News From Home is an ongoing project by the artist duo Anne Fehres and Luke Conroy, capturing overlooked stories from communities. The ninth edition of this project took place in Plovdiv, Bulgaria as part of Context AiR (see previous editions of the project here)

 

The basis for News From Home - Plovdiv was a 6 week artist-residency in Summer 2022. During the residency the artists conducted field research within this community - making observations, meeting the community and capturing photographs. During the residency period we walked over 240 km in the city area, capturing 1000s of photos of the community. A selection of these photos were later cut up in Photoshop and digitally combined into a large photo-montage work.

The final piece features over 500 individual layers, which come together to reflect on various stories from this community, ranging from its ancient history, its socialist past, its present day and imagined future. The outcome of this research and visual imagery was the creation of a large-scale photographic composition, presented in public space.

The aim of this work is to explore the subtle yet meaningful stories of Plovdiv from the past, present and imagined future, drawing inspiration from both the community and the artists’ own interpretations. The final composition consists of hundreds of individual elements, inspired by the multi-layered identity of Plovdiv. Through this collision of diverse layers, the work celebrates the unique urban identity of Plovdiv as a place of ancient history, socialist heritage, modern reality and future dreams.

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The final piece was printed out and pasted up to cover a 5x4 metre wall in the centre of Plovdiv. Here, we hope a broad audience can view and enjoy the work, reflecting on the city as a resident or someone passing by.

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Program curator: Svetlana Kuyumdzhieva

Program coordinator: Vanya Grozdanova

Supported By: Municipality of Plovdiv