The freedom to create, the freedom to share, the freedom to develop
Vesela Kazakova, actress Open Projects Foundation
I've been always dreaming
about a place
a place, where
people could open themselves up, just go off the hook...
and fly... have the opportunity to share their ideas
without caring about being accepted or rejected
Antony Raijekov, director and composer Open Projects Foundation
We do not want to create something and tell people - This is what you need
But we want to ask people
I believe it is better to start off openly, with a dialogue
so that we could create a centre that could gather everybody
because everybody will build into it something they want to achieve
...or something they dream about.
Open Projects Foundation presents its dream about
C3 - Free Culture Centre
Yovko Lambrev, IT expert and Photographer Open Projects Foundation
Actually, first, we thought of C3 as a house
We even used to call it: C3 - The House
the idea behind this was to bring together under one roof different “laboratories”
different rooms that would be filled with meaning - and with art
something like one room for photography, one room for video editing
one room for an audio recording studio
to which artist would have free access under the sole condition
that the product they create there should be left free.
So we are talking not just of a exhibition space, but more of “art laboratories"
Martin Mikush, Architect
Sometimes I see it, this centre,
it usually happens within these few seconds…
...the moment before you wake up and after slumber has already left you.
I’d want to, when someday a little person around 20
comes with an idea, somebody to tell him: “What is it you’re thinking?”
and he will have the opportunity to tell everything.
Diana Dobreva, Actress and Director
There is none. And there must be!
It has to be created.
And this will be a really powerful place, I am sure of this.
Martin Razhdashki, Actor
Bulgaria lacks this initial phase of catalyzing the creator.
It turned out that this idea has been growing in the heads of many people,
both from our generation and the one a bit older.
Because along with the institutions where art can be born,
there must be also open places that would allow things to happen spontaneously.
I saw a really nice installation,
which was nothing but black space and a tablet,
and anybody could draw in that space – it’s three-dimensional.
You can just change the colour and draw something.
Nobody can, however, erase anything.
A space without boundaries, i. e. its boundaries depends on
where you can draw it to…
or… up to where you can dream it.
Rossen Antonovsky VOXX Audio Lab
VOXX was created in 2004 and it is where we came up with the idea
to have some kind of space, which would be physical space,
not just Internet-space,
where every young author related to computer-generated music
will be able to create and give birth to his art
without depending on the musical industry.
And there was actually great interest on the part of our target group,
which is young people with talents in computer music and sound editing.
An incredible number of young people came, people from the forums,
mainly from the Internet, because it’s the Internet
where VOXX and other similar organizations and projects started from.
Heliana Velinova “Stretching Spaces” Net Label
The people from our community, people we got to know around the label
need to promote somehow what they’re doing.
And we made two contests. The first contest is „REMIX”
And it suddenly appeared that there is enormous interest in this. Enormous.
An awful lot of people submitted their music
For less than a month – 150 tracks, remixes of the relevant track, “The Tunnel”,
were published on the website.
And this convinced us, that Bulgaria has a community
that longs to express itself,
that has a need to create, a need to expose.
Kiril Yanev “Balkandji”
We created the band itself while trying to remake
folklore songs.
At some point we found out we were not that bad at doing it, and we substituted
the folklore songs, all of which are under a Creative Commons license...
We substituted them for our own ideas, which are alike folklore in motive,
in meter, also the texts and the music.
And something very interesting emerged. We called it "Balkandji".
From the very beginning we were wondering with Nikolay Barovsky
whether it would be possible in a perfect world to throw the ideas
we have; some of them we would develop ourselves, but as we
didn’t have enough time even them, we were talking of giving
to somebody else to develop. It’s been our dream for quite a while
in some way to involve more people into the development of this idea.
Tzanko Vassilev “Student Film Forum” Foundation
We are teaching cinema. Our film forum was born out of great necessity.
There must be a tribune where you can show your movies,
a place where you can compare your art and this of colleagues,
you have to see what your colleagues do. When I was studying movie directing
I had no idea about what's going on in other universities.
There was no place where you could meet people and see who is studying what
and what others have created. First we decided to organize
a film festival and show that we were capable of doing such a thing.
We set up a small editing studio, which is open for use by everybody
or almost everybody. You must have a project
and you must have motivation to implement it,
you have to convince me that’s something you need.
We are trying to talk about free art... or art in general
in its initial form, where business and money are not important.
The idea or free culture in some sense places the idea before the author.
It places the idea in such an environment where it could be freely developed...
...talking of freedom, which in my view is a crucial value of art...
In my view, there is no art without freedom.
The sole name of this thing is so strong and somehow imperative.
It sounds as a breath of fresh air for art in Bulgaria.
Because a free culture centre is really something that this country
desperately needs, and especially the young creators, which in my view
are the future of art.
An artist must be seen by as many people as possible,
and not only be seen, but be heard, etc.
Peyo Popov, Jurist Open Projects Foundation
C3 is a free culture centre. C3 is divided into labs -
a photo-lab, a mobile audio-lab, a modular stage, which can serve
along with theater performances, other new and boundary forms
such as physical theater and other scenic and performance forms.
There is a video lab. There is a movie hall with 33 places.
The scene will be just an empty space, where in different modules
each time different scenography could be created.
One of the “rooms” which I have defined and which I plan to bring to life
is a project called Simple Studio.
With a couple of other photographers we have the ambition to create a photo-studio
with all of its equipment freely accessible
for all young photographers that would like to express themselves there.
We would offer the complete equipment of the studio
as well as our own time with it to be at the service of young talents
which would shoot there, work with models and etc.
And in the end we will provide for some kind of exhibition
or their pictures can participate in different contest or come out
in magazines that we have contacts with, and so on.
The young people in Bulgaria, the young artists have no place where to create.
And this is a fact.
Theaters in Bulgaria and especially in Sofia, are working with the same people
for many years, It’s very difficult to break the system
and to enter a theatre, to create a performance,
a performance of a new kind – modern theatre,
and I don’t mean alternative theater, what I mean is modern theatre,
which is a significant factor in Europe,
while in Bulgaria it somehow doesn’t exist yet, and this is exactly due to the fact that
theaters are still slaves of a very archaic system,
which doesn’t allow young directors.
Zornitsa Sofia, Director
In developed countries, i.e. not the so-called “developed countries”
but in countries more developed from a social, civil point of view,
abandoned spaces are given out without being leased or sold
to painters, artists, to people that would turn them into
cultural centres or even studios.
I’ve seen this in Amsterdam, in Germany...
…in Slovenia.
Is it better to have an abandoned building on a main communication artery
or not on a main one in the city instead of a functioning centre?
Even though the municipality won’t make any money out of it or won't sell it,
or get enriched, but the city becomes more beautiful
and society becomes richer, because artists and organisations
that wouldn’t have been able to afford this
are allowed to speak out.
Dessy Gavrilova, Director of “Red House” Centre for Culture and Debate
I suppose it would be both difficult and easy. Let’s start with the hard part.
I think it will be difficult, because what you do is
an attempt to impose an understanding of culture
which is very different from the understanding with which
work the institutions to which you will eventually turn for support.
But on the other hand I hope it will be easy, because I think that your idea is
a captivating one and I hope there will be a lot of people who will join you
in one way or another and help you with what they can, every single one of them.
Biliana Tomova, Association of Culture Managers
I think there are two main questions, the first one being “Why is there a need
for such a centre?”. For me this is not a question – I have the answers,
But when you present your thesis this becomes a public issue.
And the second question is “Where would the money come from?”
Because the answer to the first is, I think, clear a priori.
But I will still focus on it. So – why?
Firstly because a new generation is entering the cultural sphere.
They are very different – and they are artists of high quality
and with a new impulse -
as they have lived through more than those before them.
In the past 10-15 years things have changed dynamically in our society.
And we are expecting from them to express this in some way
in what they feel, in what they want to create.
But they don't have where to expose their artworks.
And a lot of people who graduate
from the theatre academy,
or in photography, or designers
carry ideas which have to wait for years before being implemented.
Such a "free space" would give this opportunity
in the most efficient way.
Naum Shopov, Actor
This is something that could create
conditions for continuity.
Something that...
even by being itself static
will create motion.
Yavor Gardev, Director
Sofia is that kind of a city which, unlike cities that are dynamic
is both dynamic and neurotic,
it gets on your nerves.
There are big cities with a fast rhythm, which still remain relaxed,
they don’t depress you.
Sofia, on the other hand, is now in such a phase that it is depressing.
And it would be good for this culture centre
to be also a place for that kind of relaxation,
for release from this hysteria.
It is absolutely necessary, in my view, that such a place is created.
I would call it an aggressive place,
a place where young people would fight
and impose their new ideas
and new explorations
which we don't have nowadays in Bulgarian theatre.
And even if we have them, that's just like
an occasional separate spark,
it's not carried on like
which would be created as a free culture centre
its policy will be exactly to
build the way for new art,
for new theatre,
new cinema
for new people.
It is possible that such a centre could also spring out somewhere else
in Bulgaria or around the world. We sincerely hope that
with C3 we could provoke
lots of our partners abroad
to start similar projects, either with us or autonomously.
There is nothing impossible!
It's just that the system somehow
establishes rules
to be followed.
But what an artist needs is freedom.
He needs to launch out
without having to take into
purely conventional,
imposed frames.
Free culture has no
aesthetic boundaries,
has no...
aesthetic limitations.
But it has ethical norms.
Such place would be
very communicative.
pulling together...
A place for people who...
crave for "giving birth" to their ideas.
The different labs can provoke the birth
and expression of contemporary forms of art. To develop,
as well as provoke educating.
Formalities would go away.
This is exactly what is so beautiful about this centre.
It will nurture a communicative, creative environment
which challenges you constantly, snowballing, a creative impulse.
It's just that many people really want to show their art somewhere, to somebody.
They are exactly this kind of non-commercial artists
who make art for the sake of art.
If we do not keep record of the process,
if we don't have free and easy access
to those resources of the past
even this second, that just fluttered away, is the past
I think that we lose the future.
I want to play in movies, I will continiue...
I will continue to fight for independent theater projects...
But I think that...
the fact that we gathered together,
the setting up of Open Projects Foundation
appeared to play a very important part in my life...
That's just how it happened.
And the more I think of it, the more I believe... there is no way back.
Ivan Koichev - Vienna, Austria Stage Designer and Director
I am very optimistic about things
And I know there are people out there
who would really look freely at things
and say:
"OK - now's the right time!"
Such a centre should be able to gather
all those forces and energies,
which are still unbridled,
which still haven't found a channel to move along.
I am sure that one of the major potentials of this centre will be that...
it will try to bring people together
regardless of any boundaries or limitations. That's it.
And it's out of question whether there is a need for this.
It's about...
I don't even want to bother myself with inventing
reasons like "Why?", "At any cost", political, social... no.
It's just that one should be able to face an idea freely.
So the question is...
Do you C3?
This movie is a result of interaction between
Open Projects Foundation www.openprojectsfoundation.org
Vesela Kazakova Actress and composer
Antony Raijekov Actor, Director and Composer
Yovko Lambrev IT Expert and Photographer
Martin Mikush Architect
Peio Popov Jurist
and
Diana Dobreva Actress and Director
Martin Razhdashki Actor
Rossen Antonovsky VOXX Audio Lab
Heliana Velinova "Stretching Spaces" Net Label
Kiril Yanev "Balkandji"
Tzanko Vassilev Student Film Forum Foundation
Zornitza Sofia Director, "Mila from Mars"
Dessislava Gavrilova, Director of Red House center for culture and debate
Biliana Tomova Association of Culture Managers
Naum Shopov Actor
Yavor Gurdev Theatre Director
Ivan Koychev Director and Stage Designer
Alexander Antonov Cameraman feelme crew
Creative Commons licensed music by: Antony Raijekov, Balkandji, Equivallentium, D.O.L
Directing and cutting: Boyan Kostov
Subtitles: Hristina Nedkova and Yovko Lambrev
English translation: Anna Stoeva and Martin Mikush
The authors of this movie declare that the movie itself or any part of it are free to distribute,
copy, modify, broadcast or screening even commercially, under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License 2.5 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/
Produced by Open Projects Foundation Bulgaria, Sofia, November 2006
The C3 abbreviation has been inspired from Creative Commons Center combination of words
but the project is not controlled or operated by Creative Commons Corp.
You can join the project or share your ideas at http://openprojectsfoundation.org