Visit the participatory performance OTHERWORLDS by Sophia Bulgakova at Likeminds
16 — 19 June | Likeminds
Opening times:
Thurs 16 June | 19:00 — 23:00 (opening times)
Fri 17 June | 12:00 — 19:00
Sat 18 June | 12:00 — 19:00
Sun 19 June | 12:00 — 19:00
In our society, what you see is what you get. Magic does not exist under neoliberalism. Everything that occurs in the natural world can be explained through science, and every kind of progress we want to make can be achieved through technology. Or not? Would it be possible to see the world, and the strict divisions we have between nature and science differently? Artist Sophia Bulgakova aims to revive age-old knowledge about the relationship between nature and technology. She works from the knowledge of ancient Ukrainian traditions and Paganism. Her work OTHERWORLDS takes you along in a story about the inextricable unity between technology and nature.
OTHERWORLDS is a multidimensional participatory performance within virtual and physical realities. Starting with Ukrainian traditions, Sophia Bulgakova is exploring and combining paganism from different cultures and other surrounding magical practices with contemporary discourse and technology. She is searching for common grounds to revive and reimagine relating and connecting to nature, technology, and each other by simultaneously creating a new communal and personal ritual. The performative ritual consists of verbal narrations, soundscapes, abstract colour, virtual environments and choreographic compositions through which participants can submerge themselves into otherworldly experiences.
The presentation of OTHERWORLDS is the first public prototype try-out session, in which the public can experience the performance in the making and contribute to the development process.
Sophia Bulgakova is an interdisciplinary artist and activist currently based in The Hague, the Netherlands. Sophia is working on the intersection between art, technology, and society, focusing on the relationship between light, perception, and imagination. Through various sensory inputs in her installations and performances, she engages viewers, impacting their ways of perceiving reality and exploring new possibilities beyond it.
Sophia studied sculpture in Kyiv and then got a foundation diploma in Photography and Time-Based Media at the University of the Arts London in the UK. After that, she graduated from the ArtScience Interfaculty at the Royal Academy of the Art and Royal Conservatory in The Hague, the Netherlands. Her works were exhibited at CTM Festival (DE), Sonic Acts Festival (NL), Baltan Laboratories (NL), Mediamatic (NL), and Ningbo City Exhibition Hall (CN), among other places.
The project is currently being developed in collaboration with Leo Scarin and Lucas Dewulf with the support from producers FIBER Festival and iMAL. It is made possible with the support of the Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie and the Netherlands Film Fund as part of Immerse/Interact programme.
