May 2008

The Goatmilk Festival took place in Bela Rechka in May, with partners participating in the workshops and activities. A big topic for this year’s festival was the forthcoming restoration of the village bell (due to be installed in September…).

This was the fifth Goatmilk festival. This is how the organisers describe the event: ” It is, most of all, a meeting place… And an event that tries to put the questions about personal memories and collective memory (a ”high voltage” question in our society) in a new perspective and environment - offering at one hand the relaxed ambiance of one authentic Bulgarian Balkan village like Bela Rechka with its hospitality, goat milk and walnut trees and, on the other hand, innovative and new approaches from the European debates and art world in the field of memories, identity and new culture.”

We counted 15 different nationalities attending the workshops and events along with the local residents. Here is the programme for the festival and a gallery of images.

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23.05.08
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11-16.00
Wonders of Bela Rechka - workshop with guests and kids –
Brendan Jackson and Paulina Paga, Laundry (Birmingham, UK)

13-15.00
Belly dancing workshop –Adem Murat (Turkey)

17.00

Exhibition PLACES AND SOUNDS WE LIVE WITH – photos of children from Zanozhene, workshop done by Maria Dzelebova.
Stories with bells – reading the best stories from the contest of New Culture foundation (presented by Nikolaj Bojkov, writer and Manol Peykov, publisher)

18.00
360 degrees Bulgaria – memories from above, Alexander Ivanov is photographing Bulgaria from the sky (presented by Radmila Mladenova)

19.00
Turlak songs – traditional songs from North-western Bulgaria
Group from Montana language school

20.30
Film screening: Alphabet of hope by Stefan Komandarev (Bulgaria)
Conversation with the author

22.00
Jazz with Mirsolava Katzarova

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24.05.08
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11-13.00
Wonders of Bela Rechka - workshop with guests and kids –
Brendan Jackson and Paulina Paga, Laundry (Birmingham, UK)

11-13.00
Belly dancing workshop –Adem Murat (Turkey)

A New Bulgarian Souvenir - Bulgaria – workshop with Sariev gallery – Plovdiv and New Culture Foundation. What is your favourite souvenir? Do you want to make a souvenir of Bela Rechka? Come and work with local materials and excellent tutors (V.Sarieva, Zv.Alexieva, G.Ivanova)

12.00
Why we need to forget? – psychoanalytical view on memory, presented by Elysabeth Vykoukal, group psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud University, Vienna

14.00
Brass orchestra, Varshetz

17.00
„Romeo and Juliet” by W.Shakespeare – theater in the mani hall + A feeling about a bell – theater journey to the place of the stolen bell. Valerija Valcheva& Marij Rossen

20.00
Film screening (big hall). Bells from the Deep –Werner Herzog (Germany)

20.00
Bells (of Bela Rechka) – sound installation
Raycho Stanev (around the Rakia house)

Concert
21.00 - Dulce Canto – group for Jewish music (Sofia)
22.30 - SALAMURA – Turkish songs (Gemnik, Turkey)
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25.05.08
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11-16.00
Wonders of Bela rechka - workshop with guests and kids –
Brendan Jackson and Paulina Paga Laundry( Birmingham, UK)

A new Bulgarian souvenier - Bulgaria – workshop with Sariev gallery – Plovdiv and New Culture Foundation

11-13.00
Belly dancing workshop – Adem Murat (Turkey)

11.00
Bells (of Bela Rechka) – sound installation. Raycho Stanev (around the Rakia house)

15.00
The Glass bead game of Hermann Hesse - open talk and reading seminar on the meaning of the game and the book - Krzysztof Czyzewski/Poland

17.00
The rakia house – open talk on the future: presenting people that have done the renovation, stories about rakia producing Boris Velkov, Herbert Heuss, Mariana Assenova

19.00
Memories in loss – Babak Salari (Canada/Iran)
Born in Iran, emigrant in Canada, Babak’s main area of photographic interest is in chronicling the lives of those living at the margins of society. In Bela Rechka presents his work in Afghanistan and Iraq.

20.00
Screenings – the best of GOATMILK – presents Stanislav Miler(Czech Republic)

21.00
Concert in the open Mamapapa&friends
(Prague/Bratislava/Berlin) – music from Central Europe

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OFF-FESTIVAL
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15,16 &17 May
Тhe sound of memory - Sensory Labyrinth Theatre

16-18 May
Photography workshop with kids from Zanozhene –
Maria Dzelebova, Plovdiv

11- 24 May
Volunteers from Bulgaria, The Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany work on restoring the Rakia-house in Bela Rechka
People in dialogue