Topic 2016

In 2016 Sofia Underground Performance Art Festival was realized in the period 19 – 24 April 2016.

Locations: The electro-control hall of NDK (the National Palace of Culture), SAMCA – “Sofia Arsenal” Museum for Contemporary Art,”Earth & Man” Museum, “The Red House” Center for Culture and Debate, Switch Bar.

The topic of the edition was “INNER CONFLICTS”.

 

 

“To be, or not to be…”
“No, thank you!” > < “Yes, I accept!”

Contradictions and double meanings emerge in every human’s life on a daily basis. Facing tough dilemmas and the necessity to make decisions, sometimes without consciously acknowledging their importance, our obligation is to make the right choices in order to continue our life on this planet. But people are still programmed to serve someone else’s means, so that they don’t even realize and automatically continue to make the wrong turn for decades, until it becomes a habit.

Art in itself and especially performance art is a discipline where people can easily investigate taboo questions, reconfigure personal and social boundaries, deconstruct prejudices, and criticize themselves and the status quo. For the 2016 showcase of border art forms and performance the two-words theme combines most of the previous topics of the festival. As usual, it aims to foster imagination, to investigate reasons and to provoke artistic reflections, but this time on the “inner self” and the sole human being as the main reason for an upcoming “new age”.

It’s time, when big part of the population is being in permanent state of apathy, which as a whole is turning into constant attempt to escape. Escape the fear of making the “wrong” choice, by just not making any choice. Escape the perspective of something new by sticking to the old-fashioned. Escape the burden of being responsible, escape the stress of action. Escape reality. Escape future. A deep dive into modern escapism. Even for the upcoming military conflicts, or the fall of the systems, the reason can be found not only in the social-political system and structure, but in all the “regular” people, that remain still and intact, when they must re-act.

To “Be the change you want to see” for most people is a permanent inner conflict. Because to make the “right” decisions, to take the “right” actions everyone must struggle with his own will. And sometimes that’s too much to bear. That’s why changes are hard to achieve. Because they will never come from the top of the pyramid. They have come from every single one of us individually. For, only by looking inside ourselves, we will find the reasons for our state of being. And by changing ourselves we can change the world for the better.