history is always in the writing / 2021

photographic installation




























a site-specific project funded by the Sofia Municipality’s Calendar of Cultural Events; comissioned for the exhibition “Intimacy and Spectacle in the Age of Social Media” at the Largo of Sofia by the and Affairs and Documents Foundation, curated by Vessela Nozharova, Dessislava Dimova and Vera Mlechevska





The photographic installation History is Always In the Writing interprets fragments from the distant and recent past of the Largo underpass in Sofia, Bulgaria, by presenting the historical narratives that intertwine in this space. The work addresses Serdica - an ancient Roman settlement that existed between the 4th-5th centuries; as well as a commercial street, a part of modern 20th century Sofia that housed numerous businesses, cafes, restaurants, breweries and hotels, which were destroyed by bombings in World War II. 

The work addresses the changes brought by the coup d’etat, with the subsequent construction of Stalinist architecture that still tower over the city today - originally housing the Ministry of Electrification, the Ministry of Heavy Industry and the Party House. After the fall of the communist regime in 1989, they became the Presidency, the Council of Ministers and the National Assembly. This location is also filled by the history of civic protests occuring there in the last 32 years. Through archival photography from the State Archives Agency, Borislav Skochev’s personal archive, scans from Cosmos and Parallels magazines, the newspaper Fatherland Front, a 1963 tourist guide to Bulgaria, and the designs of official documents from the regime, along with 3D models, fabricated artifacts, and emoji symbols - I create a visual language that points to the dynamics and politics of such complex historical space.



Since history is constantly being rewritten from different perspectives - literary and military, from political positions and in relation to geographical spaces, the records of the past are never fixed or solid. The need to constantly revisit the past comes from the continual discovery of materials, documents, and artifacts. At times completely new to the gaze of historians, while others previously ignored, destroyed or censored. The opportunity to make sense of history also comes from new access to materials that were previously preserved in archives that were unavailable.

The hands that write the symbols of the past can produce heroes and villains, utopias and dystopias, rights and wrongs. But the rewriting can demystify, deconstruct, and dismantle power and regimes and form new spaces for repressed and silenced histories.