Bulgaria

Avant-garde

Artists

• Georges Papazoff
• Geo Milev
• Niccola Diulgheroff, bauhaus student
• Maria Utschkunova Auböck, bauhaus student

Platforms

• nonsofia, non-profit entity offering institutional support for constructive art in bulgaria and organiser of orthogonal: international forum for non-objective art

Magazines

• Vezni, 1919-1922.
• Plamuk, 1923-1925.
• Crescendo, 1922.

Events

• orthogonal: international forum for non-objective art

Work inspired by constructivist avant-garde

• Theodore Ushev, Tower Bawher (2006). Constructivist-style abstract animated short, filled with visual references to artists of the era, including Vertov, Stenberg, Rodchenko, Lissitsky and Popova, set to the musical composition "Time, Forward!" by Russian composer Georgy Sviridov. [1] [2]

Literature

• Kiril Krastev (Кирил Кръстев), Vasil Petkov (Васил Петков), Nedyalko Gegov (Недялко Гегов), Totyu Brunekov (Тотю Брънеков), Manifest na druzhestvoto za borba protiv poetite [Манифест на Дружеството за борба против поетите], [Aug 1926], [4] pp, HTML, JPG [3] [4] [5]. [6] (Bulgarian)
  • "Manifest stowarzyszenia do walki przeciw poetom", trans. Wojciech Gałązka, in Bułgarskie programy i manifesty literackie, Kraków, 1983, pp 124-128. (Polish)
• Wojciech Gałązka (ed.), Bułgarskie programy i manifesty literackie, Kraków, 1983. (Polish)
• Haralampi G. Oroschakoff (ed.), BulgariaAvantgarde, Cologne: Salon, 1998, 240 pp, Issuu. On the occasion of the exhibition in Munich curated by Iara Boubnova. (German)
• Виолета Русева, Манифести на българския авангардизъм, Велико Търново, 1995. (Bulgarian)
• Иван Сарандев (ed.), Български литературен авангард. Антология, 2001. Review. (Bulgarian)
• Milka Bliznakov, "Bulgaria. Bauhaus students: Niccola Diulgheroff", Centropa 3, 2003, p 1. (English)
• Kiril Krastev (Кирил Кръстев), Manifesti, statii, eseta 1922-1939 [Манифести, статии, есета 1922-1939], ed. Ivo Milev, Sofia: Boian Penev (Боян Пенев), 2014, 407 pp, [7] [8] [9] (Bulgarian)

Electroacoustic and electronic music

Composers

• Simo Lazarov
• Nikolai Badinski. EA works since 1974. [10]
• Rumen Boyadjiev. Interested in electronic music since mid-1970s, he had the chance to work at one of the first synthesizers available in Bulgaria, bought by Balkanton. He was member of FSB, electronic pop rock band (esp. album FSB II, 1978). [11]
• Alexander Kandov. EA works since 1981. [12]
• Vesselin Karaatanassov. EA works since 1981. [13]
• Tsvetan Dobrev. In 1992 he won the Grand Prix at the World Competition for Electroacoustic and Digital Music in Varese (Italy) for the multimedia Metamorphoses (1982). The work reproduces in sound and space the images in the modernist pictures of Hristo Simeonov. [14]
• Vladimir Djambasov. Studied Electronic Music Composition under Dirk Reith (ICEM), and Computer Composition under Dirk Reith (1989). EA works since 1981. [15]
• Mihail Goleminov. Studied Electroacoustic and Computer Music with Professor Kaufmann. EA works since 1983. [16]
• Hristo Petkov. In 1992 he founded the Electroacoustic Music Ensemble and started composing for it. [17]
• Valeri Kostov. Composed over 20 electronic music pieces (1992-97). [18]
• Lubomir Mitzev. EA works since 1993. [19]
• Simeon Venkov. After 1993 he has focused on electronic music. [20]
• Petar Petrov. EA works since 1997. [21]
• Maria Panayotova. EA works since 2002. [22]

Studio

• The Electronic music studio was founded at Sofia Radio in 1974 by Simo Lazarov and the first professional studio synthesizer "Synthi 100", one of the best for the time, was purchased. In the beginning of 80s the first analogue synthesiser (produced in Paris and occupying almost one big hall) has been installed in the radio. Existed until 1999.

Events

• Festival for Electroacoustic, Electronic and Computer Music (FEM) started in 1989 in Goce Delchev and Sandanski towns, co-initiated by Lazarov. In 1991 transformed into Computer Space forum and moved to Sofia. Between 1991 and 1994 the event has been organized by SCAS and the electronic music section has been organized in cooperation with Simo Lazarov. Between 1995 and 1998 the electronic music section has been organized in cooperation with DS Music. [23]
• The World of Computer Music, forum, created by Lazarov and Howard Wirshil, its recent editions were held simultaneously in Sofia and Atlanta and were launched on the Internet

Literature

• Simo Lazarov, "Bulgarian Electronic and Computer Music Electronic Studio - Radio Sofia", 1994. [24]
• Simo Lazarov, "Composing and Performing Computer Music By Using Personal Computers", PhD thesis, 1991. Technical University in Sofia.

Video art

Artists

• 1970s: Marran Gosov
• 1990s: Krassimir Terziev, Petko Dourmana, Luchezar Boyadjiev, Venelin Shurelov

Events

• xfilm festival, Sofia, *2005

Literature

• Rossen Milev, "Bulgarien", in Milev, Video in Osteuropa, Sofia: Balkanmedia, 1993. (German)

Computer and computer-aided art

Rosen Petkov

Organisations

• SCAS (Student Computer Art Society), founded by Rosen Petkov. [25]

Events

• Computer Space forum, *1991, Sofia, organized by SCAS. [26]

Venues

• Center for Computer Arts, a joint initiative of the SCAS and the "Soros" Center for the Arts, founded in mid-90s by Petkov.

Literature

• In one of the biggest and well-known daily newspapers “Narodna Mladej” (Peoples’ Youth) with approx. 100 000 daily issues circulation, Rosen Petkov, promoted electronic arts (ca 1987 [27]). “Mlad konstruktor” (The Young Developer) magazine and “Grafika s komputar” (Computer Graphics) magazine were other well known media where Mr. Petkov presented the electronic music and computer graphics achievements during that time.
• Rosen Petkov, Old books and computer arts, 2010. [28]

New media art, Media culture

Cities

Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna.

Media

• elektrik_bg (*1999)

Literature

• Iliyana Nedkova, "Inside Out. Curating the New Media Culture of Bulgaria", 2001. In: Communication Front 2000 Book, Crossing Points East-West.
• Rupert Francis, "A view of the growing Bulgarian electronic art scene by an outsider looking in", 2001.
• Maria Vassileva, "Progress of Media Arts in Bulgaria", Goethe-Institut, 2012.

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