April 9–August 29, 2025
National History Museum, Sofia
The exhibition Through the Prism of Borders—Episode 2: Artistic Journeys In-Between Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey at the National History Museum in Sofia explores the complex social and political situations as well as the troubled histories of the southeasternmost border of Europe. Four newly commissioned site-specific artworks by Esra Ersen, Boris Missirkov & Georgi Bogdanov, Ivan Moudov and ZimmerFrei (Anna de Manincor) engage with remnants of the past, local border symbolism and the stories of those who live and who pass through these borderlands today.
Curated by Katia Anguelova, Angelika Burtscher and Marion Oberhofer, the exhibition reflects on public, individual and spatial narratives to fosters a deeper understanding of borderlands as spaces of connection rather than division, prompting reflection on historical omissions, collective memory and shaping contemporary dialogue on national and transnational identities. It presents borders as porous, ever-shifting zones of tension and transformation. For the first time, the National History Museum in Sofia displays contemporary artworks transforming the museum into a space for dialogue and reimagining. Questioning the institutionalized narratives of Bulgaria’s historiography, particularly those concerning its border regions with Greece and Turkey, the exhibition invites visitors to reflect on how borders—both physical and conceptual—shape not only (national) identities but also our understanding of history itself.
The work of Turkish artist Esra Ersen Traces of the Past, Ghost of the Future navigates the interplay between personal and collective identities, illustrating how borders not only delineate territory but also construct narratives of belonging and exclusion. Drawing inspiration from the techniques of miniature painting, she focuses on those communities that, through bordering processes, were most significantly forced migration, questioning national mythologies and reconsidering the constructed nature of identity itself.
The Travelling Monument by the Bulgarian artistic duo Boris Missirkov & Georgi Bogdanov is dedicated to the people who perished in their attempts to flee oppression in search of freedom, and especially for those who attempted to flee the Eastern Bloc between 1944–90 through Bulgarian’s borders. By invoking the concept of the counter-monument, their photographic installation is an ephemeral intervention that exists in a state of displacement—resisting permanence and questioning who and what is deemed worthy of commemoration.
Bulgarian artist Ivan Moudov practices the border walks along the Bulgarian-Turkish border, an exploration of the invisible lines on contemporary geographical maps. These walks inspired three new works: Repellent B-Shapes, a mosquito repellent, created with Red Fly “Agaric mushroom” (Amanita muscaria); Border Flowers, landscapes made from plastic waste collected in the border areas and assembled in front of the museum; Sound Flags, created in collaboration with the sound artist Sibin Vassilev, which uses artificial intelligence to transform the images of the flags of Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey into sound.
Finally, The Answer Is Out There by Anna de Manincor, part of the Italian collective ZimmerFrei, builds on extensive research conducted in the border region between Bulgaria and Turkey. Working with documentary filmmaking, the artist intertwines the presence of a continuous landscape—a nature indifferent to borders—with a series of intimate narratives from those who live along the borderlands inviting audiences to reconsider borders as powerful forces that shape human experience and leave lasting emotional traces.
A public programme expands the exhibition’s inquiry through performative and discursive formats such as workshops, talks and screenings, along with the publication Through the Prism of Borders, set for release in June 2025 by Kunstverein Publishing Milano. The publication features contributions by Dorte Jagetic Andersen, Chiara Brambila, Dimitar Karaneshev, Kapka Kassabova, Johanna Mitterhofer, Marcus Nicolson, Maxi Obexer, Eeva-Kaisa Prokkola, Joanna Wowrzeczka and Piero Zanini, along with special inserts with works by Pamela Dodds.
Through the Prism of Borders is a project by Lungomare within the European collaborative research project B-Shapes – Borders Shaping Perceptions of European Societies funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme.
