Slought Foundation: Field Reports (w. Viktoria Draganova/Swimming Pool)

"Field Reports," informal conversations on contemporary aesthetics and democracy during the pandemic. Today we will be speaking with curator Viktoria Draganova (Sofia, Bulgaria).

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/field-reports-tickets-125720694983

Slought is pleased to present "Field Reports," a series of conversations throughout November 2020 with contemporary artists, theorists, and curators whose work engages the politics and aesthetics of Central and Eastern Europe and elsewhere. Intended as a series of casual talks for local students and Slought's expanded network, these intimate, midday sessions will provide an informal platform for thinkers to share and discuss their practices, reflect on how their work has been impacted by the pandemic, what is transpiring in their communities and institutions; and how these factors intersect with democracy and democratic processes as they unfold throughout the broader Central and Eastern European region.

On the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of the Soviet Union, cultural actors and institutions throughout Central and Eastern Europe face myriad challenges, ranging from increasingly conservative governments and the politics of illiberalism, to a second pandemic wave that threatens to further destabilize the region's socio-economic and political infrastructure. As economic austerity and barriers to mobility are fraying progressive networks of people, cultural production, and institutions, many are attempting to forge new ties and devise new strategies of resilience.

Field Reports is presented as part of an ongoing Slought program, On the Other Side of Elsewhere, which aims to map, engage, and share knowledge across a broad international network of civic institutions in Central and Eastern Europe and beyond, and who are reinvigorating civil society and the promise of democracy. The project investigates the informal economies, networks of interdependence, and modes of survival developed among nonprofits and small-scale institutions whose missions directly engage artistic, political, and social engagement.

About Viktoria Draganova:

Founded in 2015 by curator and educator Viktoria Draganova, Swimming Pool is a non-profit exhibition space in Bulgaria focused on art, curatorial practice, education, and politics. The institution derives its name from its location atop a rooftop in central Sofia—a site that features an empty pool built in the 1930s—and which functions as a venue for public programming. Swimming Pool has presented exhibitions, performances, public programming, and an annual curatorial school in Sofia and elsewhere, while partnering with Art In General, New York; Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam; Staedelschule, Frankfurt; and Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart.