✺ 2025 Activities Report
SZ Foundation Grant Program
In 2022 the S-Z Foundation started an artist grant programme to support Bulgaria-linked artists with gap funding for their ongoing projects.
To date, the Foundation has already supported 54 individual projects through the Program. Among them many individual projects like the residency of the Ukrainian performance artist Daria Pugacheva in Plovdiv, Bulgaria; a residency with Bulgarian and German artists in a rural location, an exhibition of emerging Bulgarian artist Marta Djourina’s exhibition in Wolfsburg, Germany; a student project with the Art Academy of Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria; the immersive dance performance “The last Sunset” in Gabrovo, the performance by Bulgarian-Italian duo Voin de Voin and Valentina Sciarra at a collateral event during the Venice Biennale 2024.
In addition to individual projects, the S-Z Foundation has supported institutional programmes and regular events such as the international art show Sofia Art Week; the educational program “School4Artists” of the Institute of Contemporary Art: ICA-Sofia; “Open Art Files” – the comprehensive art documentation platform for Bulgarian Contemporary art.
In 2025 the Foundation supported the visual programme of the Cultural Space “Bobbina” in Sofia, which aims to empower young and emerging artists in visual arts, experimental music and performance by providing a supportive cultural space. Bobbina fosters interdisciplinary projects, collaboration and dialogue among different artistic micro-communities in Sofia and beyond.
Galleries Start-Up
Тhe Foundation has provided funding to two Sofia-based art galleries to facilitate the initial phase of their activities.
BUNA Contemporary Art Forum
Тhe Foundation has supported all three editions of the BUNA Contemporary Art Forum in Varna, Bulgaria – the largest contemporary visual arts forum in Bulgaria. The Singer-Zahariev Foundation has teamed up with BUNA as an effective platform for showcasing Balkan contemporary art within the context of a wider art event with large participation of international artists and art professionals and significant public participation. The 2025 edition of BUNA featured 125 artists from 25 countries. The forum included 48 events, public talks and presentations which attracted a total audience of 6300 visitors and over 600,000 social media visits.
✺ 2025
In 2025 the Foundation has supported 15 individual projects and institutional programmes. Among the highlights were:
AUTOMATIC Gallery: the first pay-by-card entry, open 24/7 gallery for contemporary digital art in Sofia (and worldwide?). AUTOMATIC Gallery is a new space dedicated to the presentation of digital art with automated access and operation. The organizer and curator of this extraordinary venture is the team of the DA LAB Foundation with over 20 years of experience in the field of electronic media and interactive audio-visual installations.
The exhibition “Care and Healing” – the final part of the trilogy curated by Galina Dimitrova (Fear and Love, 2023 and Shame and Guilt, 2024) that examines contemporary understandings and reflections on these primal human feelings and relationships. The exhibition featured works expressing aspects of care and healing relationships by six artists from different countries and cultural contexts: Bulgaria, Austria, Germany, Belgium, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Zhanina Marinova’s 2-year personal project INTERSTICE which focuses on the idea of the time and space between events in life and the gaps and cracks which are fulfilling our existence. 7 chapters have been exhibited between Vienna, Spain and Bulgaria. For the eight chapter – “Bedtime Stories” Zhanina was selected as a participant of the IATRUS residency program. Our Foundation was happy to support the one-month residency which found an impressive realisation in the solo exhibition at the Gallery Narrativa in Veliko Tarnovo.
“Look Who’s Grafting Now!” an international show of artworks and performances curate by Alessandro Vicentelli in the Toplocentrala Art Space, Sofia. Who’s Grafting Now! seeks to honour the multifaceted nature of graft, shedding light on hidden and precarious labour while asking critical questions about who does what.
“Balkan stories” a mixed media exhibition by Kyril Buhovski in Doza Gallery, Sofia, in November 2025 The show explores the themes of identity of young people torn between Western and Eastern European cultures. Using classical techniques and objects to express contemporary motives, the works pose questions about the interplay of pop, underground and high culture, creating a dialogue between the traditional and the contemporary, the local and the global.
✺ Publications
The Foundation continued its support for the multi-year project of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria on aspects of Meta-modernism culminating with a project publication planned for 2025.
✺ Other Activities
We were very honoured to be part of the selection jury for Visual Arts Open Call by the Toplocentrala Art Space, Sofia. In June 2025 the Foundation was invited to participate in the annual Process – Space art event and residency in the Black Sea town of Balchik.
✺ Balkan Contemporary Art Prize
The key highlight of the Foundation’s activities in 2025 was the launch of the Balkan Contemporary Art Prize (BCAP).
The Prize provides artists from the region with visibility and exposure to scrutiny and appreciation by a jury of top experts from the art world. It is accompanied by a programme of public talks, presentations involving the wider audience in the region. See more here.
First Edition Highlights
The first “Balkan Contemporary Art Prize” was awarded on 7 September 2025 within the framework of the international contemporary art forum BUNA in Varna, Bulgaria.
The inaugural Balkan Contemporary Art Award went to Rayna Teneva – a Vienna-based Bulgarian artist – for her emotional two-channel video “Mahlzeit”, presented in the pop-up space New Ventura in Varna.