HRISTO BOTEV HIGH SCHOOL OF INTERIOR DESIGN AND WOOD PROCESSING

The project links together the six locations from the Dark Side of the Night itinerary. While the stories do not follow any particular order, each is related and dependent on the others, and on the instinct of the public to discover and understand them. “The dark side of the soul” is an expression first ascribed to Juan de Yepes y Álvarez (John of the Cross), designating the temporary experience of spiritual desolation in mysticism, a time in which God is concealed and faith seems to waver. Called the “Sahara of the heart” by Richard J. Foster, this is a period when Man “measures his indignity in a downward movement” before measuring “his greatness in a movement up towards Light”. Which is why it is not a negative experience. John of the Cross differentiates between two types of night: one of the senses, and the other of the mind.

Founded in 1967 with an aim to preserve and develop traditional crafts, the National Guild of Craftsmen is the oldest crafts association in Bulgaria. Another very important task is the identification of new talent and training of future craftsmen. The National Guild of Craftsmen is subdivided into regions, covering most of Bulgaria’s territory. Participating craftsmen: Georgi Tomov, Ivan Angelov, Zheni Mikova-Paunova, Simeon Paunov and Maria Miteva.

The performance recreates the creative process in its most primitive form. Although the topic is mostly ephemeral temporariness, the material is concrete enough – wood. Taken directly from its everyday use as fuel, in “the kitchen of Mr. Stu” wood transforms itself from a pile of logs into a sculpture or unexpected association. In contrast with the exquisite detail in the work of the craftsmen from the Regional Guild, Mr. Stu works with a rougher kind of wood to recreate some of the finest and most expensive fetishes of contemporary life style.