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 Art Affairs and Documents Foundation, curated by Vessela Nozharova, Dessislava Dimova and Vera Mlechevska





History is always in the writing, Largo underpass, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2021 
 History is Always In the Writing explores the layered past of the Largo underpass in Sofia, Bulgaria, tracing fragments from antiquity to the present. The site carries the remains of Serdica, the ancient Roman settlement active between the 4th and 5th centuries. The area became the main commercial street in early-20th-century Sofia - with businesses, cafés, restaurants, and hotels, later destroyed as of the construction of monumental socialist architecture housing the Ministry of Electrification, the Ministry of Heavy Industry, and the Party House. Thus, turning this square into a space of political ruptures - with decades of civic protests taking place there since 1989.

Working with archival photographs from the State Archives Agency and Borislav Skochev’s personal collection, scans from Cosmos and Parallels magazines, a 1963 tourist guide to Bulgaria, and designs of official documents from the socialist regime, alongside 3D models, fabricated
artifacts, and emojis,  a visual language is constructed aiming to map the dynamics and politics embedded in this complex historical space.


Detail from Panel 1, History is always in the writing, Largo underpass, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2021 
Panel 1, History is always in the writing, Largo underpass, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2021 








Moving image documentation of History is always in the writing, Largo underpass, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2021 






Panel 2, History is always in the writing, Largo underpass, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2021 




Artefacts part of Panel 2, 2021






Artefacts in Panel 2 being installed, 2021




Panel 3, History is always in the writing, Largo underpass, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2021