Bela Rechka Online

The village of Gorna Bela Rechka is a place of love – the place where my grandmother Ivanka, my grandfather Dimcho and my mother Verka were born.

In the last 17 years this was one of  the places of my main activities – as a cultural activist, journalist, writer and curator.

In 2003  I returned to Bulgaria after 7 years living in Prague and organised the first international workshop in Bela Rechka – with friends from Poland, Gzech Republic, Netherlands, Ireland, Italy and Bulgaria.

The house of my relatives (where our family spent wonderful summers as we both with my sister were children) was our  base  at the very beginning and for the next 3 festival years (2004-2006). After that I bought the house and we started using as our main base the old abandoned school (now a community center, tcitaliste).

Since 2004 till 2019 with the New Culture Foundation and Mariana Assenova we organized and curated  the GOATMILK FESTIVAL OF MEMORIES.

Since May 2020 I am not anymore connected with the New Culture Foundation and the Goatmilk Festival.

In 2008 I started to work with photographer Babak Salari on the topic about collective trauma and the old people in Bela Rechka and the region.  In 2010 we published the book “Traumas and Miracles. Portraits from Northwestern Bulgaria” and the project travelled to Vienna, Florence, Munich (Schliersee) and Bonn. The photoexhibition was presented in the National Art Gallery of Sofia in August 2010. The book is available now  in bookstores in Munich, Lisbon, Bonn and Sofia.

Since 2015 with my sister Galina we organise regular summer retreats WEEKS OF PURITY in Bela Rechka (with hiking, singing, Yoga, silence and simple food).

Since 2018 (with the help of my sister and  people from Bela Rechka) I develop the research project “Family stories and portraits from Bela Rechka”.