Context AiR Plovdiv – Microcosmos Presentation

22/09/2022

Daria Pugachova ‘s residency in Plovdiv continued in May and June 2022, with a public event on 17 June 2022. As an artist-in-residence of CONTEXT AiR 2022, she used the opportunity to dig further into her research of the Post-Soviet heritage comparing her experience in Bulgaria to what she knows from Ukraine. In relation to the above, the public engagement that she did was organized around the outdoor screening of her video work (combining documentary and video art) produced in 2021 and exploring the topic of Post-Soviet living in a small urban district of Poltava – a city in Ukraine. The citizens of Plovdiv were invited to a talk with the artist – before and after watching her work “Microcosmos” screened in front of the building of the former Cosmos Cinema on Gladstone str. in Plovdiv.

MICROCOSMOS (2021) is a 40 min film shot entirely in the backyard of a post-Soviet district in Poltava (Ukraine). The yard is seen as a model of the universe. Dressed as an astronaut, the artist collects the residents’ childhood memories and dreams and symbolically launches them into space in a stadium performance.

DARIA PUGACHOVA is an artist, performer, and art activist based in Kyiv, Ukraine. During 2013–2019 she played drums in the female trio Panivalkova. After musicians split up Daria dived into a field of contemporary art with her visual arts and performances. In her projects, Daria uses participatory practices to unite a community and integrate art into daily life. She works with performance, film, and artivism. Her artistic approach lies in the presence of the artist and direct interaction with the audience in a public space.

CONTEXT AiR is a creative residency program, which was initiated in 2021 by the Municipality of Plovdiv. It aims at creating new works, partnerships, and interventions in public space, inspired by the city and its eclectic mix of ancient history, socialist heritage, and modern reality. Since 2022 curator of the CONTEXT AiR is Svetlana Kuyumdzhieva.