In Bela Rechka, Bulgaria

The New Culture Foundation is a cultural organisation based in Bela Rechka, north-western Bulgaria (Varshetz municipality). It is a non-governmental private organisation registered 2003 in Sofia (Bulgaria) and working as an interdisciplinary network of journalists, artists, writers, new media designers and volunteers.

The main goals of the foundation are: developing Bela Rechka and the North- western region through cultural activities; working with memory and offering a new space for multicultural dialogue on memory by meeting worlds that usually do not mix at all - artistic and new scientific approaches, new and old media, European and local traditions

We believe that:
Memory is a powerful tool for “healing” stereotypes
Everybody has the right of culture and the right to express it in their own way
Everybody is the creator of their own identity.

The Place
Our creative laboratory will be located in Gorna Bela Rechka, small village with 80 inhabitants and more than 100 goats and sheep in the part of the Balkan Mountain called Koznitza, near the old spa-town Varshetz in North-western Bulgaria. Since 2004 the village is hosting the GOATMILK memories festival – an international event initiated by the New Culture Foundation around 24th of May – the day of the local sabor (celebration).

The first open laboratory is part of the Goatmilk festival (23-25 May 2008) and the second in September 2008. Our local project is called THE BELL OF BELA RECHKA will try to discover the stories behind the stolen bell in the village (some 10 years ago), to map the soundscape of the place, to involve the local community in creative workshops (theatre, music, storytelling) in searching for the place of the stolen bell in their memory and finally – to produce a beautiful bell as a gift for the village. Stolen bells are everyday reality in Bulgaria today. Very often, Romas are accused as the one behind those acts. Why? Is that true in the case of Bela Rechka’s bell?

The project will involve also neighbouring Roma communities (in Dolna Bela Rechka and Varshetz) in the laboratories and try to produce a new type of dialogue.

Contact: Diana Ivanova or Marianna Assenova

Email: dianaiwanowa@yahoo.com or marianna@e80.eu
www.goatmilk-fest.org
www.novakultura.org