“Abecedarium Bulgaricus” - Bulgarian art installation in the EU Council building in Brussels

The interactive installation “Abecedarium Bulgaricus” will be exhibited in the atrium of the Justus Lipsius building - the headquarters of the Council of the European Union in Brussels, to mark the start of the first Bulgarian Council Presidency in January 2018. Tradition has it that the Member State who takes over the rotational presidency puts on display thematic art works in that space.

Venelin Shurelov, Ph.D, is the author of the Bulgarian project in collaboration with students and lecturers from the Digital Arts Masters Programme of the national Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia.

The installation comprises 30 boxes with a metal frame and semi-transparent shatter resistant Plexiglas walls. Each of them contains one laser cut letter of the alphabet. A sensor reacts when sitting on it and activates a speaker that produces the original sound of the letter. The rest of the time the letters get activated randomly. The boxes and the cables are arranged freely and provide a visual metaphor of the connections between the letters to make up words.

The other highlight of the project is the presentation of Vladimir Dimitrov - Maystora (the Maestro), with a 25 minute long film about the great Bulgarian artist created by Shurelov, Ph.D, in 2014 upon invitation of the 13 Centuries Bulgaria Fund. In addition, a series of films interpreting elements of the historical heritage with contemporary visual means will be shown in the waiting area of the Presidency on the 5th floor of the Justus Lipsius building. Each month the multichannel video installation will be presenting a different project.

In several other locations there will be presentations of a furniture collection by Bulgarian designers, a series of prints by students and lecturers from the National Academy of Fine Arts, 28 wooden figures, symbolically depicting the Union of 28 Member States, books, photo-albums, etc.