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p. 3 p. 3 p. 4 p. 5 p. 7 p. 10 p. 11 p. 12 p. 14 p. 15 about flow flow 2012 about ruse flow topics flow programme flow locations flow schedule flow map flow service page flow team & imprint

about flow
The idea of flow is to branch out and open new channels of communication, forming a network among artists and scientists that brings the countries of the Danube Region closer together: Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine. This initiative of the Austrian Ministry for European and International Affairs is designed to produce direct and longterm connections between individuals in different domains concerned with the arts and sciences. The core of the festival is sustainable conversation and networking with concrete outcomes: its aim is to initiate multinational, interdisciplinary projects in diverse fields. Sine 2009 the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe (IDM) in Vienna is responsible for the organization and coordination of flow. For flow 2012 the IDM collaborates with the International Elias Canetti Society in Ruse. The first edition of the flow festival successfully took part in Novi Sad, Serbia in May 2008, the second in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova in September 2010. The goal is to bring flow every two years to a different city in the Danube Region, creating a local impact and at the same time present the local arts and science community.

flow 2012

The next flow festival will take place from October 18th 21st in Ruse, Bulgaria. The general topic is Activating Spaces, Activating People by Micro Imagination. One essential part of the festival will be the common creative work on different subtopics in several working groups. And beside this, flow will offer attractive festival events on three evenings for the participants and also for the local audience. Abandoned urban spaces and locations with a rich and exciting past will be reactivated and transformed to unusual festival venues. Representatives of the contemporary science and culture scene from Bulgaria and the Danube Region will not only have the chance to meet during the festival, but also to exchange and develop new ideas and interdisciplinary collaborations. flow aims to develop various micro-projects, which are to be realized in different countries of the Danube Region in 2013. The flow community is digitally connected by a dynamic social media platform. The platform gives all participants the opportunity to communicate with each other before the festival will start. After the festival the platform will be transformed to a digital working space for the several groups to develop concrete projects on the basis of their discussed ideas and prepared concepts.

about ruse
Ruse (also transliterated as Rousse or Russe; Bulgarian: ) is the fifthlargest city in Bulgaria. It is the most significant Bulgarian river port, serving an important part of the international trade of the country. The Ruse-Giurgiu Friendship Bridge, the only one in the shared Bulgarian-Romanian section of the Danube, crosses the river here. The city emerged as a Neolithic settlement from the 3rd to 2nd millennium BCE, when pottery, fishing, agriculture, and hunting developed. The later Thracian settlement developed into a Roman military and naval centre during the reign of Vespasian as part of the fortification system along the northern boundary of Moesia. In the 13th and 14th centuries, during the time of the Second Bulgarian Empire, a fortified settlement emerged near the ruins of the Roman town. It later strengthened its position as an important trade centre with the lands on the opposite side of the Danube, until it was conquered by the Ottomans in 1388. After it was liberated from the Ottoman Empire on 20 February 1878, Ruse was one of the key cultural and economic centres of the country. In the newly-liberated Bulgaria of the late 19th century, Ruse was a cosmopolitan city with a multiethnic population. Between World War I and II, after Southern Dobruja was lost to Romania, the economic significance of the city decreased. The return of Southern Dobruja to Bulgaria in September 1940 fostered good conditions for restoration of the citys leading role. It became a provincial centre, and economic activity revived. The construction of the Ruse-Giurgiu bridge in 1954 and the fast industrialization gave a new push to development. Ruse emerged again as an important economic, transport, cultural, and edu-

4 cational hub. Engineering, chemical, and light industries expanded; a large harbor was built; and the city became a university centre. In the early 1980s, Ruse entered a dark period of its history. The Verachim factory was built in Giurgiu, which polluted the air between 1980 and 1987, impacting the citys development. Population decreased, and 15,000 people moved out between 1985 and 1992. During the 1990s, the economic crisis in Bulgaria affected Ruse. Most big companies suffered a decline and unemployment increased, which led to renewed emigration waves. Since 2000, the city has been continually regaining its former leading status.

flow topics
activatiNG sPaces, activatiNG PeOPLe bY MicrO-iMaGiNatiON is the main topic of flow 2012. By inspiring our micro-imagination we aim to deconstruct the notion of group or national solidarity and construct a new understanding of us as active micro-agents of change. There will be during the festival seven working groups on the following seven subtopics. In each working group flow participants will deal with their subtopic and develop ideas and concepts for interdisciplinary and international projects. Presentation of the group outcomes at 17:00 on October 20. For details see programme. 1. solidarity Micropolitics and individual responsibility Solidarity refers to degree of integration with people, to our ability to build ties with people around us, to show passion and empathy and to take responsibility for us and for others. While the world has become more and more complex and global solidarity and responsibility often reduced to political phrases used in an empty and shallow way, the new micro-sphere of solidarity has emerged. The motto here is to change the global reality by micro-engagement, by taking responsibility in our individual lives and local communities, and to change the world by changing its own microcosmos. 2. responsibility, support and Protest Protests today belong integrally to all lives we protest against social and economic injustice, corrupt politicians, injustice and authoritarian reduction of public space and violations of human rights. By protesting we show responsibility, we formulate a quest for change and announce our will to fight for it. Even when we decide to stay within our private worlds we express some kind of protest against the world out there. Protests can spark new energies, free creative potentials and establish something new, either within us or in our societies. 3. communication for activation We live in the age of permanent and non-limited communication. The permanent character of communication brings a new concept of activity to the fore. As long as we communicate we remain active and vital. Such an understanding of activity goes hand in hand with Hannah Arendts notion

5 of vita activa composed of three fundamental human activities: labor, work and action. Vita Activa is Arendts term for anything active, action is what humans do when they communicate with each other. Has vita active in Arendts sense changed in the era of globalization and new webbased communication? Do we exist beyond the act of communication? Are there another forms of activity beyond the act of communication? And finally, what does it mean to be active nowadays? 4. Public space and virtual community Free and vivid public space is the nucleus of democracy, is the modern agora. Public engagement based on free will, right of assembly and media freedoms creates a sense of democratic community a community of free exchange, open communication and deliberation. Democracy today is rapidly changing, it is even contested by new forms of so called competitive authoritarian regimes that try to reduce the public space and limit the free spirit of communities. In both democracies and authoritarian regimes digital or even virtual web or social networks based realities has

flow topics
emerged and changed the way we communicate and create communities. Virtual communities have started to replace the classic notion of public agora, they have created new spaces for deliberation, they even shape a new form of community. 5. Getting out of the crisis alternative economies Crisis, crisis, crisis! Media are full of crisis-stories, the crisis has become an integral part of our lives. Still, the term crisis remains diffuse, or at least full of contradictions. Have we ever lived in times without crisis? Is the crisis itself not the engine of democratic change, the guarantee for permanent renewal of our societies? Finally, the crisis is said to be a source of creativity, an energy flow that never runs dry and creates alternatives. If we follow the argument that economics in its present capitalist form and financial markets have largely contributed to the crisis we face today, we obviously have to look for alternative economic models. However, alternative concepts for economic and social development face hard times at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Have we arrived at the moment in history where we should start debating those alternatives that do question the existing power relations of the capitalist system? Do we need new economic utopia? 6. Whos european europeanization and balkanization The sense of belonging in times of European upheaval and crisis is in the process of rapid change. Europe is changing its face, confronted with internal crisis and rather difficult search for its own identity. The European periphery, an integral part of Europe but still at least in the case of the Balkans left on the European periphery, recalibrates its own notion of belonging. To whom to belong, is the question asked nowadays? Who is European, who has to stay outside of the diffuse concept of EUropeannes? Europeanization as a progressive and Balkanization as retrograde concept? Beyond the clichs of Europe and the Balkans there is a need for reconfiguration of the notion of belonging and search for new Europeannes.

6 7. (ex)change crossing borders Crossing borders seems to be obvious in global age, permanent exchange the only way to change ourselves and (re)shape the world. Crossing borders and (ex)changing even constitutes the globalization and contributes to understanding of our world as a global village. But, is crossing borders not only a privilege of the very few, of those living in the West that have accumulated enough welfare and do not have to fear the negative consequences of globalization? There is a need to broaden the notion of exchange and borders in general, to rethink our certainties and to create alternative concept of (ex)change. Where are the invisible borders that we need to cross?

flow programme
thursday, October 18th The following events are open to the public, entrance free. 18:30 Official opening With representatives from Austria, Bulgaria, and the Municipality of Ruse. flow participants and flow Advisory Board members will present their work and the concept of flow. 1 Historical Museum 20:00 sofia underground 2012 Exhibition opening with Yovo Panchev and Ivo Ivanov from Sofia 2 Dom Canetti Sofia Underground Performance Art Festival 2012 was dedicated to the memory of its creator and director Ruen Ruenov, art critic, journalist and curator (1958 2011). Created in 1997, the Sofia Underground Festival has won a reputation of a major art event in the interdisciplinary genres of visual performance art, actionist art, happening and new media in Bulgaria. From October 18th to 28th Sofia Underground will present in Ruse a selection of works from their last festival. Topic of this edition have been based on a concept by Ruen Ruenov: Justified Actions. He reflected on the current cultural situation framing the artistic life and the conditions for artistic practices. He arrived at the result that Contemporary Bulgarian art is not less provincial and faceless than the one characterizing the regional stage before 1989. There are no alternatives to the framework-status-quo, which prevents future developments in the near future. For artists,

9 beginning to work now there is a lack of any perspective and sense for continuing to work in contemporary arts outside of the given conformist parameters. 21:00 Kottarashky and the rain Dogs Live concert 2 Dom Canetti Kottarashky is the stage name of the musician and architect Nikola Gruev (born 1979) which started as a solo project and evolved into a music band Kottarashky & The Rain Dogs. Vintage Balkan rhythms, classic jazz and blues, psychedelic sounds, club beats, gypsy motives are mixed together and the result is the unique style of the electronic trip-hop-influenced music of Kottarashky. Kottarashky is also part of the Berlin label Asphalt Tango and their music is included in the soundtrack of the movie Love.Net. Two albums have been released so far. Opa Hey! is Kottarashkys debut album, released in November 2009. The second album Demoni was recorded together with the musicians Aleksandar Dobrev (clarinet), Hristo Hadzhiganchev (guitar, synthesizer), Yordan Geshakov (bass) and Atanas Popov (drums) unified in the The Rain Dogs. 23:00 Dekonstrukt Audio-visual performance 3 Pulp Fiction Bar Dekonstrukt: dkstrkt is a group of experimental artists: Y_NOT (one of the founders and former member of the band Ambient Anarchist), Yves_O (visual artist and event organizer from Studio Dauhaus) and friends. dkstrkt deals with the

flow programme
preliminary processing of analogous and digital works or art in an attempt at creating a new audiovisual product; this is a constant process of conscious deconstruction of a moment. Friday, October 19th The following events are open to the public, entrance free. 16:30 flow city walks Discover ruse! 4 Starting point: Hebros Banka 5 Walks end at: Restaurant Pontona tour 1: Lets Go shopping! The tour will deal with commercial habits of Ruses citizens. From the old bazar to new shopping malls, from broad boulevards to the small shop on the corner, the tour discovers the city in the eyes of the consumer. It will also show different urban environments and visual contradictions. Guide: Bernd Janning tour 2: Multiethnic ruse Past and present the tour will show not only the history and vestiges of the many different ethnic groups and communities that enriched the citys life and culture but also their current situation and future perspectives. Guide: Svetlana Kirova tour 3: 1866 and the first railway line ruse varna The tour will guide the participants a bit out of the city centre, just passing by the beautiful Mladezhki Park, entering an unknown and not well

10 visited area of the city, full of spaces and places in need of reactivation. 1866 was the huge hall built in which the first Bulgarian locomotives and rails were constructed. The tour offers a view of what Ruse was, what it became, and what it could be. Guide: Elisa Calosi 21:00 P.O.box: unabomber Theatre performance of the group 36 Monkeys from Sofia 2 Dom Canetti P.O.Box Unabomber fuses ecology with terrorism. And it seems the result is an exciting piece of theatre eco-terrorism that asks important contemporary questions but in a light manner, without losing its sense of humor. The structure of the play rather resembles a puzzle, in which the roads of Ted Kaczynski (a promising math professor who abandoned his academic career to become a social critic, genius and long sought-after terrorist) and the Proechidna (an ancient, intelligent, egg-laying mammal who is about to go extinct) intersect and overlap at different levels. And while Kaczynski begins to apply his radical means in order to warn society about the dangers of the rapidly-developing technology to human dignity, the Proechidna, who probably lived on Earth even during the Ice Age is now doomed to wander in search for a mate of its kind. Texts: Zdrava Kamenova and Gergana Dimitrova. Director: Gergana Dimitrova / 36 Monkeys. 36 Monkeys is an independent NGO established in 2007. It is largely known for its long-term initiative ProText in which the team of theatre

flow programme
directors renders a specific dynamic form of set-specific reading performance (an action in-between a plays stage reading and completed performance) and presents a selection of new European drama authors and titles in their first Bulgarian translation. Convinced that contemporary theatre can happen everywhere their shows have been performed in places as different as basements and corridors, operating and abandoned bars, fitness and Internet halls, museums, art galleries and libraries. saturday, October 20th The following events are open to the public, entrance free. 17:00 flow final presentation Presentation of the group outcomes 6 Rechna Gara One essential part of the festival is the common creative work on different subtopics in several working groups (for details see flow topics). The flow working groups will present on Saturday their project ideas and concepts. 21:00 Nasekomix, afterwards space Dub Jammers Live concert 6 Rechna Gara Nasekomix are a Bulgarian musical group from Sofia. Their style could be described as an avantgarde minimalistic mixture of electronic music, jazz-rock, punk, indie, fusion and trip-hop. The group themselves define it as melodramatic pop

11 with drum & bass and electonica influences. The band had published digitally one multimedia album Insectomix with the single gradAD, meanwhile gathering popularity with the songs Inject me with Love and Lady Song included in the soundtrack of the critically acclaimed film Eastern Plays by Kamen Kalev. Afterwards (approx. 23:00) open speed dub jam and electronic jazz of tomorrow with the team of SDJ Space Dub Jammers. SDJ are Mr.Smiff - trumpet, vox, JIB bass, vox, chello, zazizazi synths, DIY electronics, Moonkey drumz, perc. and FunKiro synths.

flow locations
Dom canetti (canetti House) 2 ulitsa Slavjanska 12 The Canetti House was built and used as a business and commercial building by the Canetti family (grandfather and father of Elias Canetti). It was constructed in 1898, planned by the architect Nikos Bedrosyan. The store dealt with wholesale groceries. In his memoires (The Tongue set Free) Elias Canetti reconsiders his early childhood memories of the store. After the Canetti family had left Ruse, a furniture store was situated in the building. Since approximately 1993 the building is vacant. At the moment the house is used in its unrestored state as an alternative venue for concerts, performances or visual arts events. The International Elias Canetti Society succeeded in establishing it as a popular forum for contemporary art and culture in Rousse and Bulgaria. Hebros banka 4 ulitsa Olimpi Panov Its all about passion and power, money and sex. The old bank building has a rich history. It housed at the turn of the 20th century one of the first Bulgarian banks. Later the bank was converted to Bulgarias first house of pleasure. After World War II the established communist regime considered that the brothel is a public nuisance and expression of the bourgeoisie which has to be eliminated. Finally, the former bank became a bank again this time state-owned. After the fall of the communist regime all Bulgarian banks were privatized and a branch office of Hebros banka moved in. Since bankruptcy respectively buyout of the Hebros company in the 1990s the noble building is abandoned.

12 rechna Gara (former harbour station) 6 at the end of ulitsa Slavjanska Ruse is still the most important Danube harbour in Bulgaria. Before World War II the old city port at the end of Slavjanska street used to be the urban epicentre of Ruse. Boats from all countries along the Danube landed their goods here. Merchants checked their orders and negotiated prices, international passengers departed and arrived by train at the harbour station. The city port became useless after opening two new ports out of the centre, and the art deco building lost its function. Historical Museum ruse 1 Ploshtad Battenberg The Ruse Regional Historical Museum is one of the eleven regional museums of Bulgaria. It was established in 1904. The museum is located in the building of the former local court (also called Battenberg Palace), built 18791882 by Friedrich Grnanger.

flow schedule
One essential part of the festival will be the common creative work on different subtopics in several working groups. And beside this, flow will offer attractive festival events on three evenings for the participants and also for the local audience. thursday, October 18th until 15:00 Arrival of participants, check-in 8 Hotel Cosmopolitan 15:30 Refreshments for participants 2 Dom Canetti 16:00 Welcome, presentation of participants 2 Dom Canetti 18:30 Official openingc 1 Historical Museum 20:00 Sofia Underground 2012 (exhibition opening)c 2 Dom Canetti 21:00 Kottarashky & The Rain Dogs (concert)c 2 Dom Canetti 23:00 Dekonstrukt (audio-visual performance)c 3 Pulp Fiction bar Friday, October 19th 08:00 Breakfast 8 Hotel Cosmopolitan 10:00 flow working groups 4 Hebros Banka 13:00 Lunch for participants

copen to the public,

free entrance

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14:00 flow working groups 4 Hebros Banka 16:30 City walksc 4 Starting point: Hebros Banka 5 Walks end at: Restaurant Pontona 19:00 Dinner for participants 6 Restaurant Pontona 21:00 P.O.Box: Unabomber (performance)c 2 Dom Canetti saturday, October 20th 08:00 Breakfast 8 Hotel Cosmopolitan 10:00 flow working groups 4 Hebros Banka 13:00 Lunch for participants 14:00 flow working groups 4 Hebros Banka 17:00 flow final presentation (project ideas developed in the working groups)c 6 Rechna Gara (former harbour station) 19:00 Dinner for participants 7 Restaurant Chiflika 21:00 Farewell party: Nasekomix, Space Dub Jammers (concert)c 6 Rechna Gara (former harbour station) sunday, October 21st Departure of participants

flow map
1 regional Historical Museum Ploshtad Battenberg 2 Dom canetti (canetti House) ul. Slavjanska 12 3 Pulp Fiction bar ul. Aleksandrovska 4 Hebros banka ul. Olimpi Panov 5 restaurant Pontona water front of the river Danube, next to Hotel Riga 6 rechna Gara (former harbour station) at the end of ul. Slavjanska 7 restaurant chiflika ul. Otec Paisij 2 8 accomodation: Hotel cosmopolitan Ploshtad Battenberg 9 Office elias canetti society Dohodno zdanie / theatre Ploshtad Svoboda

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flow service page

contact persons susan Milford flow project coordinator phone (+43) 650 593 43 34 s.milford@idm.at bernd Janning flow project manager phone (+43) 650 880 55 44 b.janning@idm.at elisa calosi local project manager elisa.calosi@eliascanetti.org

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exchange rate

1,00 Euro = ca. 1,96 Bulgarian Leva

24h supermarket

CBA Halite, junction ulitsa Tsar Osvoboditel / ulitsa Aleksandrovska to4nite (+359) 82 81 08 ca. 1 Bulgarian Leva / kilometre

taxi

ambulance / police

112

Hotel / restaurants

See flow map

flow team & imprint

flow team

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susan Milford flow project coordinator Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe (IDM), Vienna bernd Janning flow project manager Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe (IDM), Vienna elisa calosi local project manager International Elias Canetti Society, Ruse
Initiated by

tatjana Mincheva, irena Markova, Kristina Georgieva translations, assistance International Elias Canetti Society, Ruse imprint Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe (IDM) Hahngasse 6/1/24 1090 Vienna Austria www.idm.at concept, texts Susan Milford, Bernd Janning, Elisa Calosi layout / design poststudio www.poststudio.bg pictures Jan Kout, page 7, 8, 14 Bernd Janning, page 13

Organized by

In collaboration with

Supported by