Confronting the end of village schools through art

Still from the photographic project Uchilishte (2016 - 2022) by Alexander Dumarey

Confronting the end of village schools through art

Young Bulgarian architects aspire to leave their mark at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023 with a bold project depicting the consequences of depopulation

Still from the photographic project Uchilishte (2016 - 2022) by Alexander Dumarey

© Alexander Dumarey


After a 15-year break, Bulgaria is preparing for its second national participation in the world's most important event dedicated to architecture and the built environment, which opens at the end of May this year - the Venice Architecture Biennale.

The interdisciplinary team that won the national round is led by arch. Boris Tikvarsky from POV architects and consists of graphic designer Kostadin Kokalanov, arch. Maria Gyaurova, and arch. Bojidara Valkova-Goranova. Most of them work and live abroad, but they have united for several architectural competitions and projects in Bulgaria before.

They work with Belgian photographer Alexander Dumarey, who since 2016 has documented hundreds of unused and crumbling schools in Bulgaria as a portrait of depopulation in a country with a record declining population. The photographic material will be enriched and accompanied by sociological information, archival photographs of abandoned schools, architectural photography of some of the buildings, as well as objects brought from the schools to the Biennale, the architects say.

They have all the chances to present Bulgaria in a memorable and meaningful way through the project, called "Education as moving from darkness to light," which corresponds to the unwritten rule of the Biennale - the more impactful and understandable the concept, the more memorable the exhibition.

Still from the photographic project Uchilishte (2016 - 2022) by Alexander Dumarey
Photographer: Alexander Dumarey

What is the Architectural Biennale?

Organized by the cultural institution La Biennale Di Venezia (producer of events for art, cinema, music, dance and theater), the Biennale, with a 40-year history and 17 editions to its credit, has managed to build an image as a must-attend forum that serves as a reference point for the mood and global trends in the field of architecture. The themes of each edition are a culmination of the highly sensitive, relevant and comprehensive work of multidisciplinary teams in a global and local context.

At a time of conflict, uncertainty and shifting cultural layers, the theme set by this year's curator, 59-year-old Scottish-Ghanaian Leslie Loco, is "Laboratory of the Future." It provokes reflection in two directions: one is entirely tied to Africa as the world's youngest and most dynamic continent and the resulting rapid urbanization and chaotic growth. The other is devoted to the Biennale itself as a platform for experimentation, sharing experiences and visions, and considering architecture as a factor of social development.

The prestige of a country being part of the 29 nations with a permanent pavilion in Giardini Park, where the ambitious and all-consuming intellectual architectural showcase will be taking place, is undeniable. Participation is important for the image and is political (in the best sense of the word), because it is a statement that the country is able to present its concept, to launch names and to stand adequately in an international context.

Still from the photographic project Uchilishte (2016 - 2022) by Alexander Dumarey
Photographer: Alexander Dumarey

Big comeback

15 years ago Bulgaria participated for the first time with a selection of young and promising architects at the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale. Under the title "Bulgaria: Inside the Young Architect" Georgy Stanishev presented the works of selected young architects. Unfortunately, the Bulgarian state never made any effort to continue what it had started.

Bulgaria's perennial absence from the Architecture Biennale (by comparison, far smaller European countries such as Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia have had their own pavilions in a sustained and purposeful way over the years and without missing a beat) is in some ways also a total "pass" in relation to the processes of global architectural practice. An isolation that is mostly a product of long-standing institutional laziness.

That is why Bulgaria's second national participation in the Architecture Biennale is big news. The other positive aspect noted by both the jury and the architects who participated in the competition for the curatorial project for Bulgaria's national participation in the 18th Venice Biennale of Architecture, held at the end of December, was the remarkable mobilization of the guild. The thirty-four projects submitted (despite the extremely tight deadlines - 27 days to apply, and limited budget - 70,000 BGN for the entire exhibition) are a clear sign of the new generation of architects' desire to get involved and put their work in a global context.

"Education is the movement from darkness to light" is both a documentary and a social project, completely in the spirit of the recent architectural exhibitions in Venice, which usually do not shy away from problems. We are deliberately not taking into account the theme of the Biennale ("Laboratory of the Future"), says Boris Tikvarsky in a recent interview with BNR, because one can only think about the future when one has solved the problems of the present.

POV architects, visualization project "Education as moving from darkness to light"
Source: ©POV

"There is a general attitude that when you don't use a thing, you are no longer responsible for it, but that doesn't have to be the case. We are currently trying to work on the pavilion with the idea of turning it into a platform for debate. The scale of the problem is so big that we are far from thinking we can solve it with 6 months of participation in the Biennale.

However, we think that this presence in Venice could be a starting point for people with different points of view and professional interests to introduce visitors to the topic and thus turn the pavilion into a workshop (note: in line with Leslie Loco's idea of a laboratory of the future). We do not want to show only an exhibition or statistics, but to provoke discussion," Mr Tikvarsky added. "We work so that we can present our ideas and have a positive response at the Biennale itself. Our aim is to leave a mark," he concluded.

After a 15-year break, Bulgaria is preparing for its second national participation in the world's most important event dedicated to architecture and the built environment, which opens at the end of May this year - the Venice Architecture Biennale.

The interdisciplinary team that won the national round is led by arch. Boris Tikvarsky from POV architects and consists of graphic designer Kostadin Kokalanov, arch. Maria Gyaurova, and arch. Bojidara Valkova-Goranova. Most of them work and live abroad, but they have united for several architectural competitions and projects in Bulgaria before.

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