AFVS graduate student Pauline Shongov co-curates exhibition at Swimming Pool in Sofia, Bulgaria

The exhibition Ecologies of Prehod is now on view at Swimming Pool in Sofia, Bulgaria until September 24. It is curated by Off-site: a research initiative at the intersection of heritage studies, environmental humanities, and critical media practice, co-founded in 2020 by AFVS graduate student Pauline Shongov, Maya Shopova, and Borislav Angelov. The exhibition features the works of Nicolás Kisic Aguirre, Katarina Burin, Sam Ghantous, Elitza Koeva, and Manar Moursi. For the past four years, artists received and responded to material, aural, and visual prompts collected by Off-site from sites in Bulgaria that have fallen into ruin since the start of the transition period from a planned to market economy known as Prehod. In re-imagining what it means to care from a distance for tangible and intangible heritage, the exhibition rethinks Prehod from a proper noun to a process of transitioning from one material state, historical period, and geographic place to another. More information about the collective and exhibition can be found on eflux here.

The exhibition is made possible with the support of the National Culture Fund of Bulgaria, Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative, Harvard Critical Media Practice, and the Film and Visual Studies program at Harvard University.