At the National Gallery, Sofia

Next Monday, we’re back in Bulgaria to see the exhibition from our project with the Emprove Foundation, working with survivors of domestic abuse on telling and sharing micro-stories. We intensively workshopped a series of stories with a group of fifteen talented women survivors, and artists have been commissioned to produce artworks inspired by the stories. These artworks are the subject of an exhibition that is currently running in The National Gallery of Bulgaria Kvadrat 500.

The initial stories were written in English and Bulgarian, and from these versions, we worked on editing English-language final drafts. These are being translated into Bulgarian by the brilliant poet, Nadezhda Radulova. In the next stage of the project, the Bulgarian/English versions will be printed on a beautiful set of cards that will be available to purchase as a boxed set, and that can also be used for training, and for raising awareness of the issue of domestic abuse in Bulgaria and beyond.

We’ll be back in Bulgaria for an event on the 13th July hosted by British Embassy, Sofia, to kick-start the fund-raising for the next stage of this project. There will be more stories to be told and shared, music, and a lot of fun.

The images here are Mother by Mila Tabakova, Forgiveness by Borislava Karadzhova, Without mud there is no lotus by Adriana Gersimova and A story that liberates by Antonia Mechkueva, as well as a couple of pictures from Emprove of the launch.

Awakening Between the Lines