RAD.OST (ÆTHER, RADAR SOFIA and SWIMMING POOL) in Bulgaria
In 2020, Akademie Schloss Solitude’s Eastern European Network Exchange Program has been extended with new partners from Bulgaria. The three small art initiatives from Sofia, Æther, Swimming Pool and Radar, along with the Akademie Schloss Solitude and the Goethe-Institut Sofia, have created these new connections to draw attention to the cultural and artistic production of Europe’s Eastern peripheries and for mutual exchange.
This partnership mix is aimed at a long-term exchange between the organizations and their residents. Each year an applicant and previous resident of Akademie Schloss Solitude will be accepted to a residency in Sofia, while a Bulgarian artist will have the opportunity to spend creative time in Stuttgart.
Together, the three Bulgarian art initiatives created the RAD.OST residency program as part of the Eastern European Network program.
»RAD.OST addresses the way we associate and how we position ourselves in the present. Hopefully, it will live to be a new instrument for dialogue and communication, as well as a base for reflection on a broader scale, but also a safe haven for the artists to recuperate, gather strengths and pluck up the courage to go back to action and creation.
We also very much appreciate the wisdom behind the need of a period spent in non-doing, non-producing, non-exposing or presenting, so our hearts are open to all kinds of project proposals from our future guests, including ongoing or already launched projects.
The residency period gives the opportunity to the selected candidate to profoundly immerse in life in Sofia, learn much about the political, social and art context of the country, work uninterruptedly, form potential future collaborations, and also present his/her work(s) or creative approach in a new environment. Each year, a different organization or a team of organizations curates the open call and the final presentation/performance/project of the selected applicant. In 2020 these are Æther and Radar Sofia, in 2021 it will be Swimming Pool.«ÆTHER, RADAR SOFIA and SWIMMING POOL
Cooperation fellows from Croatia at Solitude
Alexander Manuiloff (Jan 2020), Viktoria Draganova (Feb 2020), Voin de Voin (March–May 2020), Valentina Sciarra (Oct–Dec 2020)