Why Bulgaria?

Why we chose Bulgaria for this meeting? In Bulgaria, the wish for direct contact across borders is traditionally strong. Bulgarian culture has endured over the centuries and has traditionally been oriented toward the West.

Nowadays, Bulgaria, a member of the European Union, is striving to fully integrate in all areas of cooperation while still dealing with the aftermath of the political changes in the early Nineties. Mass media, such as cinema and television, are important in accomplishing these goals. Film art both reflects and shapes societal self-consciousness, and this is nowhere better underlined than in the psychoanalytic way of interpreting the unconscious reception of art.

The cultural festival Apollonia, held in Sozopol for 25 years, is the ideal setting for direct contact between a cultured audience, artists, and scholars. This summer, psychoanalysts, film scholars, authors, directors, and actors from the UK, Germany, and Bulgaria will engage the public in a comprehensive and clear yet highly sophisticated dialogue.

The cultural festival Apollonia

Sozopol is a small Black Sea town, located at the south part of the Bourgas Bay. It was founded by settlers from ancient Greece, who called it Apollonia Pontica after Apollo, the god of light and wisdom. Sozopol’s charming narrow alleys, old houses, and romantic vistas have always attracted poets and painters. In early September, Sozopol brings together the Bulgarian artistic intelligentsia for the Apollonia festival.

By August end, not only beach tourists go to Sozopol. For ten days Apollonia attracts the cream of Bulgarian high culture and arts and their audience. Bulgarian musicians, directors, actors, and authors share the stage with young promising talents. Their foreign counterparts regularly honor the festival with their participation for a total of about 800 representatives of the arts and letters who meet their public at the Sozopol festival stages.

Every evening, visitors can choose between concerts, theatre and dance performances, and author readings. There are five stages - the Paissii Hilendarski Cultural Center, the Archeological Museum, the Old Town Art Gallery, the Jazz Club, and the Apollonia Amphitheatre. Some of the performances are national and world premieres.

The first Apollonia Festival of Arts was held in 1984. The festival’s founder is the great Bulgarian violinist Prof. Dimo Dimov, who brought it into being helped by friends and colleagues, among them art director Margaraita Dimitrova. At the time of “glasnost and perestroika,” with forthcoming political change in waiting, the young artists aimed to underline Bulgaria’s cultural diversity, vitality, and artistic freedom.