Plovdiv Diaries: creating a city portrait and first impressions

I have the pleasure that my job brings me all over the world. This time, I’m invited pretty close to Belgium, right at the inside Balkan border of the European Union. I’m in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Things are a lot different then I expected.

Railroad to Plovdiv

Nothing beats taking a train ride to get a first impression of a country. My train brought me here all the way from Sofia. Our carriage was one of those compartmented ones like you see a lot in the former USSR.

The air was humid and some People were hanging with their heads out the windows. Trying to get a grasp of fresh air. We could see the train glide with curves in between the endless green hills.

A city portrait for Plovdiv
Since my arrival at the 22nd of June, I'm creating a city portrait as Artist-in-Residence at Context 2022, a cooperation with the Municipality of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. I'm going to stay there till the 3rd of August. It’s my task to understand this place as an outsider. I will create a rendering of that experience.

I’m working here on invitation of ContextAir, an artist-in-residence program supported by the Plovdiv municipality. I’m staying in a beautiful compound just outside the city and part of my daily routine now is reading about Bulgarian history and discovering the city. I’m documenting and collecting about what defines this city to me. In a later stage I create artworks with those materials.

the La-La Residency of ContextAIR and the Municipality of Plovdiv

The Bulgarian summer reminds me on the first glance of Shanghai and Buenos Aires. It has a comparable ‘Dirty Touch’ in its building style and is laden by leaf trees. But differs in its soundtrack. Its a bit more easy going on the traffic noise and you hear birds all the time.

This is the city of 7 hills. (Now 6, they destroyed the smallest to house a large mall) These define the city and locals love to do ‘Ailyak’: a sort of Dolce far Niente where they walk and booze on the hills and at the rowing canal, watching the endless city and nature views.