Young experimenters from ten countries will overturn our notion of artistic creativity to 180 degrees by breaking down barriers between different arts and by merging the past and the present into a harmonious alloy.

For the second consecutive summer the festival of contemporary art 180 degrees brings together young artists who, using the language of music, dance, theater, design and art, will provoke the curiosity of local residents and involve them as active participants in their innovative projects. Behind all this stand two young people - they live in the West, but are working for realizing their dream to create in Bulgaria a strong scene of contemporary music and experimental arts in general.

Alexander Hadjiev lives in Frankfurt and plays the bassoon in Modern ensemble and Elitsa Bogdanova is currently a resident of London, playing baroque and modern viola with different bands. Here's what Alexander Hadjiev told RB about this year's festival.

“We are a young festival, we started last summer. At that time, we had no promotion and despite the holiday season, we managed to get full halls. This time we have prepared an even more varied and interesting program which we called “Laboratory for innovative arts” because we will present these arts in an unconventional way by merging them.  We have 24 artists from different nationalities: Sara Bizzoca - Italian dancer and choreographer, playwrights Marcus Tesch and Arthur Romanowski, among the musicians are the amazing clarinetist Richard Haynes from Australia and viola player Ashleigh Gordon - she will play African-American music, and many more great artists who will present innovative arts.”

The festival opens on  August 10 with nostalgia for the 1920s, the music of Kurt Weill, Jean Francais, Chick Corea, elegant vintage clothing for the ladies and gentlemen in the audience.

“In Années folles we will recreate the atmosphere of a cabaret and will have a real madam who will entertain the audience between the different pieces”, says Alexander Hadjiev. “We will play music from the 1920s by Bohuslav Martinu and other contemporary composers and music inspired by jazz music. The 1920s, the period between the two world wars known as the Années folles (The Mad Years, or the Golden Twenties) when American culture came in Europe and life became more open-minded - women shortened their dresses and hair and jazz entered the realm of serious music”.

Another project to be presented there will be VOX which will feature musical instruments from different ages, with a focus on their timbres and the extent to which they approximate the human voice. On another stage a "war" will be declared between ancient and contemporary music, Alexander Hadjiev adds:

"Chechmate" is an experiment that will take place throughout the "Factory 126" as the audience will be able to walk between rooms. We will have two ensembles - one with antique instruments with guests from England, Poland, Lithuania, and the group performing contemporary music will involve some of the most popular now young musicians from Germany, Switzerland and America. Both ensembles will fight for supremacy over the audience, i.e. we want to provoke tastes and see if people will discern similarities between the two types of music.”

On 13 August, for parting with the festival, the audience is invited to share "Eight reflections on a party that never actually took place, though I remember it quite well." What is behind this quirky name explains Alexander Hadjiev again.

“The Dance Theater will be very interesting, actually it's dance music theater. Playwrights are Marcus Tesch and Arthur Romanowski, who come from the University of Giessen - one of the most prominent schools for experimental theater. The choreography is of Sara Bizzoca - dancer from Italy, graduate of the school of Pina Bausch in Essen, and the musicians come from the family of Modern ensemble. In this performance the dancers dance, play instruments, make music and the musicians dance and perform actors' tasks. Generally we all do everything, and we are artists on stage.”

English Rossitsa Petcova