Water Tower Art Fest — 20 Years of Independent Artistic Practice

Water Tower Art Fest began in 2006 with a simple act: cleaning the neglected space around an abandoned Water Tower in Sofia’s Lozenets district. What started as a small artist-led initiative gradually evolved into one of Bulgaria’s longest-running independent platforms for contemporary art, socially engaged practice, and cultural decentralization.

For twenty years, the festival has activated abandoned buildings, industrial sites, forgotten urban zones, and peripheral communities through exhibitions, performances, residencies, and public interventions involving over 600 artists from around the world. Working outside conventional institutional frameworks, Water Tower Art Fest has continuously explored the relationship between art, public space, memory, and social transformation.

Since 2016, the project has expanded into a decentralized residency platform across Bulgaria, bringing artistic processes to places often excluded from cultural circulation. This shift transformed the festival from a single-location event into a long-term network of exchange, empathy, and community engagement.

For the 20th anniversary edition of Water Tower Art Fest, we consciously chose not to work through an open call system. Instead, invitations were extended to artists, curators, collaborators, and long-term supporters from different countries with whom we have built relationships of trust, exchange, and shared sensitivity toward the ideas behind the festival over the years.

This decision is both an act of gratitude toward the people who have shaped the journey of Water Tower Art Fest and a statement about the importance of long-term human and artistic connections within an increasingly fragmented cultural environment.

Many of these encounters and collaborations emerged almost intuitively — through the recognition of a common ethical and artistic position that transcended geography, language, and institutional affiliation.

We would like to thank all artists, friends, communities, partners, volunteers, audiences, and supporters who believed in this journey throughout the years and helped transform fragile spaces into places of encounter, reflection, and possibility.

The 20th anniversary edition reflects on questions of freedom, moral integrity, and the fragility of independent artistic practice today. It is not only a retrospective, but a continuation — an archive of actions, relationships, and choices that insist art can still create meaningful connections between people, places, and realities.

At its core, Water Tower Art Fest remains driven by one belief:

that even a single act, carried out with conviction and care, can begin to transform the environment around us.

PROGRAMME — WTAF 2026

20 Years of Water Tower Art Fest

The 2026 anniversary edition of Water Tower Art Fest unfolds across multiple spaces in Sofia, bringing together international artists, performers, curators, musicians, and long-term collaborators whose practices resonate with the festival’s ongoing exploration of artistic freedom, socially engaged art, and alternative cultural environments.

The programme combines exhibitions, performances, video works, sound interventions, public discussions, and live events, activating both symbolic and contemporary cultural spaces throughout the city.

The programme is a living part of the city of Sofia and may change as June approaches. Additional presentations, performances, and events will be announced here

7 June, 18:30

Opening — One Gallery

Official opening of the 20th anniversary edition.

7–15 June

ONE GALLERY

Performances and installations with participation of Feministas Futuristicas and international artists including:

Gaby Bila-Guenther AKA Lady Gaby,
Anna Bacheva & Trendafila Trendafilova,
Laurent Faulon,
Charlotte Eta Mumm,

Corinne Fhima,
Darina Alster,
Juha van Ingen,
Lisa Hinterreithner,
Viviana Druga,
Simon Pfeiffer,

Sound by YvesO and Mr. Smiff

10 June 18:30 at One Gallery - Presentation: Revitalizing  Spaces Through Artist Residencies: Building Long-Term Connections Between Artists, Institutions, and Communities

By Mia Harris, Senior Producer: Residency Programs, V&A, UK

Varous pop-up events at WATER TOWER  11 – 17 June

11 June, 18:30- performance YvesO &Gaby Billa Gunther – AKA Lady Gaby at WATER TOWER

Video installation by Charlotte Eta Mumm

17 June 2026, 19:30h*

*Dream is Destiny* 
//Chapter two: Embodiment//

Performance and installation

Artists: Mia Momchilova & Milena Stanojevic

Concept: Milena Stanojevic

Performed by: Mia Momchilova, Milena Stanojevic, and a creative collective of artists and other eccentrics who collaborate in the field of performance art.

19 June

WATER TOWER

“Two Voices – One Tower”
Performance by Dessy Messy & Elma Moves
with additional performance by Rita Winde.

22 June

WATER TOWER

First exhibition inside the Water Tower in Lozenets featuring:

Johanna Herr,
Ana Vujic,

John McGarithy

Performances by:

Sandra Zanetti

Special screening programme:

“Crooked Cinema” alt-kino selection curated by Tom Kirk.

Music by Stoyo a fine selection of jazzdance, boogie, fusion, afro, caribbean and organic grooves.

23–30 June

FIGURA ART SPACE

Opening on 23 June 18:30 with works and interventions by:

Anthi Simeonidou THE GRASS IS ONLY GREENER ON THE OTHER SIDE Nikola Vulchev “Children’s Shirt” Carina Dobreva ‘Exhaustion’ Oli Gots “mono no aware / memories of beauty” Yiwen Zhang Unfixed Forms Chris Perl “Transformation Maps” Petja Ivanova Paprika Nails Longing Joanna Ivanova

VIDEO WORKS FIGURA Khadija Zammouli Cimetière Marin Driton Hajredini Sin Javier Fabregas Late Third World Chronicles (trilogy short films) Becca-Willow Moss Call Aqua Razvan Anton Pixelity #FFFF00 Heart of Palms Petar Denchev Bloodwork

26–30 June

SAMCA

opening 26 June, 18:30 

Installations by:

Jan Doms,
Mariusz Sołtysik,

Lars Asling

Performance by Haruka Tomatsu

More tba

25 June

TOPLOCENTRALA FORUM

“WTAF 20 FORUM: Safety, Moral Alignment, and the Fragility of Freedom”
Moderated by Rumena Kalcheva

“Funding for the Unfundable” with Desislava Pancheva and  Katerina Kyprioti Katerina Gourgioti from  Klug Greece, Mariko Hori

15:00–19:00
Gallery KUB — Toplocentrala

27 June

WATER TOWER — GRAND ANNIVERSARY OPENING/CLOSING EVENT

Concert 18:00 – Kliment (Zenon, Electrik Dream) – Live 19:30: – Big Bandа – concert 21:00 – Cinnamint (Artmospheric) – dj set 22:00 – Surbahar (Orphic Beats, Chill Om Rec) – Live 23:00 End

and performances and installations by:

Haruka Tomatsu,
Mariko Hori,
Qing Cai,
Christiane Peschek,
Lorraine Kordecki,
Tomasz Matuszak.

Delphine Reist,
Lars Asling,

Ola Kozioł

Aleksandra Chciuk,

*The exhibition in the Water tower will continue till 30th of june

And more to tbc

The project is realized with the financial support of Sofia Municipality — Cultural Calendar Programme, Pro Helvetia, Austrian Cultural Forum, Polish Institute Sofia and Sofia Mobility Programme.

@water_tower_art_fest

WTAF 20: Safety, Moral Alignment, and the Fragility of Freedom

The 20th Anniversary of Water Tower Art Fest (WTAF) is conceived as a moment of reflection, continuation, and ethical recalibration. It marks two decades of sustained artistic practice in spaces that exist outside dominant cultural, economic, and institutional frameworks — places often perceived as obsolete, risky, abandoned, or unstable.

Since its foundation in 2006, WTAF has functioned as a platform for free artistic expression precisely where freedom is least expected: in industrial ruins, disused infrastructure, peripheral urban zones, and rural contexts. These sites are not neutral backdrops but active agents — spaces suspended between “no longer” and “not yet”, between past function and uncertain future.

The Water Tower itself embodies this condition. It stands not only as architecture, but as metaphor: a structure exposed to shifting intentions, reinterpretations, claims, and narratives. Its fragility mirrors the fragility of artistic freedom within unstable moral and institutional climates.

The anniversary programme builds on this legacy by asking two intertwined questions:

What kind of artistic courage is still possible in an era governed by regulation, risk avoidance, and instrumentalisation?
And how do we remain aligned with our moral compass while navigating systems that subtly reward its misalignment?

An Invitation to Contribute to a Shared Future

(Closed Curatorial Call – Selected Artists & Alumni)

Sofia | June 2026 – ongoing

Water Tower Art Fest (WTAF) marks its 20th anniversary not as a celebration of endurance alone, but as a moment of collective reckoning and projection. This invitation is extended to a selected circle of artists, curators, and cultural practitioners—many of whom have shaped the festival over the years, and others whose practices resonate deeply with its ethos—to contribute intellectually and conceptually to this milestone.

This is not an open call, nor a request for finished artworks. It is an invitation to think with us, to write, reflect, speculate, and position yourselves alongside a community that has grown across decades, geographies, and contexts of instability.

Why This Invitation, Now

We are living through a time marked by accelerating political polarisation, ecological collapse, economic extraction, and the re-emergence of new empires built on fragile foundations: greed disguised as growth, nationalism masked as identity, hedonism sold as freedom, and power sustained through the erosion of empathy.

The systems that shape our present are increasingly incapable of imagining a livable future. Art, too, is under pressure—instrumentalised, neutralised, regulated, or absorbed into market logic. Independent spaces disappear, residencies are forced to justify themselves through productivity metrics, and artistic risk is reframed as institutional liability.

Yet it is precisely in such times that art must refuse immediacy, refuse compliance with the here-and-now, and insist on longer temporalities, deeper solidarities, and alternative value systems.

Water Tower Art Fest has always existed slightly out of time—working in abandoned infrastructures, peripheral geographies, and spaces between past function and future possibility. After 20 years, we recognise this position not as marginal, but as necessary.

A Community Across Time

Since 2006, WTAF has functioned as a living, evolving ecosystem rather than a fixed institution. Its community is not defined by nationality, discipline, or style, but by a shared commitment to:

• working with place as an active agent, not a backdrop
• engaging ethically with communities and local realities
• embracing uncertainty, vulnerability, and risk as artistic values
• resisting extractive, short-term cultural models
• and sustaining long-term relationships beyond single projects

This invitation acknowledges your role—past, present, or potential—within this ecosystem. It asks: what does it mean to belong to an artistic community over time, especially when the world around us grows increasingly fragmented?

What We Are Inviting You to Contribute

We invite you to contribute a textual or conceptual position that responds to the following shared horizon:

How can artistic communities imagine and work toward futures that are politically conscious, economically just, ecologically sustainable, and socially empathetic—beyond the dominant systems we currently inhabit?

Your contribution may take the form of:

• a short essay or manifesto
• a speculative or poetic text
• a critical reflection grounded in your practice
• a proposal for alternative social, ecological, or cultural strategies
• a collective or dialogical text developed with others
• a reflection on failure, exhaustion, refusal, or withdrawal as political acts

We are not seeking consensus. We are seeking clarity of position, generosity of thought, and the courage to articulate directions that may feel distant from the present moment—but necessary for survival.

Shared Values, Not Shared Answers

This invitation is grounded in a set of values that have shaped WTAF across two decades:

• Gift economy over extraction
• Shared resources over accumulation
• Care over competition
• Ecological interdependence over human exceptionalism
• Long-term cultural processes over short-term visibility

We recognise that these values are increasingly at odds with dominant political and economic narratives. That is precisely why we insist on them—not as ideology, but as practice.

Your contribution may affirm, challenge, complicate, or reframe these values. What matters is that it participates in a collective effort to articulate direction, rather than merely diagnose collapse.

From Forum to Archive to Future

Selected contributions will become part of:

• the WTAF 20th Anniversary Symposium & Forum (June 2026, Sofia), where texts and positions may be read, discussed, or activated through conversation;
• and the 20-Year Anniversary Publication, conceived not as a retrospective catalogue, but as a future-facing archive—a document of shared thinking in a time of profound uncertainty.

This publication will stand as a record of how an international artistic community chose to speak, imagine, and take responsibility at a historical turning point.

A Continuing Commitment

This invitation should be understood as part of an ongoing relationship, not a one-time gesture. Water Tower Art Fest remains committed to slow cultural work, long-term collaboration, and sustained dialogue across borders and differences.

By contributing, you are not endorsing a fixed programme or institution. You are participating in a collective attempt to remain human, imaginative, and responsible within systems that increasingly discourage all three.

In Closing

We believe that art still matters—not because it entertains, decorates, or distracts, but because it can hold complexity, nurture empathy, and imagine futures where other systems of living are possible.

After 20 years, Water Tower Art Fest continues to ask:

• What is worth sustaining?
• What must be transformed?
• And how do we do this together, without illusion—but also without surrender?

We invite you to think with us.

—

Water Tower Art Fest (WTAF)
20th Anniversary Programme
Association IME | Sofia
June 2026 – ongoing

We must not follow doctrines blindly or submit to false authority; we must lead by example and defend our principles.

Soon more info on places, people, art and things!

WTAR #6 ½
Veliko Tarnovo 1 – 10.09.2022

Water Tower Art Residence chose Veliko Tarnovo as the center of its efforts to decentralize the cultural environment in Bulgaria. For 10 days, artists from Bulgaria, Austria, China, the USA and France explored the potential of abandoned or neglected spaces, in search of the deep psychological aspects of oblivion, loneliness and the discouraging atmosphere that sometimes succeeds in depriving us of a vision of the future. In order to use these phenomena as a starting point, the participants of this event for the exchange of ideas and the sharing of artistic practices sought artistic solutions for a new look at modernity, for revealing the neglected potential of the urban environment, for a new connection and investment in a possible future without forgetfulness and sadness.

Before the 10 days of the event, Water tower Art Residence provided the artists with individual work with mentors working in different parts of the world and using the most diverse means of expression – performance, digital art, new technology or graffiti, painting and many others. The work included new social and artistic policies based on different expertise, connection between science and art, digital art, preservation of the symbiosis between man and nature, social inclusion on topics against discrimination and for more tolerance.

In this edition, Water Tower Art Residence has committed to a zero-carbon footprint. The artists together made a commitment to save energy during their ten-day stay in Veliko Tarnovo. The use of plastic packaging was minimized, waste was collected and disposed of separately, and all organic residues were composted. Each of the participants will leave in Bulgaria their artistic interpretation of reality and take with them the good examples and the memory of the unique Veliko Tarnovo.

The initiative is organized by the IME Association and is implemented with the financial support of the American Embassy of the USA in Sofia- Small grant scheme and the French Cultural Institute in Sofia. In partnership with VT events – TaM.

Thank you all for making this happen!

©Water tower art fest

PROGRAM

Water tower art residency 2018

 “Social Development Through Creative Practices”

Places and Events by date:

-13.06- Public presentation by guests mentors art directors from UK 16:00- 19:00 @The Fridge. With the Support form National Fund of Culture Bulgaria

- 14.06 – opening exhibition for works made for Arosita Gallery

- 15.06 – the artists of “Water tower Creative Residence” №2 and a team will appear as volunteers-hosts of the event “Suspended Lunch” in support of Solidarity Kitchen Sofia. Invited guests will prepay one lunch for themselves and one “suspended” – the collected funds and products will go to the Sunday lunch organized by Solidarity Kitchen on 17 June, as an initiative to support people in need, held every Sunday in the Solidarity Club at 51 George Washington Street – and part of the prepared “suspended” lunches will be given out on the same day, on the 15th. Partners of the initiative are Move.bg, the lunch taking place at their space on 20 Serdika Str.

- 15.06 – opening in the art space “Rakovski 167″

- 16.06 – opening in the former warehouse “Despred” on Veslets street with public performances and music program – closing of the creative residence

- 17.06 – 19.06 spaces open for visits

Grantees:

Валентина Шара (Италия) / Valentina Sciarra (Italy)

Ева-Лиса Пухака (Финландия) / Eeva Lisa Puhaka (Finland)

Participants:

Patrick Fenech (Malta)

Juan José Valencia (Spain)

Marta Wlusek (Poland)

Marc Shmitz (Germany)

Xiao Li (Japan)

Ruby Cedar (UK)

Corinne Fhima (France)

Gal Leshem(Israel)

Maia Iotzova (Bulgaria)

Darena Georgieva (Bulgaria)

***

The project was made possible with the kind support of: Nikolay Nedelchev, Gaudenz B Ruf Awards, Ministry of Culture

***

CONCEPT OF WATER TOWER ART RESIDENCY – BENEVOLENT EDITION 2018

In the face of rapid changes in environment and urban development as well as social and cultural scene we are also changing
What once we thought was valuable and real now has stepped out to a more serene look on matters connected with communication through the arts
Water tower art fest is no longer,
But a new platform for immediate communication through contemporary arts is rising
We invite you to do socially interactive actions, performances or exhibition addressing issues or tendency of general isolation in the cities, tolerance and well-being, as well as actions, which contribute in general way the communication between people– where elitism is peaking its head out suffocating real people-to-people communication. What we know is not what we see, what we get is not what we want. This is an artist run initiative and as we are starting to run it independently from institutions without any financial support, there is a participation fee for the organization.

OPEN CALL FOR WATER TOWER ART RESIDENCY – BENEVOLENT EDITION 2
Theme: Social Development Through Creative Practices

Deadline 15 April 2018
Period of residency 01.06. – 17.06.2018
Event opening dates: various at each place tba
What we offer is interaction in the city of Sofia in four or more venues with additional possibility for public spaces interaction based on application proposal
What we expect from the artistic proposals is:
> Leaving immediate social impact through practice
> Creative methods of achieving improvements for the specific site/space/social context/existing issue in the society
> Requires immersion in the local context, as well as bringing global practices
> Participants come together for period of 2 weeks,
> Incorporation of scheduled one-to-one meetings with residency advisors, workshops and public interaction throughout the stay, sites open to visit while works are developed
> Final 2-3 days – official results presentation to the public and partners with musical concert and performances at a destination in Sofia tba
Rules for applying;
Please send via email no later than 10.April 2018, 18:00pm to this email: watertowerartfest@gmail.com (if you are sending big file transfer please use wetransfer) the following:
• A resume of proposed project to do during the residency; it can be only an outline of possible activity, exhibit, performance, installation or action explained in a resume. Please mention possible media usage technical details and scale of proposed project, add visualization including photos or sketches if possible.
• A recent CV
• One Recommendation

What we offer:
Three scholarships available for WTAR2 based on proposed projects and decision of selection juries of 500 Euros each
For the rest of accepted residents there is a fee of 200 Euros to be paid prior to arrival- the fee covers:
- Accommodation, arranged by us in center of Sofia for the whole period covered. All artists are to cook or arrange their own meals. With the help of staff, we will be able to show you closest supermarkets and grocery stores, as well as restaurants close by.
- A guide in Sofia with help of staff upon arrival
- technical support and support sourcing out required materials for the respective works (artists are responsible for their materials for which we are ready to help find them or rent them)
*All artists are responsible for their transportation. A staff member will pick you up from airport.
**We will ask you to leave one artwork at the end of residency to the organizers, which will be subject of choice for a collector form Bulgaria.

During the residency, participants will be offered:
One-to-one meetings with guest workshop facilitators and residency advisors, as well as group meetings with local curators and other industry professionals
Curator’s walk and lunch with both national and international curators and collectors during the period of residency.
Integration with other galleries and arts programs, and a host of presentations, openings, performances and lectures.
Unrestricted access to venues to work on site
Technical support for installing the works
Catalogue and brochure issuing after end of residency + online edition on site
Interviews arranged in national media
Highlight of artworks on social media facebook (5000 followers) and site
Professional photo and video documentation high res of artworks and performances
A workshop or lecture organized by WTAR for artists to give to local art scene and students
General interaction with local art scene
Works development and installation will take place with “Open Doors” policy – members of the public as well as visiting residency advisors and other interested party are invited to come by and visit the process. This is an opportunity to maintain local contact and be strongly rooted within the local context of the program, making direct impact on the community/place where works are to be carried out/presented.
Selection Juries:
Nia Pushkarova – Director and Chief Curator of Water tower art fest/ residency
Rositsa Getsova – Artist and Gallerist owner of Arosita Gallery
Nikolay Nedelchev – Art Collector from Sofia

Places:
Arosita Gallery- exhibition place, http://www.arosita.info/
Labaratory of BG ROSE- social interaction place for performance action and exhibition (tbc)
Despred Hall – exhibition place- https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2gqDgNTx6J-LTNKRUwtem1kMkE
Public Mineral water basin area
Other public spaces around the city
*More photos will follow of sties soon
**The organizers remain their right to change/replace venues due to outside circumstances beyond their jurisdiction.

Contact:
Ngo IME, Nia Pushkarova – Director and Curator of WTAF
www.watertowerartfest.com
watertowerartfest@gmail.com
9 Bogatista street, Sofia 1421
Bulgaria
Skype: niapush

WTAR 2017 Documentary

Mariko Hori (Japan/Serbia) – Born in Hyogo, Japan, based in Belgrade, Serbia. Mainly installations, her work deals with alternatives space and uncovering site-specific perceptions through broadening or changing the focus in the details of daily life. When intentionally placing specific objects in spaces where they don’t usually belong, the selection of objects and the space in-between makes the atmosphere different and something unexplainable arises.

Marina Moskalenko (Ukraine) – Marina specializes in interactive installations, actions and visual arts (incl. Fine Arts, with Graphic Artist qualification); her WTAR project will be presented in Depot Poduene, details TBC – the concept of her project will be created and developed during the residency, with the site in mind, and is not available beforehand.

Johannes Gerard (Netherlands) – visual artist with almost 30 years of experience with projects in sculpture, installations, mixed media, photography and print; his WTAR project will be presented at the House of Culture “Iskur”, details TBC.

Pierre Tardiff (France/UK) – creative technologist and sound designer, with a degree in electronic engineering, Pierre has an exciting portfolio of work in London; his idea is to present a combination of music, science and artwork.

Anna-Maria Bogner (Austria) – her work focuses on the appropriation of space, space limitations and the spaces in between. WTAR project: installation from objects found on site, transforming the space in which they’re found; an exploration of our own and shared reality.

Haruka Tomatsu (Japan) – WTAR project: installation and interactive dance performance for Depot Poduene, exploring memories-objects relations; the dance technique used in this project is called Butho – originated in Japan in the 1950s, it’s a dance without preliminary choreography, created on the spot, depending on the space and context in which it is performed. 

Serena Chalker (Australia) – Serena’s practice draws from dance, audio/text, theatre, happening and intervention. WTAR project: series of intimate performance encounters / meetings with the audience, based at Depot Poduene, examining our relationship to change and transition, and how this influences our sense of connectedness to a place.

Ren Qian, Cai Qing, Shen Yun (China) – collective exhibition of projects (video, photography, installations), documenting a nearly 10-years long exploration of water (lakes, rivers, bays, etc.) and its place in humans’ traditions/history/practices around the world and in China.

Nia Pushkarova - PREDISPOSITION LIMITED BY CIRCUMSTANCES” – Performance and installation

Music Performers

Ponton (Serbia) - The Serbian Duo are Marko Jevtic and Igor Stangliczky. PonTon are soundscape storytellers since 2008 and have 5 albums behind their back – a collection of electro-acoustic improv, drone, post-rock, soundscape storytelling. 

White Flower (UK) - Seb Silas (soprano saxophone) and Sylvia Schmidt (vocals).
Formed as a response to the erratic and all-consuming city of London, White Flower offers its audiences an opportunity to step away from urban life, pay attention to intimate sound, and be drawn into dream-like sonorities. Through creating a focus on stillness & silence, but exploring uncomfortability & contradiction, a trance-like catharsis is offered for contemplation.

PRESENTATION OF RESULTS TO PUBLIC

21.07, 18:00-22:00, Council Cultural Institute House of Culture “Iskur”:  Cai Qing, Ren Qian, Shen Yun, Johannes Gerard, PonTon

22.07, 18:00-23:00, Depot Poduene: all other artists, White Flower