

CONTEXT AiR is a program for creative residencies in the city of Plovdiv, which was initiated in 2021 by the Municipality of Plovdiv. Since 2022, the curator of CONTEXT AiR is Svetlana Kuyumdzhieva.

The aim of the program is to encourage partnerships at the local level and support the creation of new works of art inspired by the city and its eclectic mix of ancient history, socialist heritage and contemporary reality.