Marta's choreographed thoughts

In these posts I will tell you how I experienced Antistatic Festival 2022 and share some impressions and thoughts of the events I followed. To help myself with being concise and creative, I decided to choose for each performance three words that are representative of the work: a noun, an adjective and a verb.  For the third time Antistatic Festival organised within its frame the Bulgarian Dance Platform , in which a good amount of recent Bulgarian performances are presented and to which international artists, cultural workers and festival organisers are invited as guests/spectators. For the Bulgarian-based choreographers this is a great opportunity to show their work (and possibly get it shown in other countries). This edition of the festival included 12 events distributed in 4 days (11th-14th May) in the different locations of the festival: Toplocentrala, Derida Stage, Krasno Selo Cultural Center and the SAMCA Gallery. Walking from one place to the other reminded me of my first un...

In these posts I will tell you how I experienced Antistatic Festival 2022 and share some impressions and thoughts of the events I followed. To help myself with being concise and creative, I decided to choose for each performance three words that are representative of the work: a noun, an adjective and a verb.  On its second day, Antistatic Festival 2022 presented Strange foreign bodies , by Zufit Simon, in the new location for contemporary art in Sofia “Toplocentrala”, which is situated in Dogs Park, a few minutes from NDK, and has been hosting since a few months lots of exhibitions, performances and workshops. A plus of this space is the bar with terrace upstairs, which allows visitors to socialise while enjoying a drink and the nice view on the park. Here the two dj parties organised by Antistatic festival took place.  The choreography of Strange Foreign Bodies is inspired by the treaty 58 Indices on the Body ,  by French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy, resembling a philo...

In these posts I will tell you how I experienced Antistatic Festival 2022 and share some impressions and thoughts of the events I followed. To help myself with being concise and creative, I decided to choose for each performance three words that are representative of the work: a noun, an adjective and a verb.  “Dance to be danced, move to be followed” was the motto of 15th edition of Antistatic festival, whose website explains that ““Dance to be danced” is a symbolic two-tiered appeal – from artists from previous decades in dance to those who come after them, as well as from “Antistatic” to their audience”. Antistatic Festival mottos are always chosen very carefully, in regard to the current geopolitical and social situation, as I could see from the last editions I took part in: in 2018 it was “State of emergency: Keep calm and dance on”, with the idea of presenting an alternative and demilitirised state of emergency; “Vote for dance” was picked in May 2019, the period of the Europ...

I arrived in Sofia in April 2018, soon after my graduation in Italian philology. I had decided to move in with my boyfriend and see how it was to live in this city. I had got a three months scholarship, but didn’t have much to do, so in the first days here I was browsing the internet looking for events. In the website of Sofia In Your Pocket I found out about Antistatic Festival , a festival of contemporary dance and performance, with international and Bulgarian artists held in Sofia, and I read that they were looking for volunteers. I thought: “That seems so cool!” and immediately applied. A few days later I entered Antistatic Festival office and I met the amazing Antistatic team made by Elena, the coordinator and my first contact, Iva, Willy and Stefan, the organisers. The atmosphere was very friendly, welcoming, and quite chill. As I imagined, the tasks were pretty much the same as the ones I had in Bologna: taking care of the artists at their arrival and during the rehearsals, som...

I like festivals, in general. There is that feeling of something well thought and organised around a particular theme, that sense of “something is going on and I should take advantage of it”, and that sort of festive atmosphere that surrounds all the events. The dance festivals are the ones I know best, so that’s where I will focus from now.  Usually, they are quite dense, as the program is very rich, with plenty of performances, conversations with artists, workshops, masterclasses, or conferences. A lot of things, happening in just a few days! On the one hand it can be a bit tiring or overwhelming, but on the other hand this abundance of stuff going on usually brings me a treasure of emotions, reflections, memories, relationships, conversations that stays with me forever. As a spectator, the last festivals I have (partially) attended are ONE DANCE WEEK in Plovdiv, whereas in Italy I can mention Biennale Danza in Venice, Opera Estate in Bassano del Grappa and Prospettiva Danza T...

Pier Vittorio Tondelli, in his book A post-modern weekend, stated: «I know that the secret of writing is to throw away and re-try, without fears and without boredom; it is the awareness that working with words is a playful, yet hard game, as each paragraph implies a choice [...]. Therefore, in order to write a story it isn’t very important to think or have plenty of ideas. It is important to draft [...]. The best ideas show up while writing».  I come back to this passage whenever I am about to write something and I don’t feel particularly inspired, or good, or talented. These words always give me strength and support, and they prove true in my experience: the process of writing, which includes throwing away and re-trying, leads me to analyse certain matters and find out ideas or phrases that would have stayed hidden otherwise.  I guess that's why I like writing. For me it’s a sort of a personal need for exploring and better understanding myself and the world around me. Someti...