PLATFORM3 - Räume für zeitgenössische Kunst - 2009

Sofia Spionage
Yanna Varbanova
Liquid Archives – Notes on Relations, Ruptures and Silences
Anna Schneider
Sofia Spionage is an interdisciplinary project
that represents the contemporary visual existence
of a city/capital in times of development
and change. Through the instruments of
art, the aim of the project is to create a picture
and a feeling of one city and his inhabitants,
still searching for their lost identity. Sofia and
her face – “The city in pictures” (Photographic
exhibition by Boyan Hristov and installation by
Ivan Paskalev), “The city in words” (Curatorial
lecture by Vladiya Mihailova), “The city in
movement” (Visual action by HR-Stamenov),
“The city in melodies” (Audio-musical performance
by Kliment Dichev and Vladislav
Iliev), “The city in colors and sounds” (Compilation
of short movies about Sofia). The project
is an attempt to create a vivid and spirited
presentation of city and his many faces. Sofia
Spionage is a colorful postcard with black
and white edges that holds many wonderful
melodies and hidden secrets inside. You just
need to open it!!!
Sofia Spionage is an event organised by
Platform3 and the Department for Arts and
Culture of the City of Munich. This project is
supported by the Robert Bosch Foundation.
Participating Artists: Boyan Hristov, Ivan Paskalev, Vladiya Mihailova,
HR-Stamenov, Kliment Dichev and Vladislav Iliev | Curator: Yanna
Varbanova, fellow of the program, “Cultural Managers from Central
and Eastern Europe”, Robert Bosch Foundation
“History is the fruit of power, but power itself
is never so transparent that its analysis becomes
superfluous. The ultimate mark of power may
be its invisibility; the ultimate challenge, the exposition
of its roots.” Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the
Past: Power and the Production of History.
Opening in December 2009, the exhibition Liquid
Archives – Notes on Relations, Ruptures and
Silences, presents new and existing works of
emerging and established contemporary artists.
The central concern of the exhibition is a
critical investigation into the production of
history. The idea that history is an irrevocable,
grand narrative, fed by the depths of an irrefutable
static archive, is deconstructed. The
notion of a “liquid archive“ stands for an alternative
access to global history and political
present. This change of perspective is enabled
by a consideration of the oceans. The notion
of a maritime setting functions as a counterpoint
to a terrestrial framework, which is indebted
to the nation-state and border politics.
The maritime perspective is driven by the
vision of multilateral narratives, allowing a
wider spatial and longer temporal trajectory.
The fine line between truth and fiction,
between the reception of histories and their
production, that inevitably is characterized
by an uneven access to the means of the production
of history (language, translation and
its mediation), are fundamental structural
aspects that are equally relevant in exhibitionmaking.
By evoking an imaginary, by staging a
narrative, an exhibition fictionalizes the real
and thereby is itself a part of the production of
history. The exhibition Liquid Archives – Notes
on Relations, Ruptures and Silences aims to
make these structural antinomies, that entail
their own discourse of power, visible through
curatorial concept and exhibition design.
Participating Artists: Nadim Asfar (Lebanon), Ursula Biemann
(Switzerland), Annegret Bleisteiner (Germany), Frédéric Bruly
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