Nevena Ekimova in front of the subway to Gabrovo Bus Station
There is a rather unusual place for dreams in Gabrovo. It's dark, it smells suspicious, and you somehow automatically shift into a brisk walk to get out of there faster. However, for artist Nevena Ekimova, the underpass to Gabrovo bus station is nothing less than a magical tunnel through time. Every day she walks through the dimly lit subterranean street with its empty wall alcoves and ghosts of former shops, and transforms it in her imagination. In years past, the place was bustling with life - well, you came here to buy slippers or tights, nothing much, but at least you could meet acquaintances and read the local cultural posters. And now the space stands somehow lonely, echoing with emptiness. How fun it would be to breathe new life into the empty nooks and orphaned rooms - with a large-scale art installation, for example…
Capturing Creativity manages to make Nevena's fantasy come true with our next head-spinning adventure - Infundibulum Microfest!
October 12, 2024, Gabrovo Bus Station underpass
Three-dimensional art installation
Science fiction reading room
Concerts and DJ set
Infundi-what?
The tongue-twister infundibulum actually means funnel in Latin. The name of the microfest is inspired by the fictional phenomenon chrono-synclastic infundibulum, a genius creation of the uncompromising satirist Kurt Vonnegut. These are randomly appearing places in the universe that warp space-time, and where all different types of truth exist in harmony and everyone is right (ie, like social media, only in reverse). If you have the dubious luck of falling into such a funnel, you'll spend the rest of your existence stretched out through space like an elongated spring. You will temporarily materialise in any place that crosses your path, often appearing in multiple spaces and times simultaneously.
The dizzying title perfectly fits the concept of artist Nevena Ekimova, who will create three-dimensional metal installations for her favourite underpass, inspired by Einstein’s, Vonnegut’s and, above all, her personal theories about folding space-time. Vonnegut's fantastic imagination, which decades ago inspired the director of the House of Humor and Satire, Stefan Fartunov, to jump across the ocean and present him with a literary award in person, today inspires the theme of our cosmic-scale event. We will delight people from at least three generations with a one-day pop-up reading room focusing on fantasy genre titles from the past to the present, with a special emphasis on the cult Biblioteka Galaktika - the international science fiction novel series with unforgettable covers by Tekla Alexieva. With a nod to the past, filled with rich fantasies and hard realities, we meet the truths of different generations in a microfest that we hope will touch you personally, regardless of your age, colour or planet.
Nevena unpacks some of the 10,800 metal boxes – a central element in her art installation Infundibulum
Something out of nothing, or the Gabrovo essence
An interesting detail that any heir of the local entrepreneurial spirit would appreciate is the material the artist transforms the subway with, namely several thousand metal cans – the kind we are used to seeing filled with everything from beans to paint. They were donated to the project by a company in the town of Popovo, which ended up with the above-mentioned surplus when it changed production lines. The idea of sponsoring artists with the cans came from Elena Tsvyatkova, who, in addition to being a businesswoman, is also a connoisseur of contemporary art. Determined to give the scrapped cans a chance to live, she met Nevena, who, like a true tinkerer, knows how to turn trash into treasure. The rest, as they say, is history.
"Something great out of nothing special" has been the microfest motto since its inception. Continuing the method of re-use from last year's New Weavers for Gabrovo, this year we made a sweet deal with a cool Gabrovo business, whose leftover wood we will turn into festival furniture like real handymen. Not only will we not waste any nature, but we will be like no other – and if we manage to inspire you to recycle, that would be a real hat trick!
Okay... and what is a microfest?
At Capturing Creativity, we love to stir innovative mashups of diverse talent, unusual locations and mixed media. New Weavers for Gabrovo, the 2023 runner-up local event of the year, is our first bold attempt at creating a tiny festival. It managed to fit an impressive array of musical, visual and eco-adventures into a surprisingly small amount of time, making it a mini-sensation on the Gabrovo cultural scene. We're currently infundibulating, meaning mixing up nicely, our second microfest, which swirls contemporary art, retro fiction and theme music (oh yeah, we'll be rocking to the beat with a live DJ again!) into an irresistibly engaging celebration of imagination. If you don't believe it - just come on October 12. It's a Saturday!
Nevena Ekimova has been working on her large-scale art installation Infundibulum on site in the underpass since July 2024
Infundibulum Microfest is a culture and art project produced by the Capturing Creativity platform, based on the creative concept of Nevena Ekimova and Rosina Pencheva. It is implemented with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria, Municipality of Gabrovo under the Culture program, priority Creative Experience and Socialization of Spaces and Elena Group EAD. (Full list of partners and team)
