Urban Guardian Angels – Water tower art fest 2008

is a street fest and a citizen initiative a vision of the urban young people together with the Municipality of Sofia – Lozenez

NGO IME is organizing a photo contest on the theme of Urban Guardian Angels for analogue black and white cameras, the results of the contest will be announced on the street fest ‘s perfromance in the night with actual life developing of the winning photo in front of a public with their active participation.

Cleaning of the Water tower and putting up a show with video installations inside it will be part of the street fest as well as a musical scene in the part of Sofia called Lozenez, by collaborating on with different social structures and the municipality of Sofia, we hope to liven up the city.
Everybody interested and being at the time 13th and 14th of September in Sofia is welcomed!

Participants:
Nia Pushkarova, Iana Tankovska, Borimir Ilokov- Bono, Askvenur, Yagama, Uga Buga – team, Nicola Zena
Music by:
Samodelia; Pavel Stoichev – Surbahar, Micromattic,
Dj Cinnamint, artmospheric.org

for more pictures here

4isto – гара Подуене

Кино на гара Подуене
Заповядайте да изчистим гарата на 30 Юни и 1ви Юли
и ежемесечната среща на Кино съпроведено от инсталации, прожекции и музика

с участието на:
artmospheric.org
Popara

С любезното съдействие на:
Община София
www.klinikakantchelov.net
Национална Компания “Железопътна инфрастуктура”

Water tower art fest 2006

Congratulations! citizen initative mission-possible
Thank’s to all that helped us and supported us in this endeavour!

We the members of IME would like to resist the ongoing apathy and disinterest towards imnprotant issues like:

- reckless atitude towards the enviorenment
- reckless atitude towards beautifull monuments of material culture
- reckless atitude towrads ourselves

so we would like to initiate different projects with the same aim – to clean and ennoble the spaces around us either in the cities such as neglected buldings, sites monuments of culture or different aspects of our exsisting everyday abiding!

Take care and keep an open ear and heart to our new projects including citizen inititive for the better.

Description of the project – Water Tower – spring June 2006
Under the Manucipalty of Sofia culture citizen initiatives , NGO -IME is presenting a social event with the aim of cleaning the areaaround the Water Tower. The event along with musical perfromance and avisual show will be happening end of June 2006 .

With the DJ session by:
“astro+prism” Newcastle, UK
(Nicola and Kelly Lumley) DJ/VJ/PRODUCER TEAM
www.astroandprism.co.uk & Pavel Stoychev(Surbahar):
www.ouim.net ; www.ouim.org ; www.voxxlab.org
DJ Kliment & DJ Dicki

Projections onto the Water Tower as a spectacle granted to localcitizens beneficiaries after the renovation/cleaning of the area.

Many thanks to:
IP Consult; Manucipality of Sofia ; Zagorka AD ; www.klinikakantchelov.net

Address:
Sofia, Lozenets, the corner of Galichitsa Str. and Sv. Tedosiy Tarnovski Str.

How to get there:
walking

The Water Tower was designed by an Austrian architect and built according to the French school’s pattern of water towers’ architecture in the 1920s. It stands out with its unique construction and is one of the most interesting architectural sites in the region of upper Lozenetz.
Its has quite a logical history behind its rising necessity – to play the important role in bringing water to the higher (at that time 2 and 3 floor) buildings in the region, situated at the level or higher to the main reservoir in Lozenetz, east of the seminary.
The architect had in mind that the building would also be used as a watch tower and the citizens of Sofia will take pleasure in watching the view of the city center and the Vitosha Mountain.
Wide stairs lead you to its third floor. There is an exit to a balcony where a wonderful 360 degrees view of the surrounding area reveals itself. The water reservoir is situated just above the third platform. Extremely narrow staircase is taking you up there, where another one leads you to the actual top of the tower.
Even though it hasn’t been used for decades in respect of its own purposes, the Water Tower is very often used nowadays as a site for cultural activities and communication. Although it’s abandoned and deserted, it’s still very beautiful. There have been artistic projects and events running annually for already more than four years, only thanks to the efforts of NGO IME in partnership with the Lozenetz Municipality.
The garden around the Water Tower is regularly cleaned and has turned into a meeting place for creative people and artistic initiatives presenting contemporary art and culture.

Address:
4 Gen. Yosif Gurko Str.

Address:
3 Ivan Vazov Str.

History in photos:
http://stara-sofia.com/zembanka.html

Rose oil:
http://www.omda.bg/engl/ethnography/rose_oil_production.htm

Address:
Village of Pancharevo, (Sofia-city District)

1 Day exclusive Performance venue at Pancharevo Lake in partnership with transformatori.net

Address:
Sofia, the corner of Ekzarh Yosif Str. and Maria Luisa Blvd. – entrance next to the Roca Showroom

How to get there:
metro: Serdika Metro Station, walking; trams # 20, 22 or 23.

Another space which we are going to use for our cultural mapping of the city during the fest is “the underground” with archeological remains from the wall of the ancient city of Serdika. We are going to be hosted by the north wall close to the corner tower of Serdika, remains of which could be seen on the corner of Ekzarh Yosif Str. and Maria Luisa Blvd. (the old Sofia shop). The basement hall of the corner building gives just a glimpse of what the massive wall must have been and how it was surrounding like a belt the ancient city of Serdika. It had defined the size of the city for centuries until its final demolition in the 15th century, after the Ottoman conquest.
It was built in 176-180 A.D. by the Roman emperors Mark Aurelius and Commodious. The wall had four main gates, facing the four directions of the world and mapping the main streets leading to the center of the city (a capital at that time). Actually the first wall was reconstructed a few times and a few more towers were built – sharp-pointed, five-cornered and triangle between them. All this had been done in order to protect Serdika and its citizens by the Goths’, West Goths’ and Huns’ attacks, robberies and predatory wars. The walls were 8–10 meters high, while the towers were more than 14 meters high.

Nia Pushkarova – Organizer
Polina Pankova – Coordinator
Denitsa Toneva – Design
Georgi Kambourov – Technical Coordinator
Neda Yonkova – Project assistant
Sofia Hussein – Assistant
Ivona Hristova – PR
Vessela Vencheva – PR
Rossyana Sotirova – PR
Gregor Schatz – Consultant
Lyubomira Kolcheva – Project assistant
Aleksandrina Ivanova – Translator