2019, A Year of the Future… - "Galaxy Library": or Science Fiction in a time of Communism
"Galaxy Library": or Science Fiction in a time of Communism
When: May 24, 2019 at 4:30 pm
Where: exposition "Mexican Art", 11, Artin Gidikov Str.
The lecture is in Bulgarian with simultaneous English translation.
Free entry.
Register on the Cosmodrome page to ensure your seat. Places are limited.
Lecture and discussion with Ralitsa Konstantinova
"Galaxy Library" is the most widespread, most loved, and most popular paperback series in Bulgaria. It coincides with the last decade of the Communist regime and we are asking, what was the importance of space stories in the verge of a social and political transition?
Ralitsa Konstantinova, co-founder of Cosmodrome, a project for space history and culture in Bulgaria, and a curator of the exhibition "2019, A Year from the Future" has spent 3 years investigated the popular sci-fi books. In a brief lecture, she will present some of her findings and discuss the role of the future in our socialist past and its particular relationship with the communist ideology.
Exhibition 2019, A Year of the Future…(3 May - 3 June 2019)
The exhibition project is dedicated to the exploration of outer space, retro sci-fi and futurism in Bulgarian culture from the 1960s to the present.
The exhibition is divided in two sections: future from the present and future from the past. The historical section deals with the idea of a cosmic future in the context of the Cold War. A series of achievements of Bulgarian space studies will be presented – genuine spacesuits as well as the most significant outer space-dedicated art from the past. The contemporary section includes innovative and interactive works that interpret the stars and what's to come.
The show's focal point is the city as a symbol of modernity. In a special section dedicated to Plovdiv, a group of works engages with Plovdiv's dual identity – as a city born in the Antiquity and living in the modern era.
‘2019, A Year of the Future…’ includes lectures; meetings with astronauts and scientists; film screenings; and a handful of public space interferences, all of them connected with the symbols of a retro future in Plovdiv.
Programme:
03 May - 6:30 pm - Official opening of the exhibition. (in the exhibition "Mexican Art" at the City Art Gallery of Plovdiv).
03 May - 20:00 - Cocktail and preliminary opening of the modern section with a special demonstration of virtual reality in "The Time Machine" (The cocktail is with invitations, Hristo Dyukmedjzhiev 10, Kapana Creative District).
04 May - 6:30 pm - Opening of the modern section (Hristo Dyukmedjzhiev 10, Kapana Creative District).
10 May - 17:00 - 18:00 - Screening of "A Duty to Survive" - documentary about our first cosmonaut Georgi Ivanov, produced by journalist Martin Karbovski (Hristo Dyukmedjzhiev 10, Kapana Creative District).
18 May - 17:00 - 18:30 - "Technique and modernization of the home 1954 - 1990" - lecture and discussion with the collector and researcher of the Bulgarian technique Anton Orush, founder of the specialized site Sandacite.BG.
24 May - 16:30 - 19:00 - The Cosmic Culture and History of the Future in Bulgaria. Lecture and discussion with Ralitsa Konstantinova, project manager of KOSMODRUM and curator of the exhibition "2019, A year of the future ..."
25 May - 16:00 - 18:00 - "From the dark tourism in Chernobyl to the never completed Belene promise", an artist talk by Michaela Lakova
1 June - 14:30 -16:00 - Free screening of the Bulgarian film "Тhe 13th Bride of The Prince", fantastic, adventure film. (Hristo Dyukmedjzhiev 10, Kapana Creative District).
'2019, A Year of the Future' is an exhibition devoted to retro images, discourses and symbolism related to the processes of time and the inevitable "tomorrow". The exhibition is part of the KOSMODRUM study, which deals with space culture and history of the future in Bulgaria. In the title, '2019' is a reference to that period of the recent past, when the 21st century seemed distant but close enough to be reached.
The project is a Concept Inc Ltd production.
