Photography: © Rosina Pencheva
Nevena Ekimova is a visual artist with an affinity for unusual materials and mastering new techniques. It is difficult to put a label on her, since in addition to sculptures and installations, she also makes surprising performances, writes poetry and publishes picture books. For the microfest, the artist picks up a welding machine for the first time and puts on a darkening mask. She uses thousands of scrap metal cans to create a three-dimensional art installation that transforms the bus station underpass in her hometown of Gabrovo into a brand new kind of space-time, teeming with infundibuli, wormholes, and other galactic phenomena.
Photography: © Domenico Giovane
Ilko Birov spent a cosmopolitan childhood in Vancouver, Canada, but when he got bored there, he came back to his native Bulgaria. We are serious fans of Ilko's creativity, which mainly consists of composing and singing great songs. He has much to brag about, having done music for four theatre performances and a children's puppet show, two albums, numerous singles and film scores. A fan of science fiction and instantly taken by our idea, Ilko fits perfectly into the vibes of the microfest with his soulful and imaginative tunes.
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Photograph: © Ivaylo Ivanov
Pavel Terziysk is an alien, but still Bulgarian, jazz singer and composer of theatre music. His unique voice, professionally tuned with all kinds of vocal techniques, transports anyone with ears through nine dimensions into the tenth. The waves of his sound toss us from the depths of seismic bass lines to the cliffs of sky-high melodies. Pavel has spent the last decade in an orbit of solo and joint projects with some of the biggest names of the Bulgarian underground experimental and jazz scene, and this autumn is planning a one-day underground trip to Gabrovo bus station - where, by some cosmic coincidence, we will also be hanging out!
Photography: © Rosina Pencheva
Gonzo from the Block (Gospodin Radev) is from that Transition generation children who went to rocket modelling classes (in his case – at the Pioneer House in Sliven), dreamt of becoming cosmonauts and devoured their parents' book and vinyl collections in search of unknown dimensions. He’s been surrounded by music since he was a child – deftly catching the airwaves of BBC Radio on a transistor radio and curating carefully thought-out mixtapes. At parties, he’s the regular jerk who occupies the music. From there to behind the decks in Sofia, where he’s been performing for over fifteen years, but for us he’s making a quantum leap to Gabrovo to play at the microfest. He’s a fan of eclecticism and his sets offer a lot of everything – just like Alf's favourite dish.
Vision: Ivan Kashlakov for Capturing Creativity