ENDEAVOURS is an annual educational program of the Vaska Emanouilova Gallery that examines sculpture in an extended field. It deals with the issues originated by the contemporary dynamic urban environment, studies the relations of sculpture with architecture and urbanism, and rationalises the influence of the economic, social and cultural processes on the shapes and images in the city. Tutor / curator of the program in 2015 is Luchezar Boyadjiev. The program is implemented in cooperation with Studio ProJectirane Architectural Workshop (UACEG) and the National Academy of Art.

“However, if the past in Bulgaria is not somehow “settled” in textbooks and books but rises as a vampire in “fortresses” and disputable memorials, how is it at all possible to think about erecting monuments in the country’s public space?” asks Luchezar Boyadjiev, inventor of the theme for this year’s edition of the educational program. It is dedicated to the monuments and their actual presence in the urban environment.

The students are asked to rationalise the links between memory and history, the meaning of the formal and aesthetic characteristics, as well as how the monuments fit in the urban environment. Each of the participants in the program came up with their own answer to the posed question, which found its expression in different approaches to the theme and materialised in an individual project.

Stefan Kotsev “revised” the newly erected monument to Samuil in Sofia by creating different collages with his image and suggested his own plastic interpretation of the figure as his own project for the already constructed monument. Anton Tsanev channelled his efforts into the direction of studying the correlations between space, time and object in the urban environment, and concentrated on the production of urban portraits of three locations / monuments. Maria Malinova dealt with the question of the temporary monuments, their unobtrusive presence, the spiritual aspects of the problem, as well as the sedimentation and layering of memory in the city.

One of the goals of the educational program of The Vaska Emanouilova Gallery is not only to assist the work, but also to intensify the public activity of the young artists. It aims at providing them with a platform for sharing ideas by putting them in a situation of learning, creativity and dialogue at the same time. Within the exhibition, the showcased works of the young artists will be discussed with architects, urbanists, their teachers and other experts on these matters.

On September 30 at 6:30 pm, immediately after the closing of the exhibition, a public discussion will be held in the space of Studio ProJectirane with architects and artists, as well as with the participants in the exhibition, on the question raised by Luchezar Boyadjiev. The discussion will consider the debate surrounding the monuments and the public space in terms of their connection to culture, ways of life, self-esteem and education.

The ENDEAVOURS educational program, as well as the Meeting Point Platform for young artists and contemporary art and the Sculpture program of The Vaska Emanouilova Gallery are supported by Societe Generale EXPRESSBANK WE SUCCEED TOGETHER.