КО-ОП

It was with great shock and deep sadness that we learned of Andrew Anderson’s passing yesterday. Andrew was a uniquely gifted artist through his music, writing, as an active member of @belkasoundandform and as co-founder of @avrtikl.bookshop , and his absence will be felt across the entire scene. He leaves behind a lasting legacy, through which he will continue to live on. We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family, his bandmates, and all those close to him. The photos were taken by @mihail_novakov at the opening of the first edition of @fig.sofia in 2021, when @kake_band_official performed on the terrace of our gallery to the surprise of the diners at the neighboring restaurant.

In a landscape shaped by social media, political propaganda, and AI-generated visuals, graphic languages have become sites where belief is produced, circulated, and contested. But what if images don’t reflect reality – but actively construct it? This year, we dive into the theme: FABRICATED REALITIES: GRAPHICS AT THE EDGE OF BELIEF Curated by Ameli M. Klein @ilemanielk FIG. 6 asks: – How does an image gain the authority of truth? – When does fiction become political? – What happens when graphic expression begins to shape reality itself? Across the programme, artists and designers explore how credibility is constructed, and how it can be disrupted. From bureaucratic aesthetics to algorithmic visuals, from speculative systems to graphic storytelling, FABRICATED REALITIES examines the politics of seeing, believing, and imagining. Stay tuned for the launch of our full program, anytime soon. FIG. 6 Festival for Illustration & Graphics 5 – 14 June 2026 With the support of the Ministry of Culture @minculturebg Part of the Cultural Calendar of @sofia.municipality Visual identity: @rawlab.xyz #graphic #illustration #fig #festival

Reverberations - Online Event @frankbloem & @m.iliv in conversation with @vvvladimirovv February 16, Monday, 5:30 PM CET via Zoom (link in bio) Reverberations is the concluding event of the curatorial project Reverberations of the Unseen by Vasil Vladimirov, which has explored olfaction in contemporary art and its capacity to evoke memory, surface the unseen, and create more inclusive spaces of experience. Throughout the project, smell has been approached not as a secondary sensory element, but as a critical medium capable of generating embodied and affective forms of knowledge. In this final event, the curator will be in conversation with two artists who work with smell as a primary medium. Together, they will reflect on the possibilities and challenges of working with olfaction, discussing process, authorship, memory, and the ways scent can reshape how we encounter art and one another. The conversation brings the project to a close not as a conclusion, but as an opening, inviting continued reflection on how smell can expand the boundaries of artistic practice and shared experience. Frank Bloem is an artist who uses scent as his primary medium. Trained in Fine Arts at the Rietveld Academy, he transitioned from visual art to olfactory practice in 2014 and founded The Snifferoo, a laboratory for perfume commissions, education, and experimentation. His projects range from personalized fragrances to institutional commissions, including elephant scents for Artis (Amsterdam Zoo) and a North Sea perfume for the Embassy of the North Sea, and he manages the Aroma Lab at Mediamatic. In 2022, he published Geur. De vergeten sensatie, further establishing his role in contemporary olfactory art. Maria Ilieva (2001, BG/CA) is an artist currently based in Lisbon, whose practice connects memory and scent through drawing, text, and olfactory elements. Shaped by growing up between three countries, she explores remembering and forgetting as fragile, embodied processes. Alongside her studio practice, she has worked at Mediamatic’s Aroma Lab, where engaging with scent deepened her investigation of memory as an atmospheric, intimate, and often subconscious experience.

This Saturday, January 31, from 2 to 6 pm, we invite you to the pop-up exhibition and perfume launch of @veronikadesova at @sezonsofia The project is part of the curatorial framework Reverberations of the Unseen of @vvvladimirovv fruit/vegetable is a pop-up exhibition featuring the eponymous editioned scented work alongside a new video work by Veronika Desova. At its core, the project synthesises the smell of a traditional fruit and vegetable shop. Once familiar and taken for granted, this smell is slowly becoming a relic, erased by global political and economic forces that privilege large supermarket chains over small, local vendors. As food distribution is centralised and surplus redirected toward corporations able to offer lower prices through mass import, different labour standards, and looser regulatory frameworks, these neighbourhood shops, alongside their sensory ecosystems, are experiencing transformation. fruit/vegetable becomes a form of “scented archaeology,” preserving an endangered smell. The perfume itself is a luxury object designed to stimulate desire. This introduces a deliberate contradiction. By bottling the scent of an increasingly inaccessible everyday space, the work points to how such fruit and vegetable shops have themselves become a form of luxury. Rare within the contemporary city, and increasingly priced for a more affluent social strata. The accompanying video work shifts attention to the making of the perfume’s container. Evoking feelings that oscillate between attraction and repulsion, reflecting the perfume’s smell of freshness and decay. From this perspective, fruit/vegetable asks whether decay is not simply an end, but a necessary condition for renewal. Veronika Desova is a Bulgarian and Scottish architect, teacher and conceptual artist currently based between New York and Sofia, Bulgaria. She works with ready-made architectural fragments, industrial design techniques, photography, scent and performance art to explore the phenomenological and socio-political relationship between architecture and the body. The project is implemented with the financial support of the @nationalculturefund

Напомняме ви днес за лекцията на Златка Димитрова за живота, творчеството и наследството на Николай Рьорих. Лекцията е част от съпътстващата програма към изложбата „Облъчване“ на Антон Видокле. 22 януари 2026, четвъртък, 18:30-20:00 часа Двореца, пл. „Княз Александър І“ № 1, София Достъп с билет за музея: в четвъртък – 3 лв. / 1.53 € Лекцията ще се проведе на български език Проектът е финансиран чрез НПВУ по процедура BG-RRP-11.020 - „Създаване на български продукции и копродукции в сектора на КТИ и промотирането им на европейските и международни пазари за изкуства“

Trang Ha & Michał Betta ✻ sorry, we tried our best to make it work, but it is impossible to find you the smell of happiness ✻ Workshop Workshop days: January 25, 26, 27 / 11:00 – 14:00 (Each workshop session is limited to a maximum of 4 participants, so sign up is required via the link in bio) Public presentation: January 28 sorry, we tried our best to make it work, but it is impossible to find you the smell of happiness. is a participatory workshop by Trang Ha and Michał Betta that explores whether abstract emotional states—such as happiness, grief, fear, or success—can be accessed and re-created through smell. While scent is often connected to concrete objects, this project asks what happens when the source is something intangible: a memory, a feeling, a fleeting inner state. Working as facilitators and attentive listeners, the artists act as channels for other people’s memories. Through conversations, guided mental exercises, sketching, and sensory experimentation, participants are invited to recall personal mnemonic moments related to happiness and to collectively explore how these experiences might take olfactory form. The project unfolds over three casual workshop days in Sofia, developed from earlier sessions in The Hague. Participants sign up for one day and take part in a collective process of reflection, translation, and experimentation. A public presentation forms another stage of this project, testing what happens when these complex emotional states are synthesised, temporarily contained, and transferred through different bodies, imaginations, and emotional registers. The working language is English. Graphic design: @sheitan666_ The project is implemented with the financial support of the @nationalculturefund

Нефилософкса дискусия за космизма Локация: Софийски университет, Ректорат, Нова конферентна зала 2ет. Северно крило Дата и час: 20.01.2026, 18:00 ч. Нефилософска дискусия за космизма във Философския факултет на Софийския университет събира Миглена Николчина, Станимир Панайотов, Филип Стоилов и Христо Калоянов около изложбата Облъчване на Антон Видокле, която изследва основните идеи на космизма и неговото влияние и ехо в множество аспекти на наука, философия, култура и изкуство. Космизмът възниква в Русия в средата на XIX век като хетерогенно течение, обединяващо наука, философия, изкуство и утопично мислене. Разбирайки смъртта като исторически и етичен проблем, а не като природна даденост, той мисли безсмъртието като проект на радикална равнопоставеност и грижа, разширен отвъд човешкото. В този хоризонт изложбата Облъчване поставя въпроси за ролята на изкуството като технология на памет и възкресение, за границите на антропоцентричното мислене и за възможността да си представим бъдеще отвъд смъртта, идеологията и човешката изключителност. Модератори на дискусията: Димитър Божков и Мартина Йорданова, с участието на Васил Владимиров. Изложбата Облъчване се организира от арт пространство КО-ОП и е представена в Националната галерия до 25 януари 2026 г. Куратори на изложбата са Мартина Йорданова и Васил Владимиров. Проектът е финансиран по процедура № BG-RRP-11.020 „Създаване на български продукции и копродукции в сектора на КТИ и промотирането им на европейските и международни пазари за изкуства“ със средства на Европейския съюз – Следващо поколение ЕС, чрез Плана за възстановяване и устойчивост.

Luana Lojić ✻ Scent Sores ✻ Workshop 23.01.2026 14:00 – 18:00 Participants are limited to 10 so early sign up via the link in bio is recommended Scent Sores is a workshop that invites participants to explore the city through smell. It focuses on olfactive heritage—the everyday scents that shape our experience of a place but often go unnoticed. Words like rust, wet, grass, smog, dust, rot, or rose can describe objects, actions, feelings, and smells at the same time. The workshop encourages participants to slow down and use their sense of smell to perceive, imagine, and dream. The workshop is based on the idea that our bodies are deeply influenced by the environments we move through. Streets, bars, shops, plants, waste, and weather all leave traces on us. These traces can be found in cracked sidewalks, smoky rooms, torn paper, crushed flower petals, damp streets, or piles of discarded objects. Together, we will explore these everyday spaces and collect small materials, fragments, and scents from the city. Using a simple historical technique called enfleurage, participants will preserve these found smells in odorless oil. The workshop combines a short introductory talk with a guided walk, sensing exercises, and creative writing. Through storytelling and shared reflection, participants will explore how smells connect memory, place, and emotion, and how the ordinary scents around us can become a way of understanding the city differently. The working language is English. All materials provided by organisers. Graphic design: @sheitan666_ Photo credit: Šimun Bućan The projected is implemented with the financial support of the @nationalculturefund

НИКОЛАЙ РЬОРИХ Лекция на Златка Димитрова, уредник в Националната галерия В съпътстващата програма към изложбата „Облъчване“ на Антон Видокле 22 януари 2026, четвъртък, 18:30-20:00 часа Двореца, пл. „Княз Александър І“ № 1, София Николай Рьорих (1874–1947) е познат на широката публика преди всичко като художник и мистик. Националната галерия съхранява една от най-значимите колекции от негови произведения – около 250 творби, дарени на българската държава в края на 1970-те от неговия син Светослав Рьорих. Те са основно от периода, в който художникът, след десетилетия изследователски пътешествия, постепенно превръща Хималаите в свой духовен и творчески дом. Рьорих е известен още и като писател, археолог, учен, обществен деец, философ и просветител. Неговият житейски и творчески път неведнъж се пресича с този на български художници, чиито произведения днес също са част от колекцията на Националната галерия. Прякото или косвено влиянието на Рьорих върху българската художествена сцена се разгръща в продължение на десетилетия и оставя трайни следи в културния обмен между България и други страни. По-малко познат, но изключително значим аспект от дейността на Николай Рьорих е свързан с опазването на културното наследство. Той е инициатор на Pax Cultura – Договора за опазване на художествените и научни учреждения и историческите паметници (Treaty on the Protection of Artistic and Scientific Institutions and Historic Monuments), известен още като Пакт „Рьорих“. Документът е подписан от представители на държавите – членки на Панамериканския съюз на 15 април 1935 г., в кабинета на президента на САЩ Франклин Д. Рузвелт във Вашингтон. С договора се въвежда принципът културните институции и паметници, над които се издига Знамето на мира – музеи, университети, архитектурни и исторически обекти – да бъдат признавани за международно неутрална територия. Така за първи път защитата на културното наследство е формулирана като универсална ценност, валидна както във време на война, така и в мирно време. Достъп с билет за музея: в четвъртък – 3 лв. / 1.53 € Лекцията ще се проведе на български език #nationalgallerybg

We are pleased to announce Reverberations of the Unseen, a curatorial project by @vvvladimirovv The project explores smell as a medium in contemporary art and as a way to access memory, affect, and experiences that remain unseen or unspoken. Challenging the visual dominance of art institutions, the project foregrounds olfaction’s ability to bypass language and images, creating embodied and inclusive forms of knowledge. Rather than presenting smell within a fixed exhibition format, the project unfolds through ephemeral, pop-up activations that mirror the fleeting, unpredictable nature of scent itself. Programme of events: 23.01.2026 Luana Lojić @kora.korova ✻ Scent Sores ✻ Workshop Sign up link via the link in bio 25.01 – 27.01.2026 followed by a public presentation on 28.01.2026 Trang Ha @terrafic.soup & Michał Betta @mbet.ta ✻ sorry, we tried our best to make it work, but it is impossible to find you the smell of happiness ✻ Workshop Sign up link via the link in bio 30.01 – 31.01.2026 Veronika Desova @veronikadesova ✻ fruit/vegetable ✻ Pop-up exhibition and perfume launch 31.01 Maria Ilieva @m.iliv In conversation with Vasil Vladimirov Online event Further information about each event to follow Sign up to the workshops via the link in bio Participation is limited and free of charge Graphic design: @sheitan666_ The projected is implemented with the financial support of the @nationalculturefund

🎓 Образователни програми на Националната галерия СЪВРЕМЕННО ИЗКУСТВО ЗА ДЕЦА Ателие за деца от 7 до 14 години Знаете ли какво е космизъм? Чували ли сте за мита за Гилгамеш? Поканихме малките любители на съвременното изкуство в изложбата „Облъчване” на Антон Видокле. В нея видяхме шест филма на автора и специална инсталация от двадесет и четири пейзажа от Хималаите на мистичния художник Николай Рьорих. Ателието завърши с творческа задача, в която Космосът беше главен герой. 📸: Михаил Новаков @mihail_novakov #nationalgallerybg

🎓 Образователни програми на Националната галерия СЪВРЕМЕННО ИЗКУСТВО ЗА ДЕЦА Ателие за деца от 7 до 14 години Знаете ли какво е космизъм? Чували ли сте за мита за Гилгамеш? Каним малките любители на съвременното изкуство в изложбата „Облъчване” на Антон Видокле. В нея ще видим шест филма на автора и специална инсталация от двадесет и четири пейзажа от Хималаите на мистичния художник Николай Рьорих. Ателието ще завърши с творческа задача, в която Космосът ще бъде главен герой. 🏛️ Място на провеждане: Национална галерия / Двореца, пл. „Княз Александър I“ 1 🗓️Дата и час на провеждане: 6 декември (събота), от 12:00 до 13:30 часа Достъп: 6 лв. ✍️С предварително записване на: 0884 347 371, 0879 147 679 или на e-mail: [email protected] #nationalgallerybg