LUFTSTUDIO – Residency program in Bulgaria

LUFTSTUDIO is a concept for supporting and offering more space to the independent art scene that has taken various forms in the cultural program of the Goethe-Institut Bulgaria throughout the years. In the period 2017–2019 Luftstudio was a physical space in the building of the Goethe-Institut, which was offered for free to local artists and collectives to use it as a space for events, rehearsals, workshops etc. Since then, it has been an idea uniting the institute’s various activities to offer space for artistic research and development and exchange between Bulgaria and Germany (such as the curatorial residency CLICK, the partner residency Rad.Ost etc.).

In 2021 the Goethe-Institut Bulgaria continues the program Luftstudio with an artist-in-residence and exchange program with Akademie Schloss Solitude, as part of Solitude’s Easter European Network. The first residents to spend three months each in Sofia and respectively in Stuttgart are Alicja Wisocka and Krasimira Butseva.

In 2022, the residency program LUFTSTUDIO will be carried out in cooperation with the TOPLOCENTRALA independent art centre, which opened in 2021, and will be aimed specifically at performing artists. Cairo-born dancer, choreographer and musician Mounir Saeed will spend three months at TOPLOCENTRALA.