Kapana Between Berlin and Istanbul
Kapana – Neighbourhood Art Management
In the period between 2009 and 2010, Vesselina Sarieva (Open Arts Foundation) and Jacob Raczek (cultural manager of Robert Bosch Foundation in Plovdiv, Bulgaria) developed a project for Kapana quarter in Plovdiv. The idea was presented numerous times on working visits and meetings of Vesselina and Jakob in Istanbul and Berlin before organisations and experts (including in the Between delay and transition – contemporary cultural practice in Bulgaria forum, FEINKOST Gallery, 2010). As a result of their personal meetings, a partnership network with organisations in Berlin (Kreuzberg) and Istanbul was established. To implement the project, Open Arts Foundation applied twice – in 2010 and 2011, with the organisations European Cultural Foundation Collaboration Grant and America for Bulgaria Foundation, but the projects were not funded and are suspended.
CONCEPTUAL BASIS
The project sets the small multicultural quarter of Kapana (Plovdiv, Bulgaria) in the context of neighbourhoods in other cities – Kreuzberg (Berlin) and Tophane (Istanbul), aiming at activating its potential and enlivening the derelict spaces through creative activities. The choice of the cities with their specifics poses the problems of the identity of Kapana in the situation of European, post-totalitarian Bulgaria which also preserved its Oriental spirit. By using one year of cultural cross-sectoral activities, research and experts sharing their experience, the project studies models and demonstrates practices of urbanism, art, and activism, adopted from these two European cities.
The KAPANA project aims at studying the specific urbanistic space as supraurban, supranational, as a multicultural mini- polis in the context of similar neighbourhoods in the selected cities. Until the beginning of the 20th century, Kapana was the commercial heart of the city where international trade took place. This contributed very much to the economic and cultural development of the city. Today, Kapana accommodates buildings from various ages, but it lacks the living spirit and contemporary culture – it is authentic, but bleak and poor in terms of trade; in the daytime it is inhabited by more cars than people.
The project is not connected with any city policy and does not require any institutional responsibility, but rather seeks internal response from the environment and citizens’ pro- activeness and creativity. It aims to suggest a potentially new identity, as well as to provoke conscience for urban culture and responsibility through independent cultural activities.
PLANNED ACTIVITIES FOR 2010
- Resident programmes in Kapana for artists, urbanists, and architects from Berlin and Istanbul
- A resident programme in Istanbul and Berlin for representatives of cultural industries from Kapana
- An international seminar
- Art and urbanistic projects
- An open fest
- An info unit and library
- Printed materials
PLANNED ACTIVITIES FOR 2011
Kapana: knowledge
- Establishing a Kapana library and archive
- Ethnological exploration of the Kapana
- First Kapana talk
Kapana: art and action
- Residency programme for artists, urban planners and architects from Berlin and Istanbul
- Residency programme for local artists
- Exhibitions and implementation of projects part of the residency programme – participants, locals, artist part of Background: Young authors
- Weekend Festival
Kapana: economy and market
- Hand-made day – Sunday market
- Lecture at the Central Halls building (located in place of the old Kurshumhan) – retail in the global market (in the context of hyperproduction and distribution in China)
About Kapana, in brief:
Kapana is an old unit located in the very heart of Plovdiv (Bulgaria). It comprises a maze of small streets, which cross one another in a chaotic manner. Hence its name – it is easy to become lost in Kapana (The Trap), there have always been enticements in it, as for centuries on end, from the beginning of the 15th to the middle of the 20th century, Kapana was the centre of handicrafts and trade of the city. Today, there are buildings from various ages in Kapana – from the Ottoman architecture (the 15th century) through the Vienna Secession (the beginning of the 20th century) to contemporary buildings, some in the style of mini-skyscraper and mobster-baroque, which were typical of the transition period. In 2009-2010, when Open Arts focused its attention on this location, in Kapana thrived trade of products of the old handicrafts, and the contemporary culture accommodated some popular night clubs. As a whole, the potential of the neighbourhood at the time was not developed and a large percentage of the old trade buildings were empty and derelict.
